God and Country

The New York Times covered the Kabul memorial ceremony of the 10 aid workers who were recently killed in Afghanistan.  The ceremony was held in the British cemetery there:

Originally established for British military dead in the Second Afghan War, in 1879, it is probably the only place in the capital where crosses are on public display (churches are illegal here).

The memorial was reportedly consciously non-religious:

If there was a theme to the memorial service, which was self-consciously non-religious, it was the thought that these were people who died doing something they believed in passionately, and the best way to honor them was to keep at it.

Steve Saint, son of martyred missionary Nate Saint, and the organization he founded called i-Tec (The Indigenous People’s Technology and Education Ministry Center) have created a flying car inspired by humanitarian and missionary needs:

Saint, the founder of Dunnellon-based i-Tec…said the idea for a short takeoff and landing all-terrain car, plane and airboat grew out of his family’s missionary work in remote areas of Ecuador.

Saint’s Maverick is a dune-buggy type car that can be mounted on pontoons or underneath a wing parachute, after which it is propelled by a six foot propeller at the rear of the vehicle.

The Maverick Sport flies at a fixed 40 mph using a 36-foot-wide ram wing, or wing-shaped parachute, deployed on a 27-foot mast and stored on top of the car during road use.

The Maverick was at the experimental aircraft fly-in at OshKosh this past week (the Experimental Aircraft Association’s 2010 AirVenture), though it couldn’t fly in due to paperwork issues with the FAA.  They documented their drive from Florida to Wisconsin.  More information is available at their Maverick LSA website.

A few days ago, this site noted that a self-described religious freedom organization, Michael Weinstein’s MRFF, had criticized deployed servicemembers for publicly celebrating Easter in the combat theatre.

In an interesting convergence of topics, a message by President Obama recently cited just such a celebration of Easter–and not by just any servicemembers, but by a unit of deployed fighter pilots.  A fascinating photo (below) helps explain.

In his “holiday greetings” distributed on 3 April 2010, the President commented on “war time” observances of Easter, saying:  Read more…

While most understand the dangers of remote missionary aviation, recent government reports have brought grim reminders of the factors that cannot be controlled.

In April of 2001, American missionaries Jim and Veronica Bowers, along with their young adopted children Cory and Charity, were flown from Brazil to Peru by pilot Kevin Donaldson in a small float plane.  They were sponsored by the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, and had to leave and re-enter the country in order to obtain a permanent visa for Charity, who was just a few months old.  The family had been missionaries to the Amazon since 1993, following a stint in the US Army in Europe.

In a unique program, the CIA was working with the Peruvian government to intercept, and potentially shoot down, aircraft suspected of participating in drug smuggling operations.  The Bowers’ plane was mistakenly suspected of being Read more…

Missionary Aviation Fellowship (see Christian Aviation Links) has dispatched one of its new Kodiak aircraft to assist with its in-place team in Haiti. The Kodiaks are unique aircraft that specifically meet the needs of the MAF to fly into remote and rough fields with a significant cargo.  The MAF has four of the aircraft; the three others are already flying in other remote locations.

The MAF has long had a presence in Haiti, and that persistence has paid off in the current relief efforts.  The US Air Force, which currently controls the Port-au-Prince airport, has been sending relief aircraft to the MAF hangar, where the MAF has been assisting with cargo offloads and customs clearance.

The Kodiak will join three other missionary aircraft that have already begun flying missions to distribute aid around the devastated country, as well as returning to Port-au-Prince with foreign nationals who want to evacuate through the airport.

While evangelism is one of the goals of the MAF, right now it is aptly serving as the “hands and feet” of service that are required to assist a people in great physical need.

A recent Military Religion Question of the Day involved a sermon delivered in Afghanistan by Chaplain (LtCol) Gary Hensley.  The question and subsequent answer have already been discussed.  The discussion noted that groups used Hensley’s sermon as proof of religious impropriety in the military, though their accusations were demonstrably false.

The relationship of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to this incident, however, requires further illumination.  Read more…

As a civilian pastor I can’t go to your office to check up on you, but as an Army chaplain, everywhere you go, that’s where I am.

With that, Chaplain (Maj) Michael J. King succinctly describes one of the benefits to the armed services of having military Chaplains.  The Chaplain also explained the “perform or provide” role of the military Chaplain:  Read more…

As previously discussed, a civilian author recently criticized a military Chaplain for “expressing contempt” for the Constitution when he made “derogatory remarks about Islam:”

When a uniformed officer of the US military makes derogatory remarks about Islam, he’s violating [his] oath and expressing contempt of the First Amendment.

The comment was made by Jeff Sharlet, posting under the moniker Ishmael, on the Daily Kos website.  Sharlet is also the author of The Family, a book that purports to be an expose on a secretive and conspiratorial religious organization (the “Christian Mafia”) attempting to influence the US government.

The comment was in defense of Chris Rodda, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation researcher, when she criticized Camp David Chaplain (LtCdr) Carey Cash for his religious views.  Sharlet’s use of the word “derogatory” notwithstanding, is he right?  Can a religious leader of one faith in the military say nothing negative about another–even if such statements are consistent with the tenets of their faith?

The core question: Can a Chaplain (or any other military officer) espouse specific, even exclusive, religious ideology?

The shortest, most accurate answer: Read more…

Missionary Aviation Fellowship, a Christian aviation and missions organization, has already begun to assist in the humanitarian crisis following the magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Indonesia.  The MAF has had aircraft and a small team in the country since the tsunami in 2004, and has already been supporting local governments in response to the crisis.  Their assistance is in demand, with

the phone…ringing off the hook with requests from the Red Cross and others

The MAF has requested prayer support, and financial donations to support the humanitarian relief can be made through their website.

In the vein of the American Atheist’s complaint against NASA, a variety of similarly-minded groups continue to bring accusations of wrongdoing against government-associated religious organizations.  For example, the ACLU has criticized the Gideons providing religious materials while in some association with a government entity (including the Gideons’ interaction with the US military).

Controversies notwithstanding, the ubiquitous nature of the Gideons ministry almost inevitably leads to the never-gets-old joke:

How do they get those Bibles in all those locked hotel rooms?

Well, in 1996 evidence arose that the Gideons were successful in getting a Bible into one of the most inaccessible nightstands in the world; in fact, it’s not even in the world. Read more…

On August 26th, NASA published a fairly detailed article on what the astronauts were taking up on Discovery when it finally launched last week, as well as the historical precedent that allowed astronauts to take up personal items (as noted in the previous post).

Two days after that article, American Atheists issued a press release criticizing NASA’s decision to allow Mission Specialist Patrick Forrester to take up a part of Nate Saint’s airplane.  The group said the action was a “violation of the separation of church and state,”  as well as Read more…