Cycling vet stops to preach “Contagious Love” in Kansas City classrooms

One of the first things Josh Stieber does during his presentations is ask his audience to repeat after him.

“I went down to the market where the women shop / Pulled out my machete and began to chop / I went down to the park where the children play / Pulled out my machine gun and began to spray.”

It’s a cadence the Maryland resident used to sing with his Army unit, while he was deployed to Iraq in 2007. It’s the kind of moral disconnect that caused him to question, well, just about everything he believed.

“I grew up in a kind of evangelical mega church, which linked a lot of religion to nationalism and militarism,” Stieber says. After 9/11, he wanted to defend his country. He bought the idea that the U.S. was justified in invading Iraq. But that notion didn’t last long. He found himself ripping up Iraqi’s homes, rounding up and detaining family members. He found himself singing songs that glorified violence.

“How do go from being concerned about your family to saying words like that?” he says.

He posed that question to students in Kansas City yesterday.