Welcome! We at the Joshua Casteel Foundation want to welcome you to the ‘official’ launch of the website. We hope you’ll take the time to explore the site, which we hope will be an interesting, thought provoking, and inspiring journey. We also hope to provide enough interesting content to keep you coming back for more!

• NEW CONTENT: While we know that we are in the beginning stages of creating and maintaining our site, as time goes on we will be systematically adding new content which we hope may inspire, inform, or challenge you to contemplate ideas that might be new to you or that you might look at in a new way.
• FOUNDATION UPDATES: We will also keep you up to date with what is happening within the foundation and without, sharing the work of other organizations that are also working at building bridges towards a more peaceful and just world.
• SHARE WITH US: We also hope that you will interact with us by sharing your thoughts and/or talents. We would love to highlight written work (articles, essays, talks etc.), projects that support justice and peace initiatives which we can pass on to our followers, original music and art as a way to communicate your personal message (how we can nurture understanding and mutual respect between people, the impact of violence and war, love in action etc.) or any creative form of expression revealing your passion to be a part of making our world a less violent and more just and harmonious place to live.

Website: Featured Content and Events 

As you can see by the way we have formatted the site we will feature an article, a book, and an artistic project or endeavor that deals with these values at regular intervals (monthly/bi-monthly) as well as keep you informed of upcoming seminars, retreats, book events, and projects as they come up, either through our organization or other like minded organizations in various locations across the country. You can find that under our Events tab. 

Partner with Us

In addition we will keep you informed on what is happening at the Joshua Casteel House in Alliance, Ohio, how to become a Family Member Donor of that ministry in particular or of the Foundation in general, and the progress and needs that you can become a participant in with us.

If you would like to communicate with us beyond the ‘reply’ sections please feel free to e-mail us at: joshuacasteelfoundation @gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you. It is at this e-mail address as well that you can send us original writing and artistic projects, information you think might be interesting and helpful to us, or to simply say “Hi”!

Again, we welcome you to our new site and we hope it will become a vehicle of communication with all of you who also have a desire to do more than bemoan the sad and oftentimes frightening condition of the world we live in by ‘doing something’ about it, whether it be small or grand. It only takes a spark to build a fire and we are trusting that, like Joshua, by simply doing what you can with the gifts that you’ve been given, together we can make a real difference in the world.

Returns is expected to open in October of 2018 in the UK. When the exact date and location has been decided upon we will post the update. There are plans in the making to potentially perform at venues in the North of England, Denmark, and finally bring it to the U.S. Below is a more detailed description of both the play and the composer, James Cave.

James Cave is a composer and singer with a particular interest in collaborative practice. During his residency at the Mahler & LeWitt Studios he will be working on a new composition titled Returns, an opera in one act which is based on the play by Joshua Casteel.

Returns, directed by the Mahler & LeWitt Studios Artistic Advisor David Gothard, is based on Casteel’s own experience of post-traumatic stress and revolves around the struggle of James (baritone) to organise his memories into a coherent narrative. The other characters in the opera each represent aspects of James’ fragmented consciousness. In a 20-minute extract from Returns, premiered at Rough for Opera 13 (York, UK), Cave combined Indian tala rhythms with a taut operatic language to dramatise the narrative.

Cave was recently the recipient of a Terry Holmes Award and a Sir Jack Lyons Celebration Award for Composition. In 2015 he was Composer-in-Residence at the Banff Centre (Banff, Canada) and participated in the inaugural World Music Residency in Eastern Traditions. He is a permanent member of York Minster Choir and a member of the Gavin Bryars Ensemble with whom he has performed internationally. Most recently he performed Beckett’s Songbook with the ensemble at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, as part of Sean Doran and Adrian Dunbar’s ‘Happy Days Festival’.

Recent compositions include Latrabjarg, commissioned by the York Spring Festival of New Music, in which Cave worked with an electric cellist and soundscape artist to weave together saga texts, bird-calls and folksong to evoke the disintegration of Iceland’s ecosystem. Fothcoming works include Eonsounds, a collaborative project exploring the links between music and geology, with geologist Dr Tim Ivanic and spatial sound-researcher Dr Jude Bremerton.

Joshua Casteel is one of the most remarkable people I’ve known: writer, playwright, public speaker, an Army veteran and former West Point cadet who became a foe of war and a model Christian. He died five years ago, age 32, of cancer that was probably caused by breathing toxic smoke burned at his base in Iraq.

His one book, Letters from Abu Ghraib, has just been issued in a revised edition. It’s a collection of intimate letters sent by Joshua to friends and family in 2004-5 during his service as a US Army interrogator and Arabic linguist in the 202nd Military Intelligence Battalion stationed at the notorious Abu Ghraid Prison in Iraq.

A few weeks ago, at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, I took part in a celebration of new, revised edition.

I think Letters from Abu Ghraib will come to be recognized as a classic of anti-war literature widely used in classes and discussion groups.

The letters reveal how, as a consequence of interrogating imprisoned Iraqis, Joshua undergoes a conversion to a deeper Christianity that brings with it the conviction “’that service in my current way is absolutely wrong, and totally outside the bounds of the witness of the New Testament. If people do not understand this uncompromising allegiance, and think me a deserter, so be it. … I will take deadly serious Christ’s call to Peter that he drop his nets and follow. I cannot continue as an American war fighter.”

In 2005 Joshua obtained an early discharge as a conscientious objector.

There are various YouTube videos of Joshua. In this one Joshua explains events that led him to conscientious objection:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIkW0cCS6lI

Jim Forest

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“What Joshua Casteel interrogates in Letters from Abu Ghraib is the very idea of liberty. For every enduring work of literature is an epistle from the prison of silence to the possibility of freedom.” —from the foreword by Christopher Merrill

“An astounding insider’s look at the war in Iraq. Joshua Casteel is an astute observer, a superb writer and a man of deeply held moral and religious conviction. Letters from Abu Ghraib gives us entry into his personal journey from dedicated soldier and interrogator to determined conscientious objector.” — Emily Mann, McCarter Theatre Artistic Director and Resident Playwright

“Letters from Abu Ghraib shows us that good and evil are not absolutes, but rather points along the spectrum of decisions that we, as individuals and participants in institutions, all must face.” — Kelly Dougherty, Executive Director of Iraq Veterans Against the War

Available from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/097911893X/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

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new book:

At Play in the Lions’ Den: a biography and memoir of Daniel Berrigan

http://jimandnancyforest.com/2017/06/daniel-berrigan-bio/

winner of the International Thomas Merton Society’s “Louie” award:

The Root of War is Fear: Thomas Merton’s Advice to Peacemakers  

http://jimandnancyforest.com/2016/06/root-of-war-is-fear/

books in print: http://jimandnancyforest.com/books/

web site: https://www.jimandnancyforest.com

photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/albums/

Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/jimforest

Like the rest of humanity he was fallible and because of his notoriety his faults found their way into public awareness alongside his great contribution to society. But his true humanity was shown in what he chose to give his life to and ultimately sacrifice it for. He was and is a living example of one who “laid down his life for his friend(s)”, because he believed that there is no greater force on earth than love. It is difficult to find many Americans who would not agree that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. changed America in significant and lasting ways and in doing so brought change to our world. But I am quite sure that even he would say there was much more change that needed to happen and which he had hoped to see take place in his lifetime.

If asked what Dr. King’s greatest contribution was, I assume most would cite his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement and possibly comment on how far we have come as a nation in our attitudes towards racial injustice, from changing the very fabric of life and opportunities for those of color all the way to electing the first African American president. But ask these same people what ideologies formed Martin Luther King’s views and guided his passions towards bringing about these changes, and I have a feeling that most would or could not speak about much beyond his well known contribution to the racial divide.

This is not so unusual as it was his greatest achievement and what those of us who lived through those years of watching the protests on TV have etched in our minds. Being a teenager at the time and distracted by much more ‘important issues’ such as boyfriends and the latest trends, it was the dramatic TV images of marches, violence on college campuses, and his “I Have a Dream” speech that initially informed my knowledge of who Dr. King was and what he stood for. Of course my understanding of his contribution to society expanded ‘somewhat’ as I grew into adulthood, but it was not until many years later after raising a son who would eventually challenge my thinking in ways I had never considered, that I would finally answer the above question for myself. What exactly did this most influential man believe beyond civil rights and what were the foundational beliefs that informed his philosophy of equality which he preached so steadfastly to our then very broken society?

For me, coming to know Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. better and understanding what ideals cultivated his life-giving crusade for justice took experiencing some injustice in my own life. It started with seeing my son off to Army basic training the summer after his Jr. year in high school in preparation for West Point Military Academy and watching him come home with a level of disillusionment and newly formed questions, to achieving that five year dream of becoming a cadet only to see him decide to leave the esteemed institution with even more disillusionment, to watching him from afar go through the greatest emotional and spiritual struggle of his life while serving in Iraq as an interrogator, which finally ended in a decision to become a conscientious objector. He then spent the next seven years of his life as a writer and playwright speaking out against violence, war, and injustice and instead for love, peace, and justice.   Unfortunately, as was true with Dr. King, he also ended up facing an enemy that took his life while in the midst of what became his greatest mission in life. His death was the result of the same evil that took Dr. King’s life…innate and learned hatred and prejudice resulting in violence, more specifically defined as war.   For my son it meant experiencing war and the horror of its consequences. He died of cancer from exposure to toxic substances from burn pits carelessly permitted by our military institution for use throughout Iraq and Afghanistan (illegal in the US for obvious reasons) rather than from a gun, as was the case for Dr. King. But both fatalities emerged from environments of violence, hatred (revenge), and betrayal, the very things that both men spoke out against.

I couldn’t help seeing the resemblance between their lives and deaths one lonely night a few years ago after my son’s passing as I read through tears an article about Dr. King and what he believed, how he went about the mission God had carved out for him, and how his life and message was also cut off so senselessly because of hatred and the lack of value for human life. It became painfully clear as I read that article that there was little difference between the deaths of Dr. King and my son. The choice to choose a path of hatred and revenge, caring little about the consequences for a nation in turmoil or the thousands of innocent people who would become casualties of that revenge, was cut from the same cloth.

However, the words I read from Dr. King that night, while adding more pain to my already broken heart, surprisingly also brought me a sense of hope and inspiration. I realized the words of this strong and committed man of faith, so influential in his own broken humanity, were the same words my son had written and spoken about so often throughout the US and abroad. Their message was the same, and even though God had given Dr. King a bigger stage, they were fighting the same battle with the same armor by loving their neighbors and their enemies and attempting to “overcome evil with good” while encouraging others to do the same. They both believed that love was stronger than hate and that non-violent resistance alongside attempts at reconciliation grounded in love and respect, even and especially for our enemies, was the only way to achieve a harmony that had the potential of leading to lasting peace and justice. I felt grateful and honored on that night to see, even if only in my mind, my son standing beside Dr. King sharing the same vision.

Fast forward from that night to last month and the Sunday night prior to Dr. King’s celebratory day. I had come home from church where we were encouraged to think and pray about the peace and unity that Dr. King worked so hard to achieve. That stimulated my thinking again about Dr. King’s message so I determined to do a bit more of research. I found myself learning even more about Dr. King as I read excerpts from his many speeches, taken from the Liberation Curriculum offered through Stanford University. What I read I revealed his foundational ideology on creating a world of harmony, peace, and justice.   The expressed beliefs went beyond racial injustice to injustice of any kind and prejudice of any sort, to the anger and hatred that can pervade a society. It included many of his clearly stated beliefs on war and non-violence.

Dr. King spoke out boldly against war and violence on a global level towards our fellow man as a way to deal with the problems we face or to solve the differences between us. The more I read the more I realized that looking at all of who Martin Luther King was, listening to all that he had to say is rarely done on a local or national level. How often do we talk about these admonitions from Dr. King? When we talk about him or teach our children about his legacy we focus almost exclusively on the Civil Rights Movement and the evil that stems from racial injustice or maybe more recently religious and cultural persecution. While keeping his message alive is necessary and so very important, focusing only on part of his beliefs and work, I believe, is hindering us from letting his message continue to enrich and inform us as a society, expanding our imaginations and allowing us to dream of the world he so boldly and passionately spoke of. Is it not a detriment to our nation and do we not do him a great disservice in telling only part of his story, keeping only part of who he was and part of what he taught at the forefront of our minds and in our memorialized celebrations?

As I reflected on this phenomenon of why it is we choose to focus on his words and actions relating mainly to racial issues at the expense of talking about his views on violence and war, I pondered this question, “Do we do this because his belief in total non-violence is the square peg unable to fit in the round hole of our current nationalistic and militaristic culture?” What would the consequences be for talking about the ‘complete’ ideology that informed Dr. King’s position on racial equality if in fact it spoke out against violence and war and the dangers surrounding our ever- growing militaristic mindset? How would our nationalistic society, which has been so influenced by our now dominant militaristic identity with all of its patriotic rhetoric respond? Would there be uncomfortable silence, cries of outrage, or simply attempts to downplay or reinterpret his very foundational beliefs? Would he be looked on as unpatriotic, too simplistic, or as a religious fanatic as others who do speak out oftentimes are? Or would there simply be an attempt to deny or ignore that very real aspect of his ideology? Are his strong words exhorting and supporting peaceful reconciliation vs. military might no longer compatible with a society literally built around nationalistic pride and heroic adulation offered to our men and women in uniform as we attempt to convince them as well as ourselves that every time they are deployed it is to uphold and preserve our freedom, regardless of the political and social issues that oftentimes muddy the waters for those who look to justify the particular ‘necessary or just violence’? Dr. King clearly stated many times over that there is no such thing as necessary or just violence, only love, if our goal is to create a peaceful and just world. In his lifetime and even more so now, he along with others who continue to speak out against violence, especially as it relates to war, are clearly swimming upstream culturally.

Are we not only fooling ourselves if we talk about wanting peace while enacting or condoning violence? It appears as if we are speaking out of both sides of our mouths? Should we not rather speak with one voice? “Violence towards our fellow man in any form only breeds more violence. Love, on the other hand, never fails but rather heals, restores, and redeems.” If we believe we are to love our neighbors and enemies at home then we must commit ourselves to loving them from afar. If we strive for peace in our homes and our communities because it is the right thing to do then we must hold to the same truths as it relates to mankind as one family under God as well, even at the cost of our own reputation, possessions, and safety, as Dr. King so clearly lived out.

If every man has value and worth, who are we to draw the line in the sand before God and try to ‘justify’ our choices of violence towards our brothers and call it duty and honor or just? We must challenge our own rhetoric which frames our nationalistic pride and ideology of strength and power, so long in the making and consequently so difficult to tear down. But it is only the dismantling of our self made solutions that will allow us to become a true leader of nations through the acquisition of the values that are capable of offering lasting peace; the courage to be humble, the strength to offer compassion, and the power to show love. Despite the greater challenge and varied complications that exist on the grander scale of worldwide relations are we not still called to the same values and accountability when faced with the questions of life and death?

As Americans we have in fact, at the very heart of our Constitution the truths that uphold and strengthen the reasoning to follow such a course, that “all men are created equal with unalienable rights and that we are one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.” It is our Constitution, yes, but proclaiming universal principles and values that should apply to all men equally. Perhaps we need to remind ourselves that we have in our own national DNA what it takes to live in this world peaceably. We need only to reevaluate and reconsider the truth and meaning of those words if we desire to live them out with true integrity. Dr. King did just that. So let us ask ourselves, “What is the cost to us as a nation and to our world if we continue to remain silent on the whole of Dr. King’s beliefs and teachings which he held to so firmly and which I am quite sure he would say did not originate with himself but with God, and which he so valiantly reminded us that he was the recipient of as an American under the Constitution himself?” In any case we are missing out on the core of who Dr. King was and what he actually had and still has to offer us. Wisdom grounded in faith and the essential values that have the power to bring great change to the world are still at our disposal if we will but acknowledge and emphasize his whole message, allowing him to continue to instruct us.

It seems clearer than ever today, with the chaos and despair that exists in our communities and around the world, that what we’ve been doing (in fighting our wars) for centuries still isn’t working. As history revealed to Dr. King and is showing us now, if we are willing to stop the speeding train that we are on long enough to reflect on who we want to be as human beings in this world and as a nation, rather than on how we can maintain our status and safety in an attempt to protect our own interests, we may begin to see the changes Dr. King spoke of. We cannot pray and call for peace and justice if we are not willing to make the changes it will require. And there is no doubt that love and humility vs. the grasping for power and safety demands great sacrifice and suffering. But then doesn’t war and violence exact those same consequences and more? Is it not better to sacrifice and suffer for what is good and right stemming from love rather than from what is wrong, the hatred that results from naming our enemies and resorting to violence towards them and the many innocent people caught in the crossfire? Because we are a democracy (which at its core is good and right in so many important ways) it doesn’t automatically assume that our motives and intentions are always pure and altruistic any more than our religious upbringings make us perfect. It takes knowledge and reflection, honesty and humility, fervent action, and willingness to learn from our mistakes to experience true change and the growth that leads towards a more loving and compassionate version of ourselves, singularly and communally. But that is a choice only we can make and to do so requires great courage.

My guess is that today most people would say that they feel anything but safe and protected in our current world where gun violence, drugs, ongoing racism, and global terrorism are all very present realities. And yet these two reasons, protection and safety are among the most common justifications given for our decision to enter into war. Protection and safety are mere illusions when it comes to the reality of war. Those who have experienced the trauma, be it the soldiers who fight them, their familieis, or the innocent civilians who endure and suffer through them can attest to that reality as well as our society as a whole. We are all impacted in one way or another because of violence of any kind anywhere. Violence begets violence and there is no one that escapes that reality.

Dr. King spoke to this tragedy in clear and concise words. But somehow as a people we continue to look through a tarnished lens in the face of peril and come away grasping at the most natural and obvious choice towards military power and might, maybe because they are concrete and we can touch and feel weapons, aircraft, and, fellow soldiers at our backs. We believe we can trust in all of the training our soldiers receive, specific orders, and strategic plans for strikes and sweeps with weapons in our hands, above our heads, and on the ground. It all feels like something we can ‘do’ in the moment. Everything else seems impractical, impotent, and unable to give us a feeling of strength and power. And tragically, at this point, the question of violence and killing other human beings does not seem to be the deciding factor in determining the prospect of war. Rather it has become a question of when, how, and where? And it seems we have been conditioned to always understand it to be for the purpose of ‘securing our freedoms’, a virtue that is held as one of if not the highest virtue for any man or woman in our patriotic culture. Dr. King pleaded with us to trust in the virtues that promise a different kind of freedom, freedom to love our fellow man and commit ourselves to finding new and better ways to living under the same sky.

Maybe it’s time to honor Dr. King in the way he deserves, by taking the time to look much closer at all that he believed and had to say and let his prophetic words continue to teach us. Below is a link to read for yourself more of what this great man in history had to say about the bigger picture, the relationship between mankind as a whole.   And to the extent that we read and genuinely contemplate his words, so relevant then and now, we just may find ourselves more open to consider a new way of looking at the world and a truth that has the power to change not only our minds and hearts but can “set us (all) free” to love and live in the harmony that even Dr. King himself said, “could become much more than a dream. It could become a reality”.

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/liberation-curriculum/classroom-resources/king-quotes-war-and-peace

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Click here to learn more.

Artem Yatsunov is a Ukrainian-born, Jersey-raised, Brooklyn-based theatre director, storyteller and educator. He has been developing new work  and creating theatrical experiences around the country for over 10 years, bringing live shows to both theatre fans and people who “mistakenly think they don’t like plays.” Artem’s work has recently been presented by The PUBLIC Theater’s 2018 Under The Radar Festival, The Performing Garage, and The Oye Group.

www.artemyatsunov.com

Artem on connecting/reconnecting with Joshua Casteel

“I had the luck and the pleasure to meet Joshua Casteel during the early developments of his play Returns between ‘06-’08. Serving as Assistant Director for David Gothard, Returns was presented by The McCarter Theater at Princeton University in NJ and then we were invited to perform at the Martin E. Segal Center in NY. Joshua’s personality, words and commitment to spreading humanity and to uplifting the dignity of every human being deeply touched me and remains a vital source of inspiration for me to this day.

For this new project Returns: Letters From Abu Ghraib, I will be bringing Joshua’s letters and correspondences from Abu Ghraib, taken from his book Letter From Abu Ghraib, to theatrical life alongside his short play Returns. Returns is visceral, brutal, honest and woe-fully tragic; it offers a glimpse as veterans as wholesome human beings – fraught and fragile, resilient and relentless. The letters are at once timeless and forever crystallized in the amber of modern American history. Anyone witnessing the letters cannot help but be thrown back to the early 2000’s in the USA when morality, faith, and patriotism were so candidly tested in the post-9/11 call to arms for a ‘just’ “war on terror”. Letters give us a non-fiction insight into the mind and heart of Joshua as a soldier on the front lines, experiencing and witnessing the daily ravages of violence as well as witnessing and absorbing the testimonies of Iraqi people living under the constant threat of total annihilation. The Letters give a chronology of Joshua’s struggle to reconcile his faith with his duties as interrogator and offer a window into what inspired the short-play Returns. The play itself dramatizes the trauma experienced by Joshua and his fellow soldiers while in Iraq and the difficulty reintegrating back into civilian life and their American culture.

Eloquent, poetic, captured with uncanny clarity and empathy, Joshua’s Letters of his time as Interrogator juxtaposed with his fictionalized account of the after-math – of ‘what’ or ‘who’ Returns from the war – will be a new theater production that is equal parts biographical and fantastical, both the truth and that which is stranger-then-fiction. Returns: Letters From Abu Ghraib is a new work of documentary theater exposing the humanity and the calamity of fighting a ‘just’ war and the human toll on both combatant and the targeted, on foreign soil and back home. Along with Kristi Casteel and the Joshua Casteel Foundation, we are building the production to serve as a conversation starter on healing and reconciliation, with the goal to tour across the theater and universities and to engage with veteran, faith and immigrant communities here in the states and abroad.

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The day started off pretty normal, wake up and go through the morning rituals of getting ready, feeding Angel, and sitting down to read a bit, what I call my time of reflection and conversation with God. What I am reading at present is a short book entitled, “have a little faith” by Mitch Albom. ( the acclaimed author of Tuesdays with Morrie”) which I received from Mark’s mom for Christmas.

This book is a result of conversations between Albom and his childhood Rabbi, Albert Lewis, whom he and his friends referred to as ‘Reb’ as teenagers, seeing him as some sort of super hero in long flowing attire or suits and ties. It was only after Mitch had grown up quite active in the church but then left it ‘mostly’ behind to pursue bigger and better things that Rabbi Lewis at the age of eighty two asked Mitch if he would give his eulogy when he died. After the shock had worn off with some reservations Mitch agreed, but only on the condition that he could spend some time talking with him to get to know him on a more ‘personal’ basis. He knew he needed to get beyond his boyhood spiritual super hero image. Of course the Reb agreed. And hence the eulogy and the book came into being.

The chapter that was on the docket for today began with a quote by Gandhi. The conversation that was sparked between Mitch and the Reb was an open newspaper on Rabbi Lewis’ desk centering around nothing other than the Iraq War. ( He had my full attention to say the least) Questions about that war and then war in general went back and forth until Mitch asked, “Why ‘does’ man kill man?’ Not given to easy or trite answers, the Reb pushed his chair back towards his wall of books and pulled out an old and tattered children’s schoolbook written in Arabic nearly forty years ago. He handed it to Mitch and said, “Look through it.” When Mitch asked him why he had kept it so long he answered, “Because I want to remember what happened in that town during the war of 1967 in those old abandoned buildings and in that home (in Northern Israel, where he had found it). The people were gone so I felt I had to save something

Knowing that Rabbi Lewis had lived through many wars from WWI to the present and that he taught love, forgiveness, and non-violence, Mitch asked him if his views towards war had changed over the years. The Reb answered “No”. This was in light of the fact that he had many congregants that were veterans and even Holocaust survivors, some with numbers still tattooed on their wrists.

“But so many people wage wars in God’s name, Mitch said.

“Mitch”,the Reb replied, “God doesn’t want such killing to go on.”

“Then why hasn’t it stopped?”

“Because man does.”

In his commentary Mitch went on to say, “He was right, of course. You can sense man’s drumbeat to war. Vengeance rises. Tolerance is mocked. Over the years, I was taught why our side was right. And in another country someone my age was taught the opposite.”

(At this point I could hear Joshua’s own voice. I had heard him say almost the very same words that Mitch and the Reb uttered many times. In fact you can read almost those exact words in his book, Letters from Abu Ghraib)

The Reb then went on to say to Mitch, “There’s a reason I gave that old schoolbook to you. Open it.”

Tucked inside the book were three pictures, one of an older dark-haired woman, Arabic and matronly looking, one of a man in a suit and tie, and the last of two children side by side, presumably brother and sister.

The Reb told Mitch that over the years he kept seeing the children, their mother and had even hoped that someday someone would recognize them from the pictures as still being alive, that it was his way of keeping them alive. After some thought and silence Mitch asked one last question.

“But wait, I don’t understand. Religiously these people were your enemy.”

The Reb’s voice grew angry and he retorted, “Enemy, schmenemy,”. This was a family!”

Can it be said any more simply or clearly what it takes for man to “see”… to have good reason to choose not to kill each other?

I didn’t do a lot of reflecting today, mostly reminiscing. I closed the book feeling like I’d just had a conversation with Joshua.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSHUA!

The University of Chicago, Joshua’s alma mater for graduate studies , was the site for the first book event promoting Letters from Abu Ghraib, the 2nd edition, which was recently published by Wipf and Stock Publishing House.  The event was moderated by Joseph Clair, professor and Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Director of the William Penn Honors Program at George Fox University as well as a board member for the Joshua Casteel Foundation.  Dean Laurie Zoloth welcomed those in attendance and Jeff Stackert offered opening remarks.

Jim Forest, noted international author and lay theologian was the main speaker.  He brought an inspirational and personal reflection on his encounters with Joshua and talked about the importance of seeing peacemaking through the lens of our everyday living using the gifts and abilities we’ve been given, but always in the context of love.  It was a rare gift and a pleasure to have had him with us.

Joseph along with Elizabeth Moriarty, who works as the Cardinal’s Director of Leadership Gifts for the archdiocese of Chicago read portions from Joshua’s book and offered personal insights.  To culminate the event Kristi Casteel made a few comments which included informing the audience about the artistic portrait of Joshua that was displayed at the event.  It was created by Michael Applegate, an artist and art therapist and counselor, veteran, and recent graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago.  The piece had just come from the National Veterans Museum exhibition.  Michael has gifted it to the JC Foundation which we greatly appreciate.  (you can see it on our new website soon to be launched where it will be featured)  Finally Kristi joined Jim, Joseph, and Elizabeth as a panel to field comments and questions from those in attendance.  In all it was an intimate and personal time of reflection offering a reminder to all in attendance of not only the impassioned life and journey of the author, Joshua Casteel, but of the ongoing impact of all that he left behind.

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The Joshua Casteel House

The Joshua Casteel House (Catholic Worker) in Alliance, Ohio was the site of the second book event held on October 28th promoting Joshua’s book, letters from Abu Ghraib.  The event was moderated by Joe Torma, Professor of Theology at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio and one of a group of committed Catholic citizens of the Alliance area to help run the  JC House.  The house is run in a very organic sense, like a family, serving and welcoming all those who desire fellowship, food, assistance, and love with everyone taking part and helping in the ways that they can.

Kristi Casteel gave opening remarks to those in attendance, telling Joshua’s story for those who may not have been familiar with it.  Daniel Schmidt, one of the volunteers with the house, offered his thoughts and insights based on his reading of the book as well as what he has gleaned of Joshua’s life from online sources and those who had met him.  His words seemed to come from true reflection of not only Joshua’s life but out of his own which made them very inspirational to all of us.

Bishop John Michael Botean, founder of the JC House, then read from Joshua’s book and gave a very personal reflections from his brief but impactful meetings with Joshua while he was alive and active in the peacemaking community.  His was a special reflection, as it came from the one who chose to honor Joshua by putting his name on a ministry founded in love for others.  Joe Torma then ended with a brief comment and a few words from ‘A Mother’s Tribute’ written by Kristi which was added to the 2nd edition book.  The food and fellowship following was more than heartwarming as people told stories of how their lives have been impacted by the book and by the ministry of love that is the Joshua Casteel House.  We were even treated to an amazing juggling act as one of the regular attenders juggled up to eight balls at a time!!  He uses his gift to teach children in schools and recreational programs.  I definitely came home feeling as though I had been fortunate enough to take part in a loving and caring family.

While there I was interviewed by the Canton Repository Newspaper .  You will find that article below:

Open Canton Repository Article

While believing that our calling as followers of Jesus Christ is to do what He said, “Do not return evil for evil but overcome evil with good” (one of many teachings on non-violence) we believe just as strongly that we are to follow all of Jesus’ teachings which includes making love the core and the cornerstone of all that we do and say. So it is with genuine compassion and gratitude that we honor the good intentions and the courage necessary to act on the those intentions and the courage every soldier in battle has to call upon. Each person is responsible before God to act according to his or her own conscience and it is not our place to judge those who believe differently from us but rather to live according to our own.

We also believe that it is a blessing that our government offers the option of conscientious objection to soldiers. And we are grateful that after years of struggling with the moral and spiritual issues surrounding the issue of war and violence as it relates to followers of Jesus Christ, when that time of crystallization of conscience came for Joshua during his tour of duty at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq while working as an interrogator, he was offered the opportunity to present his position upon returning home in the CO application process. His commander, who confessed that he had never believed there to be any good reason for becoming a conscientious objector, until he met Joshua, knew of his emotional and spiritual struggle while in Iraq. He not only commended him for the way in which he handled himself as an interrogator while at Abu Ghraib in the midst of his very real ethical and moral struggles, but also for then taking a stand that upheld his genuine beliefs. His words of encouragement were a real gift to Joshua.

Joshua’s journey to look at these issues differently than he ever had before, growing up in our Protestant Evangelical Christian home, sparked my own journey towards change. It is true that we came to believe that violence is not only incapable of bringing about peace, but instead incites more violence actually causing the cycle of vengeance to increase and continue. And it is also true that Joshua saw first hand the devastating toll that war takes on everyone involved, the soldiers as well as so many innocent citizens, communities, and as was true of Iraq, the entire country. The Iraq War was not unlike other wars that have been fought throughout history. They are a kind of ‘hell on earth’ to everyone directly involved. One walks away asking, “was the cost of all the lives taken and devastated for generations to come worth whatever it was we were told we were fighting for or against”?

Maybe there is something deeper that we as people need to examine within ourselves to answer this question. Maybe we need to look behind the research carried out by the military after WWII that revealed that only 20% of soldiers actually fired their guns at the enemy. They either pointed them away or didn’t pull the trigger because of a personal aversion to killing. Hence, the military instituted what is now called ‘reflexive training’ to get soldiers to act reflexively, bypassing their minds and conscience. It was an efficient choice, but was it a good one, a healthy one for all those whose lives are changed forever because of the results of such training if put on a battlefield?

Could it be that we were not created to kill and it is our human weaknesses lived out that blinds us to who we were meant to be and how we were designed to live with one another? Or is there a better way to settle our disputes and deal with our differences, an answer which continues to evade us? We talk about wanting ‘peace on earth’ but doesn’t the history of war itself tell us that war and killing has done nothing to stop the cycle of vengeance that has simply taken different forms down through the centuries?

There are many sophisticated and complex theories out there that try to explain the dilemma of why man continues to fight wars at home and abroad, in our homes, and in our streets. But I want to speak about these things in a simpler more understandable way from not only a mother’s point of view but from the viewpoint of one who has looked deeply into the lives of others through intimate conversations as a counselor and a helper, one who has had the privilege to view the needs, desires, hurts, and struggles of the human heart.

If we’re honest with ourselves and allow a deeper examination of our own heart’s desire for love and understanding to surface, it isn’t quite as hard to acknowledge that as human beings we’re not that different from each other at the core. We all need and desire love and affirmation. We need to believe that we matter, that our lives have value. Even those who have been taught unhealthy, destructive, and even evil ways to define and achieve that sense of value are seeking the same affirmation and significance. Why? Because they are human beings with a body, soul, and spirit created to receive and give love. But more times than not hurt, anger, bitterness, and fear of vulnerability keeps us from seeing the common thread that binds us all together, the reality of being human and flawed. So we flee (in any number of ways) or we fight. Each of these responses separates us from each other, but violence, in particular destroys our desire to see the common bond. So we point fingers and throw blame on the ‘other’ causing hearts to harden, which makes greater violence more probable and easier each time it is perpetrated. What we don’t allow ourselves to ‘feel’ negates our conscience and the purpose it was designed to play in our lives. The desire to seek or offer forgiveness or believe that redemption is even possible where wrong has been done or evil is present is no longer seen as an option. So we feel justified in resorting to violence, whether it be on a small scale in the form of insult or revenge or on a large scale in the form of war to try to eradicate evil and wrongdoing.

Joshua wrote in his book, Letters from Abu Ghraib, “Evil cannot be destroyed, it can only be redeemed.” When we objectify evil as being incarnate in the ‘form’ of humanity, we tell ourselves that destruction of the people/groups/society etc. will rid the world of certain evils. This ideology is the foundational thinking behind war, violence, and in particular the terrorism we see today carried out by radicals.   But it is evil ‘within’ a person that produces evil actions and evil within always has the ‘potential’ of redemption.   That was at the heart of Jesus’ message and reason for coming to earth, to offer us the possibility of redemption.

But I realize that not everyone accepts the teachings of Christ or believe in a God at all. They look at life through a very different lens. For those who do, however, it seems to me that we have but one choice, to hold on to not only the truth and promise of redemption but also to the rest of Jesus’ teachings, which is summed up in that one and only life changing word, ‘Love’.

Our only hope for moving towards something different from what we’ve seen throughout mankind’s history of division, violence, and wars is to simply do what Jesus says, find ways to show love where there is hate, offer acceptance where there is prejudice, and give hope where there is despair in our sphere of influence, where we live and work. Another quote from Joshua’s book, Letters from Abu Ghraib, I believe is a question worth pondering.

“What would it look like if the same determination to defeat the enemy was used to redeem the enemy?”

Imagine, if you can, what the world would look like if every person who professes to believe in a loving God in our world took that question to heart and determined to live it out.

Joshua believed he was far from having all the answers to our world’s complex problems, as do I, but even in his last days on this earth, suffering from extreme pain from a cancer caused by just one of the many tragic and unethical inequities of war, the burn pits used by our own military to dispose of waste, (*see the book, ‘The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers’ by Joseph Hickman) he refused to succumb to anger and bitterness. Instead his focus was on requesting that we help eradicate the use of the burn pits in an effort to prohibit the poisoning of other soldiers, as well as helping the Iraqi people who suffered and whom he knew would continue to suffer for generations to come because of the war. Joshua chose love over hate, acceptance over prejudice, and hope over despair, a legacy worth contemplating.

I am trying to do the same, but I have to admit that after losing both my husband and son in a very short period of time, and looking at the daunting task of carrying on the message of love and non-violence in a world that seems to be slipping into a black hole of violence, hatred, and despair, I’m quite sure I could have easily chosen the same, just in different form than some, had I not had the presence of Jesus Christ in my life. I can truly say with David from the Psalms;

“If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have dwelt in the place of silence.” (Psm.94:17)

But I will, by the grace of God, do my best to continue to speak out and carry on what I believe to be Jesus’ teachings which are revealed in part in what Joshua left behind. One of those things being his book, Letters from Abu Ghraib, revealing his struggle to come to that place in his heart and in his life where he would choose to follow his conscience before God, with the hope that it would inspire others to think deeply about their lives and how they wanted to live in this world.

In addition to his book he left behind a play entitled, ‘Returns’, showing the impact of PTSD and moral injury, which is still ravaging the lives of thousands of soldiers. Returns will continue to be produced as a play/workshop in the US and as an opera in Europe with the hope that it will help others to understand these difficult and painful issues, so they can better help those who come back from war. He left other writing, plays and speeches given here and abroad that we trust will continue on in the minds and hearts of those that were touched by them and beyond as we share them on the Joshua Casteel Foundation website. And yet, more important than all of the creative gifts he left behind is the legacy of love, acceptance, and hope, he lived out, gifts he was given by the One whom he loved and served.

So, I return to the question I asked at the beginning of this writing. How can I best honor those veterans who have given so much of their lives or those who gave it all? The only answer that makes any sense at all to me or gives me any hope for the future for them and the world we all live in is to commit myself to furthering the message that radiated from Joshua’s life in a world that is still struggling to find peace, within themselves and with each other. And I will try to live that message out in the ways God calls me to until the day comes when Jesus will cause all wars to cease and will Himself reign as the Prince of Peace. That is our promise and our hope!

Kristi Casteel

Joshua Casteel Foundation

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The first event to be held at the University of Chicago: Divinity School Commons Room

October 25, 2017 4:30pm

Main event speaker: jim forest from alkmaar, Holland, noted author, theologian, and peace activist

Also featured will be a panel reading selections from joshua’s book offering comments and fielding questions and dialogue.

Kristi casteel, mother of joshua, will offer brief comments

Refreshments and a time of socializing following the event

Book table including ‘Letters From Abu Ghraib’ as well as jim forest’s newest release ‘At Play In The Lion’s Den”

Come join us for an interesting and inspiring evening

Sponsored by: the joshua casteel foundation

A second event will be held at the Joshua Casteel House (Catholic Worker) in Alliance, Ohio on October 28, 2018 2:00pm

The event will feature a panel reading selections from Joshua’s book, offering comments, and fielding questions and dialogue

Kristi Casteel, mother of Joshua will offer brief comments

Refreshments and a time of socializing following the event

Book table will include Joshua’s book ‘Letters From Abu Ghraib’, cd’s of his talk “All I Want Is You”, and his speech ‘A Soldier’s Magnificat.’

Come join us for an enjoyable and inspiring time

Sponsered by the Joshua Casteel Foundation

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Not unlike other years, this August and especially this week has been difficult.  Yes, it has been five years since Joshua passed away but time is pretty meaningless when we lose someone significant in our lives.  Hours at times feel like days, feels like months, feels like years and vice versa.

I’m sure you can all relate to some degree. But we’re still here and God continues to bless the foundation by furthering Joshua’s creative work and acts of mercy through The Joshua Casteel House.  His book, ‘Letters From Abu Ghraib’  Second Edition is out and we’re in the process of trying to promote it.  The first event will be at the Univ. of Chicago on October 25th with Jim Forest as main speaker.  How fortunate we were that he planned a trip to the States and was available and willing to speak at our event.  The second promotional event will be the weekend of Oct. 27th at the Joshua Casteel House in Alliance, Ohio.  I will fly to both events. Some of his other work is being organized to hopefully create a teaching manual of sorts to use on the college level and potentially High School or alongside his other productions. His play ‘Returns, The Opera’ has been completed and is in the final stages of production in the UK and is getting a very positive response from the artistic community.  We’re also discussing the possibility of taking the play Returns, as is, on tour again as well as working more closely with Catholic Peace Fellowship, a great organization that Joshua worked with as well.  And finally we should also have the official website up and running by late September.  Be sure to check it out still at joshuacasteel.com.

So all of this is definitely enough to keep me busy and at times overwhelmed.  But, knowing that I needed some additional encouragement , especially this week, I will share one other significant gift that God gave to me and ultimately I believe to the Foundation and all of you.  It is living proof of how God revealed a part of His plan for Joshua and now the JC Foundation right prior to his deployment to Iraq.  It shows us clearly that God’s hand has been directing and guiding Joshua from the beginning and still is.  This encouragement came by way of a letter from one of Joshua’s friends from a church he attended while in Monterrey, CA for language school while in the military.  The letter is quite self explanatory and I believe gives us reason to continue to work hard to carry on what God started through Joshua’s writing and life so we can experience together what He has planned, which I’m trusting will be far and beyond what we might think or expect.  While this letter sat in an e-mail account (which Rebekah set up for the foundation about a year ago) for nine months before either of us saw it, I have a feeling the timing was also exactly as it should be.  PLEASE READ IT!!  I think you’ll be blessed and encouraged, as were we.

Blessings on us all,

Kristi

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How can you help?

As you think of Joshua today I hope you will also consider ways that you can continue to help us “fight against evil and pray for healing.”  God knows it’s all around us throughout the world and we need healing like never before…at least in our lifetimes!  (I’ve listed a few practical ways you can become involved below just to give your mind a jumpstart)

* volunteer to host a short book promotional event for his recently published 2nd edition ‘Letters From Abu Ghraib’.  (You’ll receive a personal copy and helpful guidelines on how to organize a simple event)

* Spread the word about his book on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever your favorite mode of internet communication is.  We can forward you a picture of the book and brief description if you’d like.

* Pray for the success and expansion of ‘Returns, the Opera’ debuting in Yorkshire, England in Sept. 2018 and potentially in Northern England, Denmark, and eventually in the U.S.  Funding is a huge project for its expansion.  Initially we hope to break even as it is not at this point a ‘commercial’ project.  James Cave has done all the fundraising in England to produce the first production at the York Minster but we are hoping to help him in that effort in order to expand its audience and bring it to the U.S.  The hope is that it will eventually become self supporting but that is not the case yet.

* Volunteer to help the foundation in fundraising efforts for the book promotional events and for the Opera and Play.  We will also be looking for venues to take the original play Returns on the road. This will take some expertise in putting together an acting troupe that will be able to travel to different locations and is a big endeavor though not out of reach.  Pray for the right people and the funds to make it happen.  If you have any experience or knowledge in fundraising/grant writing etc. we would love to hear from you and use your expertise.

* In addition we are working to get our new website up and running in September which also requires a significant investment.

* Donate towards any or all of these projects as all of them require a significant investment to continue to get Joshua’s work and message out there.   (With every donation of $25 or more we’ll send you a copy of the new edition ‘Letters From Abu Ghraib)

LASTLY…

If anyone has good resource material for the website please consider sending it to us on an ongoing basis… writing of Joshua’s, photos of him with or without you,  recorded talks that he has given, e-mails or letters that reveal his heart and passions or any content that you believe may be of interest on the site.  This might include:   Resource material on the topics surrounding, non-violence, issues of justice and reconciliation, effects of war on individual soldiers, countries and society as a whole, Peacemaking efforts, etc.

Some of you ‘writer and/or professors friends’ of his we know have excellent thoughts on these subjects and we would love receive submissions from you.  This also goes for some of Joshua’s artistic friends.  We’ve received some art already and will attempt to use this on the site with your permission but we would like to see as much creativity as we can in getting out his message of love and mercy championing over violence and war.  And we would also love to receive music or beautiful photography from those of you whose gifts reside there.

As you all know Joshua was an artist at heart and loves all forms of expression to speak to the world and to simply bring joy!  So please, jump in and join us with the offering of your gifts.  Don’t be surprised if you feel a nudge from him.

We’ll look forward to hearing from many of you and sharing in this exciting journey that God has us all on, looking expectantly for Him to do above and beyond all that we can think or imagine in the years to come.

Surprisingly it was from a movie I thought I would most likely never watch and which understandably I haven’t been able to even think of watching during these last few years. The movie is entitled, Lone Survivor. I have some connection to it, however, as a friend read a review about it while visiting New York City, a few years after Joshua’s passing there, and relayed to me that the review said some things that reminded him of Joshua. And I have also come to know the author of the book, Demon Camp, about a soldier she met and wrote the book about who was supposed to be with the men sent to rescue soldiers on a mission in Afghanistan which is what the movie describes. That mission is the main plot of the movie. So there was some interest in watching it but I just didn’t think I would ever be able to. Then I saw that it was going to play on TV so I recorded it for some possible future viewing, thinking that it would most likely be far off in the future if at all. However, last night I felt a surprisingly strong desire to watch it as well as strong enough to do so. I jumped in, but holding my breath, ready to jump out immediately if I felt like I was going under. I was in for a surprise and a blessing.

What I found out is that the movie possessed a profound message that I believe did characterize Joshua’s life and beliefs, and what led him to live the life that he did. It is not about conscientious objection or a person who leaves the military to work towards peace and non-violence, as Joshua did. Quite the contrary. It is about a group of Navy Seals sent on a mission to ‘take out’ a leader in Al Queda in a region of Afghanistan. It’s a story of a mission gone wrong and an ambush which eventually took the lives of all but one man, Marcus Luttrell. (real name) Hence the title, Lone Survivor. But there is a reason that Luttrell survived several gunshot wounds, multiple injuries from jumping off of cliffs and rolling down rocky terrain, as well as near death from an Al Queda group in the midst of a small village in the mountains. And that is because of the care and protection of a ‘local’ man and his son, following the teaching of their religion which calls for its followers to protect at all costs a man from his enemies.

In the movie, when the soldiers were first found on the mountaintop overlooking the village by a small group of farmers including children, there was some discussion about what they should do with the group. It was Luttrell who, in opposition to others in his squad, stood up for humane treatment of the people, stating that it was not right to kill innocent unarmed civilians, needless to say, children in order to protect themselves from potential future harm, the possibility of one of them tipping off Al Queda of their whereabouts. The squad leader eventually agreed with Luttrell and let the men and children go. As feared, a young man in that group did tip off Al Queda leaders which caused the ambush. But miraculously Luttrell survived unbelievable odds until Mohammad Gulab (real name) and his son found him and took him to their village for safety. Mohammed and his people argued just as the Seals had up on the mountain whether it was too dangerous for them to keep him, as they too would become targets of Al Queda for helping the US. But like Luttrell, Mohammed also chose to protect this unknown wounded US soldier at great risk to himself and his family. Both men made humane choices and both would face consequences.

The two men seemed to be worlds apart in culture and religion, but turned out to be very similar when it came to matters of the heart. A message finally got through to the US base headquarters of their location and Luttrell was rescued by fellow US Seals. In the last scene Luttrell, being carried out by his fellow soldiers, turned and looked at Mohammed and his son and said “Thank You”. The son then ran up to him to embrace him and say good-bye. At the conclusion of the movie, displayed on the screen was a picture of a reunion of Marcus Luttrell and Mohammed Gulab in 2010.

The last scene of the two men looking at each other, everything stripped away between them but life itself, remains so vivid in my memory. And I can’t help but think that seeing another as part of our own humanity is what Marcus and Mohammed experienced because they both chose love and life over hate, self preservation, and death in those crucial moments in their lives. Their beliefs on killing and violence were circumstantially selective as the movie depicts, but the beauty of even their one choice was powerful and moving, showing two men who might have become enemies bonded for life by acts of love.

This over riding sense of humanity and the desire to choose love over hate is what I believe Joshua not only experienced in his interrogation booth in Iraq while talking with the young Jihadist, but finally saw as the heart and soul of the Christian message. When he saw himself in this young man, it was then that he realized that ‘enemy’ is a man-made label and it only has the power and meaning we give to it. How we define it is the difference between life and death and a more violent or a more peaceful world. When Jesus said to “love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us”, he did so knowing that man is not capable of doing so outside of the grace of God. He commanded us to do the impossible so it would draw us to Him in deeper and stronger ways causing us to become more like Him. It takes divine enlightenment and transformation to enable us to make the hard choices of love.

The movie was exceedingly inspiring and caused me to reflect on this truth and question:

Where would we be if God was like us?

“And while we were yet sinners (enemies of God) Christ died for us” (all of us)

Joshua looked beyond his reputation, acceptance, and even safety to follow Christ’s teachings, taking Him at his word to lay down the sword and choose to love becoming a peacemaker. Taking unpopular stands makes us vulnerable and open to the unknown as it did for Marcus Luttrell, Mohammed Gulab, and Joshua. And yet they all experienced a freedom that no one can ever take away…and that is the freedom to love…whether it ends up saving our life or costs us our life…But in the end we are assured that…

“Love never fails”

Love to you all,
Kristi