Adams County’s State Senator Doug Mastriano used his Christian Nationalist beliefs to argue in a recent Gettysburg Times opinion piece that the battlefield successes of United States military forces are part of his Christian God’s plan for our nation and that two of the American army’s greatest accomplishments, including George Washington’s escape from the British army on August 27, 1776, and the December 1944 liberation of the city of Bastogne in Belgium during WW II, were literally the result of miracles performed by his God.
One of our (Lembo’s) fathers was in General George Patton’s Third Army that liberated Bastogne and we together wrote a book about his World War II experiences, “A Combat Engineer with Patton’s Army: The Fight Across Europe With the 80th “Blue Ridge” Division.”
Despite Mastriano’s assertions, a prayer Patton had his chaplain write did not break the German siege and liberate Bastogne: Sergeant Frank T. Lembo and thousands of other soldiers from Patton’s Third Army did. We owe our thanks to the 19,000 American soldiers who died in this battle.
Mastriano’s column makes his Christian Nationalist views clear. He literally believes a miracle from his God saved Washington’s Army when it abandoned New York City and a Christian prayer cleared the skies over Belgium and Luxembourg during the last stages of WW II.
Assigning credit for U.S. military victories to Christian prayers and “miracles” is disrespectful to our military forces, including those who performed superhuman deeds in the last two weeks of December 1944.
You can learn more about Christian Nationalism as Orrtanna resident Pamela Cooper-White discusses her recent book, “The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People are Drawn In and How to Talk Across the Divide,” at the Adams County Democratic Committee Headquarters, 24 Chambersburg St., from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. this Friday, January 6.
Leon Reed, freelance reporter, is a former US Senate staff member, defense consultant, and history teacher. He is a seven year resident of Gettysburg, where he writes military history and explores the park and the Adams County countryside. He is the publisher at Little Falls Books, chaired the Adams County 2020 Census Complete Count Committee and is on the board of SCCAP and the local Habitat for Humanity chapter. He and his wife, Lois, have 3 children, 3 cats, and 5 grandchildren.
Lois Lembo is a retired defense consultant who specialized in industry and technology. She has been studying Patton’s Third Army in World War II for the past 15 years and is preparing a book on army training during World War II.
I fully agree with Leon and Lois’s assessment that any attempt to lay both victory and defeat at the feet of one particular God completely denies the valiant efforts of the military men and women who fight in those wars. In WWII, these military service members were the ones who strategized, fought, bled, died, suffered and, ultimately, won the Battle of the Bulge, independent from Gen. George Patton’s prayer for better weather (which had actually been formulated at a different time and point of the war in France). That said, I submit that there is much to be said about… Read more »
Interesting comment; thanks for adding it. I totally agree with the words you say about prayer. I think they can be a comfort and a rallying point. But as you point out, that’s not what Mastriano says. He says we were losing and all was hopeless (incorrect) and Patton had his chaplain to write a prayer (also incorrect — he’d written it weeks earlier) and the prayer caused the skies to clear so that the Allies won.
Again, thanks for your thoughts.
Disagree completely. Have either one of you been in combat?
So…you wouldn’t credit the men who fought, and especially those who gave their last full measure?? You’d just attribute the victory of Bastogne to a prayer? Do I have that right??
What is there to agree or disagree with? It’s a simple matter of facts, not opinion. Mastriano said, regarding the Bulge, that the Germans could “advance unmolested,” which is dead wrong; after the first few hours, they quickly fell behind because of Allied resistance. Anyone who’s read a book on the Bulge knows there was no “unmolested” advance. He claims that “all hope appeared to be lost,” which is ridiculous. From the beginning of Hitler’s last gasp offensive, Hitler’s generals understood their offensive had no chance of success – and so did the Allies. Ike and the Allied high command… Read more »
Ms. Lembo, Mr. Reed – I wholeheartedly agree.