{"id":4207,"date":"2010-03-10T00:35:18","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T08:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=4207"},"modified":"2010-03-09T23:03:18","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T07:03:18","slug":"huckabee-engage-the-fighter-pilot-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/10\/huckabee-engage-the-fighter-pilot-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Huckabee: Engage the Fighter Pilot Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

The origin of ChristianFighterPilot.com is the misperception among some people that one cannot be both a good fighter pilot and<\/em> a good Christian.\u00a0 The assumption is that the two are mutually exclusive; one must overpower the other.\u00a0 While the fighter pilot culture can be hostile to a Christian spirit, being both a fighter pilot and a Christian is not<\/em> an oxymoron.\u00a0 In fact, the sometimes carnal nature of the fighter pilot profession makes it the perfect<\/em> place for a Christian, not one to be avoided.<\/p>\n

Former Presidential candidate and now Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee seems to agree<\/a>:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

“If Christians are the salt, where should we be? In a box? In a sack? In a warehouse somewhere? No. The salt has to be on that which is spoiling. So let’s pick out the realms of our culture that we think are rotting, and spoiling, and decaying,” Huckabee continued.<\/p>\n

Examples of such realms, as Huckabee noted, include the media, the movie industry, music, fashion, advertising, and finance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While he didn’t mention the military (and most would be averse to describing it as “rotting”), his analogy is certainly applicable.\u00a0 The concept of a Christian being a salt to the fighter pilot community has been routinely referenced here:<\/p>\n

The Christian fighter pilot\u2019s eternal battle is how to be “in it but not of it”–to be different without necessarily being separate.\u00a0 God has called the Christian to be salt in the world, and his salt needs to be in the meal that is the fighter pilot community.\u00a0 Christians cannot separate themselves so far that their salt isn’t even in the same restaurant.\u00a0 Nowhere in the Bible does God command Christians to segregate themselves from sinners–quite the contrary:\u00a0 the Corinthian church once thought Paul had told them to do just that; he wrote to them and explained that the only way they could disassociate themselves from every sinner would be to “leave this world” (1 Corinthians 5:9-10). [From Christian Fighter Pilot is not an Oxymoron<\/a><\/em>.]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When discussing the conflict that occasionally arises between the Christian and the world–and the implication by some that Christians should separate themselves from that conflict–this site has agreed with R.G. LeTourneau, and LeTourneau University<\/a>, in believing that Christians should live for Christ where they are<\/em>.\u00a0 There are no “sacred” professions, per se.\u00a0 Christians make whatever<\/em> field they are in sacred.\u00a0 Huckabee basically agrees:<\/p>\n

“Being a light in the midst of darkness \u2013 where everyone happens to be \u2013 I believe, is what God calls each of us to be.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Christians are not only encouraged<\/em> to go out “into” the world, it is their obligation<\/em>.\u00a0 Otherwise, they cannot influence the world for Christ:<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the American military has committed vile acts and atrocities in the past (My Lai, Abu Ghraib, to name two famous examples), and some have been left to wonder:\u00a0 Where are the ethics?\u00a0 Where are the morals?\u00a0 Where are the Christians?<\/em>\u00a0 If Christians avoid spiritually challenging parts of the military world then they can only lament the state of American military ethics from afar.\u00a0 Christians can\u2019t influence the world unless they\u2019re in it. [From Christian Fighter Pilot is not an Oxymoron<\/a><\/em>.]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Huckabee’s words:<\/p>\n

When Christians say, “I’m not going to get involved in those things,” Huckabee says they have not only abdicated responsibility but have “absolutely given confirmation to the utter destruction of everything we’re afraid to touch.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Pastor-turned-Politician explains quite well what the Christian’s role is in society and culture, particularly in response to those who feel Chrsitians should separate themselves from an “ungodly” culture.\u00a0 Christians are not to abandon the culture; they are to engage<\/em> it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The origin of ChristianFighterPilot.com is the misperception among some people that one cannot be both a good fighter pilot and a good Christian.\u00a0 The assumption is that the two are mutually exclusive; one must overpower the other.\u00a0 While the fighter pilot culture can be hostile to a Christian spirit, being both a fighter pilot and a Christian is not an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[4,267,2,17,10],"class_list":["post-4207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-churchandstate","tag-mike-huckabee","tag-military","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}