From an article of the same title by Neil Steinberg in the Chicago Sun-Times:

A dozen American soldiers are ordered to swim the Atlantic Ocean.

Imagine any scenario to explain why: The president wants them to demonstrate the supremacy of our way of life, perhaps.

All 12 drown, of course.

Was their sacrifice a waste?

I would say yes -- a doomed endeavor initiated for a bad purpose by a deluded leader.

Does this mean I don't support a strong military? No. Does this mean I don't respect those doomed soldiers, who bravely followed orders and waded into the surf? Not at all.

We are allowed to differentiate between individual heroism and a larger pointlessness.

I've seen the moniker "Red Letter Christians" a few times recently (particularly in reference to Shane Claiborne) and wondered about it. Obviously, it's not too hard to guess what it's generally about, but I hadn't seen it defined until I read an article by Tony Campolo from yesterday. An excerpt:

In my book, Letters to a Young Evangelical, I point out that there is an emerging new generation of young evangelicals who are still conservative on their views on homosexual behavior, but refuse to make gay marriage the defining issue that it has become for older Christians. Instead, these young people are more concerned with such issues as poverty, the AIDS crisis, the environment, and war. It is no surprise, therefore, that they take Bono as their model for Christian activism. This rock singer who has raised their consciousness about the crisis in Africa is working hard to eliminate Third World debts. Bono is committed to the causes that young evangelicals deem significant and they are joining with enthusiasm in his crusade to "Make Poverty History."

In many instances, those in this new generation are even reluctant to accept being called evangelicals. They sense that the label "evangelical" is commonly thought to be synonymous with right-wing politics and suggests a gay-bashing, anti-environmentalist, anti-feminist, and pro-war mindset. Instead, they are increasingly calling themselves Red Letter Christians. This name, of course, associates them with those verses in scripture that record the words that Jesus spoke, which in many Bibles are printed in red. That I affirm this designation and promote this new label in my book often greatly disturbs my interviewers. They quickly remind me that Jesus never mentioned homosexuality. "That's right!" I respond. "He most likely maintained ancient Jewish laws on the matter, but condemning gays was not on His big-ten hit list, while attacking judgmental religious people was."