God and Country

Bagram Air Base’s chaplains organized a Run for Jesus 5-Miler in which nearly 600 US servicemembers attended a sunrise Easter service followed by a run around the base.  One group even carried an 8-foot cross.

The 82nd CAB Chaplain’s team hosted the first “Run for Jesus” on Bagram Apr. 8. Held on Easter Sunday, the 5-mile race began with a sunrise service hosted by three of the CAB Chaplains. More than 560 people completed the track around Bagram Airfield.

Nearly 700 photos of the event are available on the unit’s Facebook page (in Part I and Part II).

Other US servicemembers in Afghanistan were also able to take time Read more…

This Easter, celebrate the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, and take a moment to remember those who defend our freedoms while deployed around the world. They, too, will celebrate His resurrection — even in small outposts in Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and elsewhere. And then they’ll stand up, adjust their gear, and step out on their next mission, always at their Nation’s call.

The early morning sun drifts above the horizon during Easter sunrise services at Camp Liberty, Iraq. (Photo by Sgt. Mark Matthews)

According to FoxNews, the US military is investigating allegations a US servicemember erected a “gay pride” flag on a tent pole on an American outpost in Afghanistan.

“We are aware of the photo of the gay pride flag being flown by U.S. service members and we are investigating,” a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force told Fox News.

Hidden in some internet comments was another interesting piece of information on the military environment in the post-DADT world.  A military officer wrote:  Read more…

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council notes that a US servicemember raised the “rainbow flag” over an American base in Afghanistan, as indicated by the serviceman’s wife’s Facebook post:

The flag is recognizable as the symbol for the homosexual “movement,” though it remains unclear why someone needs a flag to advertise the fact they’re sexually Read more…

Terrence Jeffrey at CNS News asks an interesting question:

Is President Barack Obama more deferential to the religious sensibilities of Afghan Muslims or the religious freedom of American Catholics?

Read his answer.

While stories of political insensitivity or incorrectness sometimes shock the public (or political) conscience, those within the military often find such displays far less offensive — or rare.

A few years ago, US Air Force F-15 pilot 1Lt Ali Jivanjee was killed in an F-15 training accident.  He was a Muslim fighter pilot who took it upon himself to sign his name “Jihad” — apparently because he’d been “teased” (hazed? bullied?) about his first and middle names being “Ali Akbar” (similar to “Allahu akbar,” a phrase often connected to “jihadists,” for those that don’t make the connection).

His F-15 peers eventually named him “Danny Boy,” because he “needed a good Irish name.”

A fighter squadron is definitely not a bastion of political correctness, or cultural sensitivity.

A recent Military.com article notes the same theme throughout much of the rest of the military.  Makers of accoutrements — including unofficial military uniform patches — with variations of “American infidel” on them are doing gangbuster business:  Read more…

The Jewish online magazine Tablet covers the story of US Army Chaplain (LtCol) Larry Bazer, who recently returned from a deployment as the “only Jewish chaplain in Afghanistan.”

The article contains some interesting commentaries on the chaplaincy in general, as well as some specifics related to life as a Jewish chaplain:

The [Camp Phoenix] chapel, said Bazer, “was a cozy little place”: a small, nondescript room built of plywood. During the day it was devoid of any religious symbols, but during the evenings a few crosses would turn it into a Protestant chapel, or some icons into a Catholic church. On Friday nights, candles and challah—sent each month by the “challah lady,” a Long Island Jewish woman—made it a synagogue.

Chaplain Bazer’s congregations varied from none to nearly 20 as he traveled Afghanistan as the only Jewish Read more…

A rebuilt mosque in Afghanistan is now the “centerpiece of the local government” — with the aid of the US Marines.

Marine Capt. Jesse Hills…was the project manager for the refurbishment. He was responsible for finding out what exactly was needed to repair the mosque: the time and resources Read more…

“I never attended services in the civilian world. But all that changed when I joined the Army.”

Jake Kohlman thought religious services during basic training would be a good excuse to get away from the military training instructors.  He was right.  But he was also renewed in his faith.  As it turns out, many trainees may have gone just for the doughnuts:

After the service we filed into the parking lot, where some kind, older veterans had set up picnic tables with lemonade and doughnuts. Now I understood why the service was so popular…The doughnut I had that day was the best I’d ever had.

Turns out some other trainees caught on:

Eventually, word leaked out to the rest of the company about the doughnuts and lemonade, and by the end of Basic, 65 soldiers from my company alone were marching to services on Sunday…’

Chris Rodda of Michael Weinstein’s MRFF has previously said Christian Read more…

The “training” US troops received on how to handle the Koran in Afghanistan closed with this bold-faced, 48-pt font quote on the last slide:

“We will hold sacred the beliefs held sacred by others.”

That was probably a typo, since under the US Constitution the United States officially holds no beliefs sacred; instead, it protects the rights of each citizen to Read more…

Master Sgt. Corey Wade of Kandahar, Afghanistan, wrote a letter to the editor that was published on Stars and Stripes.  He was objecting to the widely publicized photo of a homosexual male Marine kissing his partner upon his return from deployment.

The photo you posted in the March 4 Mideast and Pacific editions with the article “Gay Marine’s homecoming kiss gets worldwide notice” is both disgusting and outrageous. It’s bad enough Read more…

The Commander of US and coalition troops in Afghanistan, General John Allen, gave an interview to ABCNews in which he “dismissed criticism” over the profuse American apologies over the Koran burning in Afghanistan.

“Why wouldn’t we [apologize]?” the general asked. “This is the central word of God for them. Why wouldn’t we? We didn’t do it on purpose but we should apologize and we did.”

Interestingly, when the US military burned the central word of God for Christians, on purpose, it didn’t apologize.  In fact, it defended the need to put the Bibles in the trash.  Why wouldn’t we apologize?  Good question.

Meanwhile, other reports indicate all US troops have been given “mandatory refresher training” on handling Korans.  Few Read more…

The Afghan Air Force, which has been essentially been built and funded from scratch by the US military, is now being investigated for drug-running.

The U.S. is investigating allegations that some officials in the Afghan Air Force, which was established largely with American funds, have been using aircraft to ferry narcotics and illegal weapons around the country…

In an interesting connection, the military is also reportedly investigating a link between the drug-running scheme and the April 2011 massacre of 8 US airmen by a member of the Afghan military.

In a report released by the U.S. Air Force in January about the killings, Read more…

Rock Beyond Belief, the atheist event billed as a counter to the previous Christian Rock the Fort, has clearly announced a previously controversial song will be featured in its lineup.

In January, FoxNews carried the story of Aiden’s Hysteria, whose music video showed burning churches while the lyrics said religion “distorts the truth” and called for its “death.”

At the time, the lead organizer of the event, Justin Griffith, was quoted in the FoxNews article saying this was a faux controversy — though the public reaction, and Fort Bragg’s, seemed to differ.  While the FoxNews piece focused on ‘images of burning churches,’ the issue has always been Aiden’s lyrics that criticized religion.  Now, Griffith makes a point of stating Aiden will perform Hysteria [emphasis original]:  Read more…

In a fascinating but brief column, Dr. Tawfik Hamid of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies suggests the US military should use the Quran to influence the Islamic population’s reaction to their conduct [emphasis added]:

The Koranic text can actually be used in such situations to control the Afghan anger and prevent its spread. In fact, the religiosity of people in these parts of the world makes the use of religious text more effective in controlling people’s anger than using formal apologetic approaches.

(Dr. Hamid joins a chorus of other resources who have written on the issues of “apologies” in the Iraqi and Afghan cultures.  They are not viewed the same way a Western citizen would view an apology.)

Dr. Hamid suggests several Quranic texts that might be used to “defend” Read more…