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Church Call at West Point United States Military Academy
Church Call at West Point United States Military Academy
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Nook version of vintage magazine article originally published in 1908. Contains lots of great info and illustrations seldom seen in the past 100 years.
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Such, in most meager outline, is the religious record of the United States Military Academy. Matched by that of almost any other of our universities, many good people, "exemplary Christians," will find it altogether deplorable. There are some who will find in these facts confirmation of a theory concerning war and peace. They will find evidence in support of a fine idealism to exalt tenderness at the expense of strength. To such I think no better answer can be found than that of the Christ to the Pharisees: "How can one enter into a strong man's house, except he first bind the strong man?" It is one thing, with nations as with individuals, to seek strength for aggression; another to prepare for defense by becoming strong.
But there is another aspect to the picture of old-time life at West Point. To account for the somewhat remarkable absence of the outward tokens of religious experience, it is not enough to say that in the very choice by a young man of the trade of war is found evidence of unfaithfulness to the nobler nature. The youths who came to the Academy were from every section of the country, of all grades of society, of varieties of character as diverse as any of similar age admitted to any college; they were no better, no worse, than others. The individual characteristics which collegiate life barely touched (or even assisted to maintain) were at once grasped, somewhat rudely perhaps, but with amazing efficiency, to modify, alter, or even radically change. The routine of instruction seized the young fourth classman relentlessly; the discipline pressed upon him from the beginning without an instant's relaxation, and—more potential than either instruction or discipline—the constant, intimate, close contact with the upper classes gripped him like a steel vise.
While, as we have seen, the sectarian life of old West Point was quite absent, the young plebe found himself confronted by a moral atmosphere, an environment of faithfulness, far more rigorous and exacting than that of any churchly connection. The code of honor prevailing at West Point, while lacking in what so many regard as tokens of spirituality, was yet most wonderfully effective in the way of training. Doubtless it was more efficient than any church organization for molding and assimilating character
Read excerpt -
Such, in most meager outline, is the religious record of the United States Military Academy. Matched by that of almost any other of our universities, many good people, "exemplary Christians," will find it altogether deplorable. There are some who will find in these facts confirmation of a theory concerning war and peace. They will find evidence in support of a fine idealism to exalt tenderness at the expense of strength. To such I think no better answer can be found than that of the Christ to the Pharisees: "How can one enter into a strong man's house, except he first bind the strong man?" It is one thing, with nations as with individuals, to seek strength for aggression; another to prepare for defense by becoming strong.
But there is another aspect to the picture of old-time life at West Point. To account for the somewhat remarkable absence of the outward tokens of religious experience, it is not enough to say that in the very choice by a young man of the trade of war is found evidence of unfaithfulness to the nobler nature. The youths who came to the Academy were from every section of the country, of all grades of society, of varieties of character as diverse as any of similar age admitted to any college; they were no better, no worse, than others. The individual characteristics which collegiate life barely touched (or even assisted to maintain) were at once grasped, somewhat rudely perhaps, but with amazing efficiency, to modify, alter, or even radically change. The routine of instruction seized the young fourth classman relentlessly; the discipline pressed upon him from the beginning without an instant's relaxation, and—more potential than either instruction or discipline—the constant, intimate, close contact with the upper classes gripped him like a steel vise.
While, as we have seen, the sectarian life of old West Point was quite absent, the young plebe found himself confronted by a moral atmosphere, an environment of faithfulness, far more rigorous and exacting than that of any churchly connection. The code of honor prevailing at West Point, while lacking in what so many regard as tokens of spirituality, was yet most wonderfully effective in the way of training. Doubtless it was more efficient than any church organization for molding and assimilating character
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