Friday, December 9, 2011

Survival Kit

Look at this survival kit:
it may end up being the most interesting physical object I take away from my experiences in Afghanistan.

What would you expect to be in a survival kit with camo printing, that is here in Afghanistan?
I would expect some sort of high calorie snack to keep one on his or her feet probably with caffeine in it, some sort of signaling device for flagging down rescue, some sort of help with navigation/survival on/against the elements... you know, survival stuff...

Boom:
I think it should've been labeled "survival kit for the soul"
Barring the violation (as I see it) of General Order number 1 in Afghanistan forbidding (among many other things) all forms of proselytizing, I think it's just plain irresponsible labeling. Imagine the poor schlub, who finds him or herself in the unfortunate situation of actually needing a survival kit like the one I described above, and thinks, "good thing they were giving out free survival kits at the chapel earlier..." I can think of no worse a cosmic practical joke to be played on said schlub.

I don't want to be finger-pointing and I'm very happy for all Christians in the theater of operations to have every available delivery method of their religion possible. I just find this particular delivery method to be a bit silly.

The silliest element of this survival kit is not, as one might suspect, the purposefully humorous book of Chuck Norris facts. No, the silliest element is the Japanese style comic book of the new testament. 
It just seems like Herod or Pontius Pilate will launch energy beams from their hands at any moment...
WAAOOW! It's Jesus!
I guess I sort of get it. Not everyone has the time or attention span to read an old and complicated translation from the original Greek, it's just the style choice of going with the Japanese style that strikes me as strange.

Should I apologize for calling this silly, and possibly offending people? Maybe. I'm sorry. Just my honest opinion.

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