Through All the Plain

"Benjamin John Peters writes as a possessed man, overcome not by demons but by the divine, for he displays a wonderful knack for ordering the chaos that is war. Weaving story with scholarship, this book illumines the dark places that our veterans visit and is therefore a precious gift for congregations, communities, and classrooms alike. Take and read this seemingly bitter tome; its words will prove as sweet as honey on your lips, as they have mine."
--Logan Mehl-Laituri, author of Reborn on the Fourth of July

"We send young men and women to war without thinking. Out of sight, they tend to be out of mind, our yellow-ribbon bumper stickers notwithstanding. What happens when we send thinking soldiers to war? Some come back to us with tales to tell, eyes-wide-open tales that challenge our complicity with, our inurement to violence, the violence we would render and the violence we sustain--personally and corporately--in executing wars's ends. Peters's is one such tale. It goes a long way toward dissipating the 'fog.'"
--Gregory Allen Robbins, author of Genesis 1-3 in the History of Exegesis

"A compelling and honest account of one man's transformation from an eager enlistee after the attacks on September 11 to a peacemaker looking to make amends for his complicity in the violence and death wrought by the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Through All the Plain offers a rare look at life in the military and the madness of war from an unusually introspective soldier, who wrestles with--and eventually embraces--the call to love our enemies."
--Eric Stoner, editor for WagingNonviolence.org

"Benjamin John Peters writes as a possessed man, overcome not by demons but by the divine, for he displays a wonderful knack for ordering the chaos that is war. Weaving story with scholarship, this book illumines the dark places that our veterans visit and is therefore a precious gift for congregations, communities, and classrooms alike. Take and read this seemingly bitter tome; its words will prove as sweet as honey on your lips, as they have mine."
--Logan Mehl-Laituri, author of Reborn on the Fourth of July

"We send young men and women to war without thinking. Out of sight, they tend to be out of mind, our yellow-ribbon bumper stickers notwithstanding. What happens when we send thinking soldiers to war? Some come back to us with tales to tell, eyes-wide-open tales that challenge our complicity with, our inurement to violence, the violence we would render and the violence we sustain--personally and corporately--in executing wars's ends. Peters's is one such tale. It goes a long way toward dissipating the 'fog.'"
--Gregory Allen Robbins, author of Genesis 1-3 in the History of Exegesis

"A compelling and honest account of one man's transformation from an eager enlistee after the attacks on September 11 to a peacemaker looking to make amends for his complicity in the violence and death wrought by the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Through All the Plain offers a rare look at life in the military and the madness of war from an unusually introspective soldier, who wrestles with--and eventually embraces--the call to love our enemies."
--Eric Stoner, editor for WagingNonviolence.org