By Lt. Carey H. Cash, Chaplain Serving with the U.S. Marines
242 pages. Thomas Nelson. $20.00.
In April of 2003, the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment rode, strode, and mowed into downtown Baghdad to capture Saddam Hussein’s Palace. Bullets and grenades came at them in sheets, but remarkably few Americans were killed. Almost miraculously, the marines fought their way through ambushes and total confusion to seize the palace. Even more amazingly, at the end of the combat, those same marines gave thanks and praise to God for His protection. That thanksgiving was not merely foxhole piety; many of those American soldiers had come to faith in Christ in the previous six months. The author of this book, Chaplain Carey Cash, had witnessed a remarkable spiritual awakening in his battalion, beginning in the desert training in the United States and continuing unabated into the deserts of Iraq. This is a story of the saving grace of God in the midst of bitter warfare and seems just as authentic as the well-known record of the conversions to Christ in the armies during the American Civil War.
The military chaplaincy has a long and storied history in our nation. Pastors accompanied the militias as chaplains in colonial wars and more than two hundred served in the American armies during the War for Independence. President George Washington awarded the first permanent chaplaincy commission in the United States Army in 1791. Chaplains accompanied United States troops in the War with Mexico. Many hundreds filled the regimental chaplaincies during the War Between the States and several books have been written about those army pastors who compiled a remarkable record of faithful service. Many souls were brought into God’s kingdom through the gospel ministry of the chaplains, both North and South.
Today, every branch of the United States armed forces contains chaplains, but the historic Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish “faiths” have been joined in recent years by Muslim clerics. The Protestant chaplains fill quotas of “liturgical” or “non-liturgical” denominations. Carey Cash joined the Marines as a “non-liturgical” Baptist chaplain.
The title of this book is taken from the 23rd Psalm, a most appropriate hymn for the Christian soldier. Whether one is opposed to the war in Iraq or not, the fact remains that the United States is at war in the Middle East and our sons (and most regrettably some daughters) have been called upon to fight and die there. God’s ways are still not our ways and the dark providence of war has proven a fertile spiritual ground for the extension of His kingdom.
The son of a decorated combat pilot from the Vietnam War, and himself a graduate of the Citadel, a college distinguished by its strict military training and the alma mater of many military heroes of the United States, Carey Cash realized an intertwining “desire to serve the Lord and a desire to serve my country.” His active duty navy chaplain father-in-law encouraged him to apply for the naval chaplaincy program. Fully supported by his wife and five children, Chaplain Cash overcame debilitating physical problems and received his commission as a marine chaplain.
After rigorous training in the western United States, Cash’s Marine battalion embarked for forty days of desert training in Kuwait. The chaplains took every opportunity to preach and teach and Cash records that, by the end of six weeks in the Kuwaiti desert, 120 men were involved in Bible studies, fifty-six from Alpha Company, and forty-nine men were baptized as new Christians, thirty-seven from Alpha Company. “The men who responded came from all walks of life, from every racial and socio-economic background, from every educational level. But they shared one thing in common — a desire to know the peace and assurance of personal relationship with God.”
Lieutenant Cash includes excerpts from letters written to the men in the field from Christians at home, recounting the earnest and faithful prayers for their safety and thankfulness for their willingness to put their lives on the line. He reaffirms time and again the importance of prayer for the American warriors in combat and for the efficacy of God’s sovereign grace for their salvation.
Chaplain Cash recounts the chaos and deadly realities for the men at the sharp end of war, but through it all, the nearness of God to those whom He would be pleased to save for eternity. The War in Iraq has taken on new dimensions and controversies since the initial fight for Baghdad in April 2003 and the 5th Marines have been in more sharp fights, the latest in the city of Fallujah. What hasn’t changed is the power of God to penetrate even the fog of war to reach the hearts of men.
Reviewed by William Potter
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