Fraternity-Testvériség, 1945 (32. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1945-04-01 / 4. szám

TESTVÉRISÉG

19

normal life once more, especially in the case of disabled men who have been seriously disabled. The most important problems must be faced not only by members of the family, but as well as employers in the various manufacturing plants. Employers must sympathetically seek to give that returning veteran an entirely new lease on life. Employers and the members of the family must make him realize that he does have a useful place in the life of the community, and he should be given all opportunities to fulfil that rightful place. A great deal of sympathy must be shown by not only the members of the family but by the employers in the most crucial time and period in the life of each returning veteran.

The Church’s Task

Now let us examine the churchs’ share in this work. The church cannot say that it has all and every responsibility as far as the veteran is concerned. The Federal Government, private social welfare institutions, are well aware of this problem and some of the best minds, and some of the best scholars of the entire country are aiding in the solution of these problems. A returning veteran must be aided not only by the church alone, but by the federal government as well as private social welfare institutions. The church is really but one agency in helping the veteran readjust himself in civilian life.

When the veteran returns, one of his primary concerns is to be understood. Will the civilians back home really understand me when I return, he asks himself over and over again. The second thing of primary concern to him is, “will I get a job?” To take his place once more in the community of which he was a member before being inducted in his primary concern. The church must not endeavor to segregate itself from the other agencies of the community which are dedicated to the problem of readjusting the returning veteran. But in spite of the fact that the church is not the only agency in the community, the church must assume leadership in this phase of work. The reason why the church should attach special significance to the aiding of the readjustment of returning veterans is that the human soul grows up in the church. And the problems of the human soul of those returning men must be met by the church. The church, therefore, must dedicate itself to a type of ministry for which it is especially adapted.

There will be many casualties among those returning. Not only those who have been wounded externally, who have lost a limb, will be

casualties of this war, but there will be a great many who have wounds upon their souls. And the wounds upon their souls can be healed only by the church. Therefore, the church must dedicate itself to the ministry of healing, to the moral and spiritual casualties of this war. Oftentimes the returning veteran will come back, who before his induction into the armed forces, was murtured in the Christian church. Oftentimes he will come back with a deep sense of guilt. The church which must be a community of Christians dedicated not only to the welfare of their own souls, but dedicated to the souls of other individuals, must endeavor to heal each wound carefully and with a great deal of concern.

The church must also have a ministry of reconciliation in the time that the veteran was away from home. His family relationship has undergone a change. Students of the problem claim that one-third of wartime marriages will go on the rocks. Whether this is so will depend a great deal on us. We who are members of the Christian community in a church must endeavor to save as many of these wartime marriages as possible from going on the rocks. The church must be imbued with the type of enthusiasm it has never imagined itself capable of. The curch must really convern itself with the ministry of reconciliation in the family relationships of the returning veteran.

Then the church must have a ministry of mediation. The returning boy finds a great many tensions in the community. He finds it is difficult to adjust himself again to his old friends. He finds it difficult to make new friends. Old things have changed and he does not understand the new things which have replaced the old. The church must re-emphasize its ministry of religious faith to the bewildered, disillusioned veteran. There will be a great host of men and women who will be lost—who literally will wander about in the darkness of being misunderstood and being incapable of adjusting themselves to their changed environment. We must help and guide them, because this help and guidance is what they need more than anything else. If they do not get the religious faith from those of whom they expect it, they will be thoroughly disillusioned and will be filled with incurable cynicism. Their sipirts will be bitter and because of the bitterness of their spirits, the church must re-emphasize its message of love. The church must make them feel that it is an institution which is dedicated to bring the great message of love