I would first like to thank Eli Grober ’09 for writing about the Memorial Day service in an article entitled “A Service for Everyone,” which appeared the Commentary Section of the May 15, 2008 issue of The Phillipian. Last week in CHILL, Christianity Happening in Living Life, the Protestant Christian student group on campus, we read through Grober’s article and discussed our own views. While we are a diverse group of students in terms of social, religious, and geographic backgrounds, many of us at the meeting held the opinion that religion, not specifically Christianity, has an important place in the commemoration of Memorial Day. During the meeting we tried to plan out a completely secular Memorial Day service. We found it devoid much of its meaning. In an occasion when we take the time to reflect on the deaths of others, we found it important to do so with prayer, because as Christians, we believe in a God that transcends life and death. For us, the physical death of one’s body is not the end. Therefore our spirituality is important when considering death. As an interfaith service it was fitting that spiritual texts made up a portion of the content. These readings, however spiritual in origin, have messages that I believe are largely applicable to secular life. Many of the readings, even though they have been inspired by a higher power, bear the same non-religious relevance as the Memorial Day proclamation by Reagan or a reflection on the history of the holiday’s commemoration. In CHILL we have really been stressing the idea of scrutinizing Biblical texts. If one were to walk into one of our Bible studies, one might find it very similar to an English class. As I have begun to study religious writings more deeply over the past couple years, I personally have come to see that, in a secular context, much the major religion’s texts powerfully convey universal themes like compassion, bravery and equality. Just as many Christians dive below the literal meaning of the religion’s own texts, it seems like agnostics and atheists might, with an eye open to the rational and moral messages, gain something from interpreting spiritual messages—much in the same way RelPhil is a requirement for all Phillips Academy students. Ultimately, I believe that holding an interfaith Memorial Day Service, with spiritual readings, prayers, as well as secular readings and a secular reflection was the best approach to commemorating the date (if not on the date — but that is another argument all together…). Having campus services for each of the religions on campus and students without religious beliefs would be impractical and at the same time inconsistent with the unifying goals of Memorial Day. Grober said, “Lets start talking about religion.” He clearly sparked some talk. I would say CHILL’s discussion of the topic was the best exchange of opinions we have had this year. Not only did we talk about Memorial Day, but we branched out into discussion concerning religion’s niche on campus, citing prayer in All-School Meetings and Commencement. Fittingly for a discussion on Memorial Day, by the end of our meeting we found ourselves exchanging ideas about inter-religious dynamics on campus and in the world, the latter of which — inter-religious conflict — sometimes transforms into the very battlefield on which soldiers lose their lives. Michael Discenza is a three-year Upper from Burlington, Conn., Director of Production of The Phillipian and Head of CHILL. mdiscenza@andover.edu
