📧 from Kalantzis

Dear Logan,

Thank you for your email. 

Obviously, you are free to do as you wish and publish as you please. 

This was not much of a “correspondence” for all I said in response to your rather incomprehensible ad hominem was that I was in a refugee camp and could not respond at the time.

I stand behind everything I said during our enjoyable discussion, including the suggestion that I have been making for over 15 years now, namely that instead of staging welcoming parades for those returning from active duty or war campaigns, Christians should enter a time of lament and penance, recognizing that it was our greed for power and resources that led these soldiers to war and we are complicit in that evil. Yes, instead of celebrating and pining medals on chests, we as communities that aim to be Christ-formed, ought to take responsibility and confess, lament, repent, and help those who did out “dirty work” heal. War is not to be celebrated. Nor is our consumerist desire for power, resources, influence, etc. that leads to the such. I take St. Basil’s example seriously and want to extend the 3-year period of abstaining from the Eucharist not only to the returning soldier/warrior, but also to the community itself. Maybe then we can reach a deeper understanding of how seriously we ought to abhor evil and our recognize our complicity in it. Coupled with public prayer of confession and lament, something like this may also be a means of healing for both community and returning soldiers. 

I wish you all the best in your journey.

And yes, you have my permission to publish this and the correspondence below as it stands. If you need to edit it however, I would like to see the final product before publication.

Peace,

George