The final countdown...

I've started counting down my departure to Argentina in days, not months or weeks, and it's all becoming very real very quickly. People from my program are starting to reach out and friend me on Facebook, which despite the ease of the gesture (it is just clicking a button after all) it makes me feel better, knowing that I'm with a group of individuals that cares to know about others.

Among the multitude of things I have left to do before I leave, there's one more story I'm working on for the Gainesville Sun. It's my most challenging story as of yet for a number of reasons. First of all, I've mentally checked out of the Gainesville sun a bit...there just seems to be more pressing things I have to deal with, but that's something I can push aside for one more day.

The story is going to run on the Religion page, a red flag for those that know me, and it is a profile about this young man Marc Levitt. He's about to deploy to Iraq/Afghanistan and is a recent UF grad. At the beginning of his tenure here he was in a serious car accident, and afterward became very involved with the Baptist ministry on campus. He carries a camouflage devotional book and tries to share his faith with those around him as they get ready to fight for this country.

On the surface this doesn't seem too intimidating, but as I was doing my background research I saw a few things that simply make me uncomfortable. Marc recalled in another story when an Army chaplain went to tell a mother that her son died in combat, via the chaplain Marc said the woman was less upset about the death of her son and more distraught over the fact that he died without knowing Christ...and she knew where he would be sending eternity. He said he never wanted that to happen to any of his men.

Beyond the fact that this memory is laced entirely with the projection of his own beliefs, you really think that somebody that died defending this country will spend the rest of eternity in Hell because they hadn't accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior? I like to believe that God appreciates the good things people do rather than holding grudges.

The other thing that bothered me was the "call to action" that the church's website posted about not allowing the homosexual-fueled legislation to pass any further through Congress. It was actually calling people to vote against hate crime legislation because it would turn anybody that spoke out against homosexuality (it gave their pastor as an example) a criminal. What happened to the God that was full of love? Apparently that doesn't extend to gay people. Later this afternoon I have to interview this man who, to me, is sending his prejudices and hate through a population that looks up to him and believes what he says, simply because it is him that says it. I understand that these topics will most likely not be a part of our interview, but I also know it is going to be very hard to get them out of my mind when he's talking about how wonderful Marc is and how much he follows the Lord.

It will be something I prepare for through the rest of the morning, hopefully God will grant me strength.