Logan M. Isaac (born Logan Laituri) is an American writer and conscientious objector. He is the author of Reborn on the Fourth of July: The Challenge of Faith, Patriotism & Conscience. The book opens with his deployment to Iraq in February 2004 and concludes with his return to the warzone in 2010 as part of a Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT).
Military service
Isaac was born in Orange County, California, to an agnostic father who was a veteran of the Vietnam War. He enlisted in the United States Army in 2000, aged eighteen. Initially, Isaac enlisted to travel and educate himself. However, in 2004, Isaac embarked on a fourteen-month tour of Iraq as an artillery forward observer. Isaac's battalion was a quick reaction force. Therefore, his battalion went where the army sent it, and it would usually spend no more than a few weeks at a time at each location. His role involved active patrol participation, calling in fire, planning missions, and driving a Humvee through villages. Despite this active role, he considered his combat experience relatively "mild." However, Issac later admitted to witnessing prisoner abuse, "I had watched friends taunt and assault detaineees for no reason."
Following the tour, the Army stationed Isaac in Hawaii. Here, he reflected on combat and decided to integrate Christianity into his profession. Consequentially, he realised that he no longer wanted to hold a weapon. His girlfriend's family's Christian practice and a New Testament history class at a local college augmented Isaac's Christian beliefs. He struggled to reconcile the army's need for armed combat with Jesus' command to love one's neighbour and enemies equally. One of Isaac's commanders tried to reassure Isaac that because he identified as a Christian, Jesus had already died for his sins. Therefore, he was forgiven preemptively for his actions in battle.
In the Spring of 2005, the US Army scheduled a return to Iraq for Issaac's battalion. He questioned his superiors about the intrinsic conflict between Christianity and military service. His superiors referenced just war theory as their rationale for violence, positing that doing nothing about his nation's enemies is morally objectionable.
Isaac decided he could return to Iraq without a weapon. He applied for conscientious objector (CO) status and faced the possibility of prison. However, the commanders stalled the CO application process, and Isaac was reassigned to a detachment that would not deploy overseas. Ultimately, he decided to opt out of the CO process and let his term of service expire. He became a private citizen at the end of 2006.
Books
In 2012, InterVarsity Press published Reborn on the Fourth of July: The Challenge of Faith, Patriotism & Conscience. The book documents his time as a soldier. His story depicts his struggle with his military identity, ultimately leading to his decision to become a conscientious objector and his ongoing journey to reconcile his military experiences with his faith. The book posits a divide between military supporters and between war-supporting evangelical Christians and pacifists and calls for increased understanding and respect between the differing factions. The book follows a Christian confessional narrative told as an American conversion story. Isaac's writing uses evangelical idioms and references contemporary Christian music. The book accounts for Isaac's experience but intersects with advocacy for veterans. The book highlights the issue of suicide among veterans and active-duty soldiers in the context of American military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Isaac advocates for a more substantial support system within religious communities for returning veterans. The narrative draws on religious imagery, notably the bible's centurions, to contextualise Isaac's experiences in Iraq. Historical figures that Isaac refers to as "soldier-saints," such as St. Maximilian of Tebessa (AD 274–295) and St. Martin of Tours (AD 316–397), are frequently referenced in the text and influence the book's conversion narrative.
Isaac structured the book into five chapters which he refers to as movements, spanning approximately six years.