High School was behind me, and I was happy just to have a job and spend my time hanging with friends.  My future was a thing that was, well – in the future. That spring, however, two unrelated events quickly changed everything.  The first event was by choice.  The second, by luck of the draw.  Both began with letters received in the mail.

The first letter came from a local organization that afforded teens a place to gather and encourage each other in their Christian faith.  The second was a letter from the President of the United States.  “Greeting”, it said. “You are hereby ordered to report for induction into the Armed Forces of the United States…”.  I had been drafted and ordered to report to my local draft board on the morning of June 21, 1972.

It was a time when the Vietnam war was raging and war protests filled the streets, Apollo 16 astronauts had just landed on the moon, and the Watergate scandal just recently erupted, eventually bringing down a US President.  I wasn’t paying much attention to any of that, but I did manage to hear about an upcoming event called Explo 72 set to begin on June 12 in Dallas Texas.  Running for 5 days, the event was sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ, and was billed as an evangelistic conference to train and encourage youth to reach out to their generation with the message of the Gospel.

Somehow I managed to register for the event, without giving much thought about how I would get there.  That’s until I heard from a local youth organization called “The Christian Youth Center” who saw my name on a list of local registrants and sent me a letter asking me to call if I was interested in joining their delegation on the bus headed for the event.  I “reported for duty” on June 10 to the parking lot of Mt Zion Baptist Church in Joliet Illinois where I boarded a bus with 50+ complete strangers bound for Dallas.  I had no idea what would happen.

The events of Explo 72, the training seminars, opportunities for evangelism, the gathering each night in the Cotton Bowl to hear speakers such as Paul Eshleman, Josh McDowell, Bill Bright and Billy Graham, didn’t have much of an impact on me at the time.  I was already a Christian, but I was too shy to put my evangelism training into practice.  However, being a part of a gathering of nearly 100,000 Christians whose lives were so different from mine opened my mind to the fact that Christians weren’t all cut from the same mold.

On the final day of Explo 72, we were bussed to an area just north of downtown Dallas to a concert venue where musicians such as Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash were set to perform.  However, it was the music of Andre Crouch and the Disciples that changed my perception of what Christian music could become.  Some say that this was the beginning of the contemporary Christian music industry, and that it was the “Christian Woodstock”.  I have no doubt that its true.

After arriving home, I spent the next few days preparing to leave for the Army and Basic Training.  Other than heading to downtown Joliet Illinois to the draft board office, I had no idea where I would be by the day’s end.  On Wednesday, June 21 my parents dropped me off in front of the building, and just eleven days after boarding a bus for Dallas, I boarded a Boeing 727 bound for an unknown location in New Jersey.

At about 2am the next morning I landed at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey near Ft Dix where I began Basic Training.  In less than 5 days I went from a carefree, longhaired teenager exploring a new world of Christian music and evangelism, to a buzz cut soldier in training.

For the past 50 years I’ve been examining the impact these two events have had on my life, but never more so than lately as the half-century anniversary approached.  It’s not always easy to draw a straight line from the experiences that take you from the person you were to the one you’ve become.  Often there are gaps or redirections, and time has a way to dull the pain or cloud the joy of those past moments.  The connections are often lost in the busyness of life.

Despite the many changes in direction down through the years, I’ve begun to understand these two seemingly disconnected experiences and how they make me who I am.  Many today would say that God has favored the United States, and that as Christians we have an obligation to at least acknowledge that fact, if not to fight for a return to our Christian principles as a nation.  Others would disparage that notion, calling it “Christian Nationalism” and lumping us in with the “Guns, Babies and Jesus” crowd.

As a Christian, influenced by the experience of Explo 72, and as a Vietnam Era veteran I am forged of both worlds.  Both influence my world view and are seminal in my personal growth.  Fortunately, I wasn’t called to the battlefield, but there were many Christians who were.  Many who gave the ultimate sacrifice.  If I had been called, I would have gone – I possibly would have laid down my life to protect and defend the freedoms found in this Christian Nation.  Indeed, if this were not a country founded on Christian principles, I may not have been so willing.

Certainly, there are many Christians around the world who weren’t blessed to have been born into such a great nation as this. I believe we have a responsibility to all nations to be a light.  Not just a light of freedom and liberty, but the light of Christ.  I will make no apologies for being that light nor will I apologize for standing under the flag of The United States of America as I do so.

GOD bless America, especially in this darkest of times.