Gospel of Rutbah

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/13626689 w=600&h=338]In March 2003, Christian Peacemaker Team members Shane Claiborne, Peggy Gish, Cliff Kindy, and Weldon Nisly were in Iraq to protest the US "shock and awe" campaign that inaugurated the war there. Less than a year later, in February 2004, I was in Iraq as an American soldier, spending 14 months there with an infantry platoon as an artillery forward observer before God broke my hardened heart and showed me that forgiveness is sometimes right where you fell.Since my deployment, I had been interested in a return to Iraq, but I knew it would be an emotional and theological minefield. In the summer of 2009, I was put in touch with Greg Barrett, who was planning a reunion for the CPT folks. He wanted to expand his perspective for a book he is writing, and knew that having a former infantry platoon member, back in their own theater of combat before the war in which they fought has ended, would do just that.Greg had arranged for my friend Jamie Moffett to tag along to video the reunion, who shot all the video footage for a possible documentary film of the same name. Greg's book, The Gospel of Rutbah; War, Peace, & the Good Samaritan Story in Iraq is currently in print and available from Orbis Books.