Hacksaw Ridge... They beat him, they mocked him, they called him a coward...
Posted by Sia on November 19, 2025, 3:15 pm ADMIN
They beat him. They mocked him. They called him a coward.
Desmond Doss refused to carry a weapon because of his faith—and at Hacksaw Ridge, unarmed, he saved 75 men while everyone else retreated.
Desmond grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia, in a devout Seventh-day Adventist home where the Ten Commandments weren’t negotiable. “Thou shalt not kill” meant exactly that. No exceptions. No guns.
After Pearl Harbor, he could have stayed home—his shipyard job gave him a draft deferment. But at twenty-two, he enlisted anyway. He believed the war against fascism was just, and he wanted to serve his country. He simply refused to take a life. He chose to be a combat medic, going into battle unarmed and trusting God to protect him.
The Army didn’t know what to do with a man like that.
When he wouldn’t pick up a rifle in basic training, officers were furious. They tried to discharge him. They transferred him from unit to unit, hoping someone would break him. His fellow soldiers mocked him relentlessly. They beat him in the barracks. They threw boots at him while he prayed. Some even planned to “accidentally” shoot him in combat.
Desmond never fought back. “I’m not a coward,” he said quietly. “I want to save lives, not take them.” Nobody believed him.
In 1945, Desmond’s division sailed to Okinawa—the Pacific’s bloodiest battlefield. Their target was the Maeda Escarpment, a 400-foot cliff the soldiers called Hacksaw Ridge. Japanese forces held the high ground and slaughtered anyone who climbed it.
On May 5, the Americans were ordered to attack again. They climbed the cargo nets, fought their way across the ridge top, and were overwhelmed by a devastating counterattack. Wounded men screamed for medics. Japanese soldiers pushed forward. The order came: retreat. Get off the ridge. Leave the wounded—there was no time.
Every soldier began climbing down.
Except Desmond Doss.
Unarmed and alone, he stayed behind on Hacksaw Ridge. Under machine-gun fire, grenades, and artillery, he searched for wounded Americans. He dragged one man to the cliff edge, rigged a rope sling, and lowered him 400 feet to safety. Then he went back.
He repeated the impossible—again and again. “Lord,” he prayed, “please help me get one more. Just one more.”
Hour after hour, Desmond carried or dragged wounded soldiers—some weighing more than he did—to the cliff. He lowered them to safety, then returned into the firestorm. By the end, he had saved 75 men—many of the same soldiers who had mocked, beaten, and threatened him.
When Desmond finally climbed down, his company fell silent. The man they had called a coward had shown more courage than any of them.
On October 12, 1945, President Harry Truman awarded Desmond Doss the Medal of Honor—the first conscientious objector in American history to receive it. Truman told him, “I’m proud of you. You really deserve this. I consider this a greater honor than being president.”
Desmond said the medal belonged to God.
What breaks your heart is this: he was right from the beginning, and everyone else was wrong. They saw weakness where there was strength. They mocked the man whose courage would one day save their lives.
He never fired a shot. He never carried a weapon. He never killed a soul.
But in a single day, he saved 75 men—and proved that courage doesn’t always come with a gun.
Desmond Doss died in 2006 at age eighty-seven. Many of the soldiers he saved—men who once tormented him—attended his funeral and wept.
Every one of them lived because the “coward” stayed on the ridge.
Doss is a fence post. Other heros are also fenceposts, and we all move toward a bright light ahead, known as God, Good, Jesus... The fence posts don't lead. They point the way. We con't look to them for leadership, but for example, and in that example we find leadership. But their leadershio is ours, and their signs point the way.
The weapon I carry is music.
I shared a few sacred compositions meant for congregational sing, quoting Jesus, for one thing to remind our MAGAS why the felon should not be associated. They're serious, and exquisitely beautiful, wrenching and memorable. But ya gotta have balance!
Y'all know Father Abraham? A kids song that engages everybody in a fun activity? I wrestled with a similar idea ionvolving Christ. A Cha! Cha!. Entitled, "I Will Follow Jesus Cha! Cha! Cha!!" It is a line dance in the pews. Right step right step right step STOP cha cha cha. Left step left step lefts step STOP! cha cha cha!. Turn around and twist cha cha cha. Other way and twist, cha cha cha. Step to the right, step to the left, step to the right, bow, kiss, smack!
Each verse is command of Jesus written in Matthew. They quote Christ, the good of Christ while having fun in a dance.
If the congregation wants, they cna form a conga line and they follow a leader, around the perimeter singing their pledges. If challenged, like, "you can't do this in church!" I-we can ask "Why not? These are the words of Christ." Why not make it a little fun, and if people remember the verses, which they will, well, mission accomplished. How to fight the felon and win, and never mention his name.
I do what you would do, given better health and mobility. You motivate me. I can't change the world either. But I can influence a little corner of it, and each influenced person does likewise. AIDS began with one. Covid 19 began with one. We arem't a vaccine for trump disease. We are a reciprocal disease that cures and replaces trump, and spreads like any good infection.
Just as bacteria killed the Martians in War of the Worlds, our little bacteria of influence appears to be spreading with intent to kill trump and MAGA.
427-1 100-0
Resist. Impeach, convict, and evict. Demand the National Monument known as The White House be restored to its original historic form at the felon's expense. His and all contributors to the destruction. You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony
These are commandments of Jesus, set to a line dance cha-cha that can be done in a pew, or a chair or seat. Second verse are the steps. The cha-cha-cha is a bow kiss slap, from the old German Landler where the boy leans forward, puckers for a kiss, and the girl slaps his face, It's all one motion, with the lady's slap a brush across her palm.
Verses 1 and 2 are sung a second time after all six are sung.
The dance is an act of rebellion, when farmers resisted the old church ban on dancing and dances. Landler, or farmers held the dsnces in a barn. Men faces ladies in a line, or two lines. Step to the right, step to the left, step to the right, bow, kiss, SMACK!
Your church is welcome to do this in service. Contact me (FB) directly for a free PDF. All I ask is acknowledge me as the composer, and give to the needy. The Salvation Army, or tithe your church.
Resist the felon and MAGA. Impeach, convict, and evict. Demand full restoration of our National Monument, The White House at his expense, and the corporate doners who helped.
You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony
Nice job! Do your church peeps join in? Seems to like it?
It is helping turn the church around from a MAGA haven to the place of peace and worship it should.
When we do a new work, we play it as a prelude before service, to plant the seed. Them we open congregational singing with it again. They've heard it and can sing it. We follow that with more traditional music, always chosen to support the sermon topic, and the give everyone something they know and like.
It is our service. We rehearse to make the music as beautiful and meaningful as possible, so we become invisible, and they contemplate their roles and relationships.
Last week when we sang How Great Thou Art, we did it with breadth, depth, and expansive tempi that focused on the words and their meaning. No just plodding through like any old hymn with a pipe organ.
Our attendence doubled, and doubled again. The MAGAs aren't bringing their guns anymore.
You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony
That IS wonderful!
Posted by Skye on November 19, 2025, 10:25 pm, in reply to "Absolutely!" Valued Poster
And wonderFUN!
Engaging and uplifting… sharing and spreading the spirit of love and goodness. I love it.
That is WONDERFUL news that your church is turning around
Posted by Sia on November 19, 2025, 9:24 pm, in reply to "Absolutely!" ADMIN
on November 19, 2025, 3:15 pm
