The title of this piece flashed into my mind as I thought about two stories in the NY Times this morning.  One was about the new rituals of prayer on the gridiron where modern day gladiators participated in group prayer before going forth to do battle with similarly garbed and prepared opponents.  The other was a study of the kits that have been prepared for men and women soldiers to take along with them and put them in their old kit bags and study on how to live a cleaner life and, of course, to pray, pray, pray.

I find this highly interesting for there seems to be more emphasis on the souls of the battlers on the playing and killing fields than on keeping their bodies from harm.  In World War II, I kept a dictionary and a copy of Roget’s Thesaurus in my “kit bag”.  I still have the Thesaurus but replaced the dictionary years ago. I know I will get the hang of how to use that Thesaurus one of these days.

It might be that our priorities are affected by an enormous magnetic wave that comes from those of the prayerful persuasion.  Instead of getting out of Iraq which is my preferred solution, these moral decent people should be pushing to thicken the vests and protective armor on the vehicles our soldiers drive. The faith based activities which dictate studying Bible passages and getting down on their knees to pray COULD give way to drives to collect money to pay for the protective armor or think tanks could be geared to thinking about how to get out of this terrible war. Our government would prefer YOU to do the collecting.

Did you know that FINALLY there are some figures – not reliable ones – but figures on how many Iraqis have been killed and or wounded since the start of the hostilities? The figures vary, but are upwards of 25,000 dead and about three times that many wounded.  It depends on which group is doing the body counts.  No, our government is not interested in providing definitive numbers although it admits that NOW more than 2,000 U.S. military personnel have been killed in Iraq either by enemy fire or by “insurgents”.  Remember, it was not the government that provides the Bibles and prayer kits. But it should be the government to provide the armor needed to protect the soldiers. Kits and prayers do not seem to be the right choices.

The killing goes on but it must be a bitter shock for the families back home to find the Bibles and kits in their loved one’s personal belongings that come home with the bodies or without, depending on how much of the decedent was left after being blown up.  Think about how their comfort zone improves with that Bible and the prayer kits of good clean reading provided by the faith based believers.