TIA, that reminds me of an incident when I was at college in East Anglia. The college Christian Union (a group to which I was not drawn*) had a visit from some USAF men from a fairly nearby base. I was a bit interested in this, and passed the door to hear one giving his testimony. Thia not being of the tradition I was comfortable with (Congregationalist at the time), I stayed out, but later went to the bar, where the guys were being entertained. The college Students Union President asked one of them how he reconciled his Christianity with being involved in SAC and its nuclear warheads. His answer was that he wasn't involved with flying and potentially dropping the bombs (this was back when these things were a very present terror), but only in loading the planes.

He clearly recognised that there was a problem, and had found his own way to deal with it.

(*Background for those not aware of it. The CU was set up when some Christians found that the ecumenical Students Christian Fellowship was not rigorously Protestant enough. Persons of a quakerly leaning would not be comfortable, or possibly, welcome.)

I used to like the idea of re-enactment. Couldn't get involved when I did, as women had no part in it. Then I went to a performance (careful choice of word) of the Battle of Hastings. I became very unhappy about it being presented, on site, as a jolly day out, when one of the features of the battle was William declaring that the English should lie their unburied as they had rebelled against their rightful liege, and the pronouncements of the pope, and their bones were visible there many years later. It was, in a sense, dancing on the graves (or non-graves) of men who had been prepared to put their lives, and possibly their souls, on the line to defend the right.

I used to explain the battle to children at school. I used a plan of the field, and little slips of paper marked "foot soldiers", "cavalry" etc, and remove them as there were casualties. Then I put the removed slips on the table at the end. I remember the reaction of one class, an indrawn breath as they realised what those words stood for. It was totally unexpected or unplanned for by me, and deeply moving. There was nothing of that at Battle that day.

I avoid that sort of thing now. Please don't take this as criticism, it is just my position.

Penny