20250930 📧 to Kalantzis

A few weeks after my #GruntGod chapter 5 interview with Wheaton Professor of Theology George Kalantzis is published, he urged his social media audience to “consider seriously the topic of war and violence” by reading texts by avowed pacifists who had no service experience of their own;

20251003 @ 1107

George,

When you came on my show, you said that civilians, like you, “should go into a period of public lament as a church asking for forgiveness from” military communities, that civilians are “complicit” in sending people to unjust wars. Those words matter. They name a truth that few in the church are willing to confront: the betrayal military families have endured at the hands of both state and church.

And yet, after speaking those words, you chose to hide that conversation. You did not share the interview. You did not point your audience to God Is a Grunt, the book we had just discussed. Instead, you doubled down on toxic pacifist writers whose work perpetuates the very dismissal you yourself condemned. If pastoral care means anything in our tradition, then you owe more to my community than public erasure and retreat into safe abstractions.

That is why I broke off our Facebook connection. This is not a trivial disagreement.The theology you have publicly performed is a lethal poison to my community,one from which I am responsible for protecting my friends and family. Italso violates the logic of your own public argument on First Formation.

If I deserve a public lament, then so do veterans like Pete Hegseth. His toxic public theology appeals to military families because we know the same truth you named: civilians have broken trust with us. You confessed that betrayal, then retreated into privilege. Whose spent blood do you think secured your "freedom" to speak your mind in public, your πολιτείαν? Or do you think you were born to consume the fruit of our labor while watching us starve?

If you think I am any different than Hegseth, then your faith is no better than this, xenophobia wrapped in cherry-picked scriptures. Either you believe in a God who recognizes the cry of the oppressed, the humiliated, and the suicidal, or you worship a false god of your own making. Your actions disclose a heart no softer than his, and I must protect my community from the kind of person you both seem to represent—not professionals engaging in a craft, but ordinary ὑποκριταί looking out for themselves and the social structures they can control.

If Matthew 18 is determinative for both your public and private encounters, then I come to you now directly, before I say anything publicly. But if the gospel is not y/our guiding light, then a private god is at the helm, one I will not worship with you. I am giving you the opportunity to respond here, privately, before I make any public statement. But understand: this is not simply about me. It is about your public witness and the ἐκκλησίαν it assumes, whether your words to me were truthful or merely a performance, a δρᾶμα. It is about whether your god is one you’ve fashioned with power lent by other creatures, or whether you worship the only truly public God, who empowered humanity without relying on corrupting self-interest.

In the power and love of Christ,

Logan M. Isaac, HoSM

20251003 @ 1730

Dear Logan,

I am currently at refugee camp in Kenya and don’t have much data.

It was you who asked me to delete your comments (which included the link to our conversation) wasn’t it.

I did what you asked me to do. I am glad to repost the link to our conversation if you allow me to.

In the meantime,

Peace.

George

Sent from my iPhone.

20251003 @ 1909

I didn't ask for a reply within a given timeframe, so please take as much time as you deem appropriate.

I did not ask you to delete my comment, I wrote "If there is a way to disagree without falling into the usual traps that conglomerates like Facebook set for us, I'd love the opportunity to do so." I unfriended you because I cannot be associated with anti-military bias; you demeaned a combat veteran and SecDef and directed your audience to a bunch of civilians as experts on "the topic of war and violence."

If I need a direct ask, it is not for a deed, but an explanation - how am I different from Hegseth? How am I, by your account, owed a public lament, but not him? And if he and I are both owed some kind of public lament, which neither of us has received, how is it helping either of us to propagate toxic (civilian) theology which, by objective academic standards, is fundamentally flawed?

I'll say again for clarity - I am not asking for an immediate response. I am asking you to search your... soul? mind? faith? and either answer me directly, as I take our shared political commitments require, or I will have to qualify that episode for my audience. Namely, by adding a warning that I trusted you by having you on my podcast but your actions since have betrayed that trust and, therefore, cannot ask my audience to trust you either.

If you tell me how long you think you will need to respond substantively, I'm happy to wait. But, and I cannot stress this enough, I am contacted multiple times per year by veterans on the brink of suicide and I will not endanger the health of my community. They deserve the truth, and Christians deserve to be asked to speak it. If you need a week, take it, but if I dont hear back at some point I'll at least inform you when the trigger warning is live on the internet.

Cordially,

Logan

20251027 @ 1955

George, I’m writing to let you know that I intend to publish our recent correspondence regarding your comments on Grunt God (the interview in which you proposed public services of lament and repentance by civilians).

My plan is to post the emails in full as part of a public record of witness and to reference them in a short essay that situates the exchange within the broader problem of civilian theology and toxic pacifism. I will also link to the podcast episode for context.

If you would like to add a brief statement (≤150 words) to accompany the publication, I’m glad to include it verbatim. Please send it by Friday, October 31, 2025 (5:00 p.m. PT) so I can include it alongside the documents.

Thank you for your consideration.

20251028 @ 2240

Dear Logan,

Thank you for your email.

Obviously, you are free to do as you wish and publish as you please.

This was not much of a “correspondence” for all I said in response to your rather incomprehensible ad hominem was that I was in a refugee camp and could not respond at the time.

I stand behind everything I said during our enjoyable discussion, including the suggestion that I have been making for over 15 years now, namely that instead of staging welcoming parades for those returning from active duty or war campaigns, Christians should enter a time of lament and penance, recognizing that it was our greed for power and resources that led these soldiers to war and we are complicit in that evil. Yes, instead of celebrating and pining medals on chests, we as communities that aim to be Christ-formed, ought to take responsibility and confess, lament, repent, and help those who did out “dirty work” heal. War is not to be celebrated. Nor is our consumerist desire for power, resources, influence, etc. that leads to the such. I take St. Basil’s example seriously and want to extend the 3-year period of abstaining from the Eucharist not only to the returning soldier/warrior, but also to the community itself. Maybe then we can reach a deeper understanding of how seriously we ought to abhor evil and our recognize our complicity in it. Coupled with public prayer of confession and lament, something like this may also be a means of healing for both community and returning soldiers.

I wish you all the best in your journey.

And yes, you have my permission to publish this and the correspondence below as it stands. If you need to edit it however, I would like to see the final product before publication.

Peace,

George