Army deserter Bergdahl connected to ballet and Calvinism

Five years ago, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl reportedly laid down his weapons and quietly vanished into the night from his small military outpost in the Yousaf Khel district of Paktika. Several hunts for him ultimately led to several deaths of American soldiers who tried to find their comrade in arms.

Three years later, a story in Rolling Stone magazine entitled "America's Last Prisoner of War" featured Bergdahl as our last prisoner of war turned into a political pawn to end the war against terror.

One of the most interesting captions concerning the POW who apparently also is a deserter and traitor according to a New York Post article¹ is the description by the late Michael Hastings in the Rolling Stone piece. Speaking of Bergdahl's upbringing, Hastings writes:

Rather than put their kids in the local school system, Jani and Bob home-schooled Bowe and his sister. Devout Calvinists, they taught the children for six hours a day, instructing them in religious thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine. "Ethics and morality would be constant verbiage in our conversations," his father recalls. "Bowe was definitely instilled with truth. He was very philosophical about perceiving ethics.¹ 

Hastings went on to suggest,

By the time he was 16, Bowe had grown restless with his home-schooling – and his parents. He began to explore the wider world, and became obsessed with learning how to fence. At a nearby fencing studio, which also offered ballet classes, he was recruited by a beautiful local girl to be a "lifter" – the guy who holds the girl aloft in a ballet sequence.¹

Why being "devout Calvinists" seems significant enough to put in a description of Berdahl's upbringing is anyone's guess. Deserting and Calvinism do not necessarily go hand-in-hand, do they?

Ah, but Calvinism and ballet. Now there's a likely match! 

With that, I am...

Peter

¹as with many mainstream media venues, the Rolling Stone article possesses language which may be offensive. Otherwise, I found the article helpful in offering a thorough commentary for the background to Berdahl's desertion of the United States military.

   

Related articles

Bowe Bergdahl's Desertion, Treason, and Bizzare Lifestyle

Profile: Sgt Bowe Bergdahl

Idaho Town Ready To Welcome Sgt. Bergdahl Home

Fmr Soldier Who Served With Bergdahl: 'He's At Best a Deserter, And At Worst a Traitor'

Fellow soldiers call Bowe Bergdahl a deserter, not a hero

Comments

[Mark]

Peter,

Some of the early reporting is he converted to Muslim. This seems very strange.

Obama suggested he serve with honor but even CNN recognized him as a deserter and possibly a traitor.

[volfan007]

Ha ha ha ha ha

David

[Phil]

Whatever.

[Lydia]

Oh this situation is serious. Dead VA veterans so government healthcare bonus' could be paid out and now our President trades terrorists for a deserter who might even be a traitor. Where is the trial? And of course we all know the terrorists will got get jobs and become productive citizens. Right.

It is like Driscoll all over. How much scandal and wrong thinking/behavior do people need to see from Obama before they take a stand? How bad does it have to get?

But this is our new normal now. This is what a few generations of indoctrination instead of learning how to think critically has brought us.

I did get a bit of a kick out this part: "Idaho", lots of land, ramshackle house, homeschooled, strict Calvinists...OPC? Ballet did throw me a bit. But as a Calvinist, wasn't it all foreordained to happen?

[eric]

Because nothing screams Calvinism like...drum roll.....scarey music.....more scarey music....Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine!

[eric]

Perhaps the journalist meant Catholic?

[peter lumpkins]

No more 'catholic' than John Calvin perhaps...

[Brandon Stooksbury]

Mr. Lumpkins I don't see how mocking a U.S. Soldier (no matter what the situation) is consistent with the Christian confession we profess. It seems as though we are called to a higher and more mature manner of speech. Also I would like to see you sustain a correlation of the doctrines of grace and "deserting" from church history. It seems like the 16th and 17th century French Huguenots would disagree.
"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice." (Ephesians 4:29-31 ESV)

[peter lumpkins]

Dear "Brandon"

I hope today is a much richer day for you than yesterday. Try looking up rather than down...looking for good rather than bad...laughing a little rather than grumping a lot...singing a song rather than gritting your teeth...scratching rather than cutting...understanding rather than condemning...encouraging rather than insulting...

If you practice but one of these today, your life will be richer.

With that, I am...
Peter

[dr. james willingham]

Dear Peter: You are quite right: Calvinism and Ballet are, indeed, a likely match, and the reason is balance. Everything for a true Puritan and Calvinist is, as it is for the Ballet dancer, a matter of balance and timing. One of the illustrations in Puritan history which I came across had to do with not going to extremes. In other words, when you are down, don't be too down, and when you are up, don't be too up. Interestingly enough, the first Baptist missionary to India, Dr. John Thomas went insane in a fit of joy, a frenzy of delight, popping out of his mind on an uplift, at, of all things, the conversion of the first Indian of India, Krishna Pal, whom Thomas won during the process of setting a broken arm or a strained shoulder.

What few people realize is that religious liberty came out of the Baptist Puritans, that the ideas, theological and biblical, that is, of our faith are two-sided and apparently contradictory. They are no meant to be reconciled, but are to be held in tension, a creative tension which enables one to be balanced, flexible, creative, constant, and magnetic. Could that be why the greatest nation on earth arose out of the ethos of a Calvinistic Republic as the first historians of the new called it?

Ballet and Calvinism, balance, balance, balance, in both cases. Or, in the words of Truett, "the crown of responsibility."

[Lydia]

"Also I would like to see you sustain a correlation of the doctrines of grace and "deserting" from church history. It seems like the 16th and 17th century French Huguenots would disagree."

As would the Ana Baptists and Servetus? Your so called "doctrines of Grace" had them imprisoned, torutured, banished, drowned and some even burned.

Of course, Your "doctrines of Grace" guy had no need to teach Eph 4 since he simply enforced his definition of it with fines, public punishment, etc.

[Brandon Stooksbury]

Thank you for the words of exhortation, although looking up when your walking toward the drop off of a cliff isn't the wisest thing you could do, and I'm not sure what the rest of that had to do with the question I asked.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 ESV)