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By the time I arrived in San Antonio as a young minister in 1988, Buckner Fanning was already legendary. He was several decades into what would be a 40-year stint as pastor of Trinity Baptist Church. He had a flowing mane of white hair and a down-home preaching style that befriended the most hesitant of cynics. People called him the Protestant Pope of South Texas.
We exchanged pulpits one Sunday. He came to our congregation; I went to his. When he was offered the bread and the wine, a memory surfaced that caused him to change the introduction to his sermon.
Buckner was a Marine in World War II, stationed in Nagasaki three weeks after the dropping of the atomic bomb. The city, Buckner related, was something out of the apocalypse.
THE US DROPPED AN ATOMIC BOMB ON HIROSHIMA ON AUGUST 6, 1945, LEADING TO THE END OF WWII
While patrolling the narrow streets, he came upon a sign that bore an English phrase: Baptist Church. He noted the location and resolved to return the next Sunday morning.
Smoke billowing over Nagasaki after the atomic bomb was dropped. (REUTERS)
When he did, he entered a partially collapsed structure. Fifteen or so Japanese were setting up chairs and removing debris. When the uniformed American entered their midst, they stopped and turned.
Try to feel the drama of this moment. On one hand stands a cluster of Japanese believers. Their city destroyed. Their bodies exposed to nuclear fall-out. Their loved ones burned and or buried by the Americans.
They hear........