Air Force Chaplains Take to the Air
Chaplains from Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, are participating in a unique program that allows them to become qualified on the wing’s aircraft, thus enabling them to minister at 30,000 feet. In an official Air Force article entitled “Spirit in the sky:”
“If we can get to where our people work, we can connect them with the support they need,” said Chaplain (Maj.) Michael Farar…
Chaplain (Col.) Bruce Glover, a 25th Air Force chaplain [said] “A chaplain being on flying orders and spending time with aircrew is precisely the kind of unit engagement that we as a chaplain corps need to be doing,” Glover said. “To care for Airmen, we need to be in the air.”
The effort seems to be effective:
“Once we were there, around them, and I understood their world, and their language and what they were going through — instantly, after that flight, I got an influx from that particular airframe,” Farar said. “We engaged them with some teamwork things, some spiritual resiliency issues, suicide prevention… I had so many requests, I couldn’t accommodate them all.”
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Interesting…but Chaplains qualified on the wing’s aircraft…really? I think this is a total waste of government time and money. Seems a Chaplain (and aircrew) could get the same benefit from just visiting our flying squadrons (our Squadron has one assigned) and seems to work great. IG/GAO should really look into this; I’m calling them!
We have oodles of pictures and lots of pilots, WSO’s, ABM’ers around (on the ground) to fill their heads full of aircrew lingo.
To be fair, let’s open this up to EVERY airman or knock it off “officers”!!
Chaplains are a total waste of money and should not be part of the military. I’m offended and outraged that my taxes pay for this nonsense.
Obviously, flying these folks around on airplanes only exacerbates the waste.
In just a few generations everyone (ok, almost everyone) will see this religious nutjobbery for what it is… crazy, irrational thinking. I wish I could be around to see that day.
“Yeah, that’s right… about 2000 years ago Jesus died so you could live forever in a really nice place with all (ok, most) of your loved ones, but only if you believe he’s god. Oh… and he knows everything so he already knew way in advance that you’d be born in a couple thousand years and that you wouldn’t believe he’s god. But he created hell to torture you for eternity anyway.”
Seriously?
@AFP
You seem quick to dismiss even the thought of religious liberty, since you disagree with the content of the liberty being exercised. That’s not very tolerant of you.
You are entitled to your opinion, of course. Everyone has a right to be wrong.
@AFP
To your first point. That question has been asked and answered by federal courts. To be clear, the uber-liberal, progressive, Second Circuit.
To your second point, people have been predicting the demise of religion for as long as there’s been religion. And yet you are somehow an oracle?
You do realize that atheism is the most hated minority on the planet Earth, and the second most hated group in America, right?
Uttering such hateful remarks is not going to change anybody’s opinion of you.
Dear Sir/Ma’am, after reading your reply, I would like to thank you for your service. However, I must inform you that your name on this blog is inaccurate. There is no such thing as an atheist. I do not need to share with you a cosmological, teleological, or anthropological argument to woo you to believe in the Lord that you know exists. All you are doing is suppressing the truth because you love your sin, and you reject God’s Word not because the Scriptures contradict themselves, but because it contradicts you. Repent and believe in the Gospel.
“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19-20)
@Anonymous
“…atheism is the most hated minority on the planet Earth…” Is this your best defense of your religion? I make a direct attack on the silliness of Christianity with a harsh yet accurate description of fundamental Christian tenets and all you can do is tell me I am hated because I am an atheist?
Why don’t you use the white space to explain why my depiction of Christianity is wrong.
And no… I am not very tolerant of ignorance and irrational thinking, JD. I suspect you actually share my views of intolerance about all other religions other than yours.
You haven’t described the fundamental Christian tenets, you gave a skewed Bill Maher-esque depiction of it. Secondly, I wasn’t trying to defend Christianity; if you were really thinking rationally, you’d realize that. I was pointing out that your actions are making fundamentals hate atheism more than they already do.
I say again, “Why don’t you use the white space to explain why my depiction of Christianity is wrong.”
Here… I will help you…
1. Did Jesus die so that those who believe he is the son of god could live in heavenly eternity?
2. Did Jesus know he was dying for this reason when it happened?
3. Did Jesus (and his father, god) know I would be an atheist?
4. Am I going to get to live for heavenly eternity or, because I reject these claims about Jesus and god, will I spend eternity in a very bad place (say, a hellish place)?
5. Did Jesus and god know my outcome already, long before it happened?
I’m really not that far off the mark, I don’t think. And if I was, you could correct me, right? Heck, you might even save my soul if you could provide some clarity for me here. Do the right, Christian thing and help me see the light…
As a veteran of many years of combat and nearly a year in the hands of atheistic communists in a jungle prison camp in Cambodia I recall my brave fellow POW Captain George “I’m an agnostic” Wanat and his journey of faith made in that terrible place. George had escaped after the battle of Loc Ninh in April 1972 and escaped and evaded for 31 days before being captured. He was dying of malaria and starvation but the communists gave him a mosquito net in pieces and laughed as he,with shaking hands,tried to thread the needle and sew it together before the sun went down and the female mosquito came again with her deadly disease.
I prayed for George though just speaking brought more starvation and punishment. Later at the monthly bath George whispered that though he had been captured he had finally found God and peace. I thought how strange this was but I saw many things in a place where all things of the outside world had been stripped away.
Weinstein,you know nothing of real war and your ad nauseam attempts to strip soldiers of their rights and beliefs,from your sheltered existence they provide you,shows you to be the kind of four eyed mealy mouthed punk every kid hated in school. All mouth and not an ounce of substance. This indicates you hated the athletes in school and now men and women of substance in the military.
Shut up boy,for you will never be the men and women you feel a right to demonize.
GBU(Prison tap code for God Bless You) and God Bless America!
Major Mark A. Smith,DSC,USA,Retired
Returned American Prisoner Of War
Distinguished Member(DMOR),28th & 506th Infantry Regiments
Member; Legion Of Valor,Special Forces Association,Worldwide Army Rangers,Military.com Hall Of Valor,NAMPOWS
Zippo, GBU & GBA
You tell them Zippo!
Good prisoner of war commentary, but is anyone willing to respond to my characterization of Christianity?
Anyone?
Why?
Thank you, JD, for re-opening the comments on this post. I’ll now answer your “Why?” question…
The most obvious reason why you or any sincere Christian should respond to my characterization of Christianity is that Jesus commanded you to do so:
–Mark 16:15
–Romans 1:16
–2 Timothy 4:5
–Matthew 28:19-20
Etc.
Beyond the biblical justification for responding, correcting me and helping save my soul (which you should be doing in earnest, as Jesus commanded) I would offer these secular reasons:
–If I am wrong, you have the opportunity to correct me and educate me. If my characterization of Christianity (which was, admittedly, harsh and critical) was inaccurate, Christians can correct it rather than just making irrelevant statements like “You do realize that atheism is the most hated minority on the planet Earth…” and “You haven’t described the fundamental Christian tenets, you gave a skewed Bill Maher-esque depiction of it.”
–By failing to respond directly to my characterization of Christianity you are, indirectly, allowing my statement to stand as an un-rebutted summary of the Christian story. Given the prejudicial nature of my statement I would think at least one person would want to defend – or at least accurately explain – their faith.
–Common courtesy. Especially for you, JD, as the “host” of the site. It’s a simple courtesy to respond to people in forums such as these. It’s obvious you had no intention to do so in a meaningful way. And no intent to obey the commands (and the example) of Jesus.
Christians are making extraordinary claims about the way the world works. These claims are missive in scope, impacting the life of every human being that has ever or will ever live, and impacting their existence for all of eternity. If a Christian truly believes the story of Jesus and the claims of Christianity in general, then surely – with so much at stake – the sincere Christian ought to have something material to say in this context, where their faith has been mischaracterized and the eternal life of others is at stake.
Or so I would think.
I will gladly respond to your post from November 18, 2015.
Question 1 Response: Yes, Jesus died for His sheep (John 6:63-65), and His death was a substitutionary and propitiatory death to redeem and reconcile His sheep to His Father. God sent His Son into the world to purchase His peculiar people with His blood, and grant them an eternal inheritance into the kingdom of God. If a person truly believes, it is only because they were effectually called, and given the evangelical graces of faith and repentance to believe in the Gospel.
Question 2: Read Matthew 26:42. Christ prayed to His Father, and said, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” Christ is the second person of the Trinity, and is co-substantial, co-equal and co-eternal with His Father, so yes, he was aware.
Question 3: You are not an atheist. There is no such thing as an atheist. You know God exists and are without excuse (Rom 1:19-21) because the law of God is in your heart (Rom 2:14-16), and the heavens declare the glory of God (Ps 10:1-3). This is why the Bible calls people “fools” who do not believe in God (Ps 14:1). You know God exists, but you suppress the truth because you love your sin. This is why you must repent and believe in the Gospel.
Question 4: If you cherish sin in your heart, and you continue to suppress the truth, not because the Bible contradicts itself, but because it contradicts you, then yes, you will spend an eternity in hell. Your problem is that you are wise in your own eyes. I plead with you to fall on your face, with godly sorrow, self-abhorrence, and repentance to the God that “you know” exists.
Question 5: Remember, God is absolutely sovereign. He governs and sustains all things and executes His decrees according to His infallible foreknowledge and immutable will. God knows who are His and who are not (2 Tim 2:19).
Thank you, #BBP. I applaud your commitment to your faith and your willingness to defend it.
If your interpretation of Christianity is correct (and yours is just one of many, so we can let others protest) then my original, yet snide, description was pretty solid. Here it is again:
“Yeah, that’s right… about 2000 years ago Jesus died so you could live forever in a really nice place with all (ok, most) of your loved ones, but only if you believe he’s god. Oh… and he knows everything so he already knew way in advance that you’d be born in a couple thousand years and that you wouldn’t believe he’s god. But he created hell to torture you for eternity anyway.”
Regarding your comments on question #3, I’m OK with you declaring that I am not an atheist and that there is no such thing as an atheist. This is just semantics. Use whatever label you want and make whatever assumptions you’d like (as in… everyone KNOWS that god exists). As long as you document them.
I maintain that the Christian story is unsupported by evidence. Indeed, it is on the whole, nonsensical.
“I maintain that the Christian story is unsupported by evidence. Indeed, it is on the whole, nonsensical.”
That’s not what Pascal said.
“That’s not what Pascal said”
Well… it is exactly what every Christian is saying about every other god/religion.
Also, is this really a sound basis for believing in god? Not a sincere belief so much as a belief to avoid punishment, or to win “the big bet”? I would think your all-knowing god would sense the lack of sincerity of Pascal’s belief, and then select the eternal path for him accordingly.
For me to believe in god I would need to see evidence that is on par with the scope of the claim. If you tell me that you had cereal for breakfast this morning I really don’t need a lot of evidence to accept it. We know that such a thing as “breakfast” actually exists, so at least the claim is plausible in the first place. Whether or not you ate breakfast, as you claimed, has no impact on the lives of others. And there is certainly no eternal implications of the claim, so the scope is rather minimal – thus demanding minimal evidence to support it.
Claims about god and an eternal heavenly/hellish afterlife are claims of infinite scope (literally infinite). These claims apply to every human being that has ever lived and ever will live, and they apply to eternity. Further, these claims include elements that are not known to exist (in fact, we know many of the claims DO NOT exist… resurrection, violations of the laws of physics, “miracles”, etc.).
Claims of infinite scope that require the acceptance of things that are known not to be possible and/or known not to even exist… you need a lot of evidence to support these kinds of claims.
Let me ask the Christians here… What if I claimed that I was Jesus Christ, returning as prophesized. Would you believe me? What evidence would you need in order to believe my claim? And when you consider this question, give some thought to how you’d respond to any such claims. After all, if Jesus is truly coming back it might be in your lifetime that you have to evaluate this claim when it really is the Second Coming.
@AFP, I’m not sure this is the best forum to delve into apologetics. Several libraries could be filled with the pages dedicated to proving the existence/non-existence of God, and whether Jesus is who he claims to be. One popular summary of the issue is as follows: Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or the messiah. It’s clear you believe he is liar/lunatic. Fair enough. Now, if I were to present, to your intellectual satisfaction, enough evidence to prove Jesus is, in fact, messiah, would it change your heart and your mind? And conversely, do you believe that you are able to present, to a Christian’s intellectual satisfaction, enough evidence to change his/her mind? If the answer to either question is “no,” then I suggest we all find a more productive endeavor.
@FF — I do not think Jesus was a liar or a lunatic. I think he was a man, if indeed he existed at all. And I think other men made up some pretty wild stories about him. Unbelievable stories, in fact.
If I was presented with sufficient evidence to prove that Jesus was/is the son of god then yes, my “heart and mind” would be changed. So “yes”, absolutely.
Conversely, while I know it is unlikely* that I will be changing Christian hearts and minds anytime soon, I would posit that the burden is not on me to prove Jesus was NOT the son of god, or that there is no god in the first place. I make no claims to this effect. I simply reject the claims Christians are making about Jesus and god.
“I suggest we all find a more productive endeavor”. Fair enough.
*I was a Christian whose heart and mind (mind, really) was changed with maturity and honest intellectual confrontation of the claims of the religion. So despite what #BBP says, surely beliefs can change or even be abandoned.