Reformer John Calvin agreed. He called the soldier an ?agent of God?s love? and called soldiering justly a ?God-like act.? Why? Because ?restraining evil out of love for neighbor? is an imitation of God?s restraining evil out of love for His creatures. And as Darrell Cole, a professor at William & Mary, argued in the journal First Things, the failure to fight a just war may be a failure to love. Fighting just wars, he wrote, ?is something Christians ought to do out of love for God and neighbor.?

A world where all Christians refused to fight just wars wouldn?t be peaceful, and it certainly wouldn?t be just. It would be a world where evil reigned unchecked by justice, and where the strong would be free to prey on the weak. The mass graves in Iraq?graves dug during Saddam Hussein?s reign of terror?are grim evidence of this truth.

While the polls show that many Americans are becoming tired with the war in Iraq, our soldiers who are stationed there are not. They know they are doing a good and noble thing.

One way you might celebrate Memorial Day today is by watching a film being premiered tonight on HBO, Unknown Soldier: Searching for a Father. I was not able to attend the preview, but I?m told it is deeply moving and will fill you with gratitude for those who have laid down their lives to set us free. And it will cause you, I hope, as well, to pray for those who are still fighting for freedom around the world today.

For further reading and information:

Find out when Unknown Soldier: Searching for a Father airs  in your area (rated TVPG for adult content and language).

Read a review of Unknown Soldier from Hollywood Reporter.

?Making their mark: After Saddam,? Sydney Morning Herald, 31 January 2005.

Learn more about Vishal Mangalwadi.

Adopt a troop to pray for daily.

Darrell Cole, ?Good Wars,? First Things, October 2001, 27-31.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (1267-73).

BreakPoint Commentary No. 040531, ?A Soldier?s Valor: Helping and Healing in Iraq.?

BreakPoint Commentary No. 030526, ?Willie and Joe: Quintessential American Soldiers.?

Stan Guthrie, ?Faith and Fighting,? Christianity Today, 27 May 2005.

Kathryn Jean Lopez, ?God and Man on the Frontlines,? National Review, 27 May 2005.

Jim Lacey, ?The Commanders,? National Review, 27 May 2005.

Elliot Blair Smith, ?Reporting for spiritual duty in Iraq,? USA Today, 24 May 2005.

Christopher Levenick, ?High Noon at Sunrise Rock,? Wall Street Journal, 27 May 2005.