Faith Lands Man In Military Prison

[Nbadan]

Newly found faith lands Marine in jail
Friday, December 31, 2004
DARRYL Q. TUCKER
THE SAGINAW NEWS

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- U.S. Marine Cpl. Joel D. Klimkewicz says he's willing to clear land mines and risk his life for his country.

He's just not willing to pick up a gun.

Because of his new-found religious faith, the Birch Run native is spending his holidays behind bars as a conscientious objector, convicted by military superiors who see him as a disobedient soldier.

"I couldn't see Jesus Christ taking human life," said Klimkewicz in a phone interview from the Camp LeJeune military prison. "In my faith, what I believe is that we're all citizens of heaven. Citizens of heaven are of all nations, and I refuse to take a life of a fellow citizen of heaven."

This month, a Marine Corps court sentenced 24-year-old Klimkewicz -- a combat engineer who is a member of a Seventh-day Adventist Church -- to seven months behind bars for refusing an order to pick up a weapon for training. He received a reduction in rank to private and a bad conduct discharge.

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MLive

Okay, this man is a true Christian and I have the utmost respect for him. Notice too, he's willing to go into combat and clear land mines, a job which requires you not carry a gun. His life would have been at more risk than most in Iraq, but the war machine didn't see things that way.

[JohnnyMarzetti]

That is not fair. Bush himself is a Christian! Granted he hasn't picked up a gun either.

The Bush administration's New Year's resolution should be to pull out of Iraq. Already, the United States has lost 1,300 soldiers, and 10,000 U.S. soldiers have been wounded, at a rate now of almost 1,000 a month.