God and Country

An official military article notes three US Air Force Airmen went through the trials necessary to receive their “cavalry gold spurs.”  To do so, they had to complete a “spur ride.”

The participants formed up outside the Bagram [MWR] and performed a 12-mile ruck march throughout the base. Upon returning…, they dropped their gear and began the various stations that were set up to test their skills. The stations were moderated by Army instructors, referred to only as “Spur Holders.”

“The stations consisted of [weapons] proficiency, M2 headspace and timing, Self Aid and Buddy Care, 9-line Med Evac, Unexploded Ordnance identification, Nine-line UXO, gas mask procedures, land navigation and convoy signaling,” said Longoria.

“Before, during and after each station we would be quizzed by the Spur Holders. Then we were PT’ed until we were physically exhausted. Read more…

Two US Army chaplains, Chaplain (Col) John McGraw and Chaplain (Col) Jerry Lewis, recently took the Army’s resiliency mantra to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Their African hosts seemed to welcome the opportunity:

Chief of DRC Chaplains Col. Jeanne Paul Keela sees the emerging relationship between his organization and U.S. Army chaplains as 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…

The atheist Rock Beyond Belief festival has received a fair amount of press recently, though it has mostly come through a variety of outlets repeating a single story originally written by the Religion News Service.

Kimberly Winston of RNS wrote “Military atheists get ready to ‘rock beyond belief,’“ which, while a noble effort, still largely came across as a press release for the atheists.  (By contrast, the ChristianPost had a somewhat more thorough article.  In full disclosure, the ChristianPost article does cite ChristianFighterPilot.com extensively.)

What Winston failed to disclose in her original story is 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…

In keeping with the theme that atheists cannot fellowship together without the ability to denigrate religion, organizers of the atheist “Rock Beyond Belief” to be held at Fort Bragg have secured the explicit “guarantee” of the US Army that they can criticize religion — and people who are religious.

According to their announcement, Garrison Commander Col Stephen Sicinski has said he respects

that the speakers may criticize organized religion or its practitioners…

Because this event is now “cleared” to criticize religion, while the Billy Graham Evangelical Association’s Rock the Fort was not, the MRFF’s Chris Rodda claims this is a coup.

She doesn’t realize the joke is on her.  Read more…

Gary Stein has a “Tea Party” Facebook site.  He’s also a US Marine.  In 2010 it attracted the attention of the military, who wanted to make sure he knew the rules.  He reviewed and acknowledged them, and the Facebook page continued, with the military’s awareness.

Recently, however,

Marine Sgt. Gary Stein first started a Facebook page called Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots to encourage service members to exercise their free speech rights. Then he declared that he wouldn’t follow orders from the commander in chief, President Barack Obama.

While Stein softened his statement to say he wouldn’t follow “unlawful orders,” military observers say he may have gone too far.

“Military observers” is an awkward way of trying Read more…

Zhen Guan, a monk originally from China, was recently sworn in as the US Army’s latest Second Lieutenant and Buddhist chaplain candidate.  He gave his oath with his hand on the Vimalakirti Sutra, which is a Buddhist text.

Guan’s oath was administered by Chaplain 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…

The Associated Press reported that a local spike in cases of HIV was attributed to military men seeking sex partners on line.

Of the nine people infected in 2011, eight were men who had sex with other men, according to the agency. Seven were either in the Army in Fairbanks or had sexual partners in the military…

The department released the information because health officials think others may have contracted HIV from the infected people but do not know it yet. Jones said that’s why the department took the unusual step of publicizing the outbreak.

In itself, this is not insignificant:  HIV disqualifies members of the military from overseas service, and a soldier was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison for giving a woman HIV. 

One of the military’s responses to this incident:  Read more…

In the wake of the Aiden scandal and questions about their acts’ previous behavior, Fort Bragg has reportedly made sure those behind Rock Beyond Belief are “fully aware” of the standards they must follow.

The reminder comes after the most recent question from an Army chaplain about the event’s ability to adhere to military guidance:  Read more…

Think the issue of LtGen Ronnie Hawkins and his “Ronnie’s Rules” is new?  Military commanders have a long tradition of introducing themselves to their units and including personal biographies and life philosophies when they do so, and there are other current examples of military leaders doing exactly that — and mentioning their faith in Jesus Christ as they did so.  A few critics have complained, naturally, but their vicarious or self-imposed offense has been insufficient to force the military to restrict the mention of “God” in similar military events — and rightly so.

Supporters have also weighed in with well-researched articles, not just passionate press releases.  The Religious Rights of Those in Uniform, which was also printed in an official Air Force publication that also featured the MRFF’s Chris Rodda, was written by Robert Ash (USA, Retired), who is a West Point graduate, served 22 years in the Army, and teaches law at Regent University.  He co-authored the lengthy piece with Dr. Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (and debated Michael Weinstein at the US Air Force Academy in 2007).  From their essay [emphasis added]:  Read more…

Prominent milblogger BlackFive obtained a copy of a US Army memo from Afghanistan restricting the distribution of Qurans:

Qurans will only be distributed to US Servicemembers who are Muslim as indicated on their identification tags…Exceptions…will be granted if the Service Member has a memorandum signed by his Commander that states the reason for obtaining a Quran provided by the chaplain.

Qurans will not be placed in general literature distribution racks.  They will be kept in a secure location…

The memo is signed by US Army Chaplain (LTC) Eric Albertson, a Catholic Read more…

A Department of Defense article highlights the unique story of Daniel J. Houten, an enlistee with the Georgia National Guard.  He’s now in basic training — but he hardly took the traditional route to get there:

Houten…wanted to join the U.S. Army — but without a GED and 15 hours of college credit, he was ineligible.

An acquaintance told Houten the Israeli Army recruited new soldiers simply because they were Jewish…
 
Although his religious faith had diminished somewhat, he still identified himself as a Jew and felt strong connections to Israel, the homeland of his people, culture and religion. He decided this should be his next step in life.

Houten learned Hebrew and was Read more…

Michael Weinstein took a pay cut in 2010, so it looks like he felt the need to write a book to try to make up the difference.  He wrote an “op-ed” printed on the Washington Post website, though it was characterized by a fairly solid theme:  No new material, except for hawking Weinstein’s book.

It was refreshing, in some respects, to see Weinstein eschew the subtlety of some of his supporters and just come right out and say he and his “religious freedom” group are targeting Christians:  Read more…