The Buddhist Military Sangha announced the entrance of Lt Niphon Suk into the US Army Chaplain Candidate program. It appears he may be the third US Army Buddhist chaplain; the Navy also has two or three.
The 2011 edition of the annual “Wastebook” (pdf) published by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), which contains a list of “wasteful and low priority government spending,” includes the “Falcon Circle” erected by the US Air Force Academy earlier in the year.
79) Air Force Academy Builds “Stonehenge-like Worship Center” – (CO) $51,474
The worship center is “for the handful of current or future cadets whose religions fall under the broad category of ‘Earth-based,'” which includes Wiccans, druids and pagans.
Three students out of 4,300 students self-reported as currently having an “earth-based” religion…
The American people support religious freedom, but this investment challenges their faith in government to ever make smart budget choices.
Senator Coburn seems to make the point that his complaint is an issue of “smart budget choices” rather than a lack of desire to support religious freedom. It’s also important to note that millions of dollars are spent on US military facilities to support the religious liberty of US troops.
While one could argue the “per capita” for pagans was Read more
A variety of sites have noted the decision by Travis AFB to defend its nativity and Menorah. A few have noted the Travis AFB chaplains helped local atheist Airman SSgt Dan Rawlings erect an atheist display.
As more find out about it, more commenters are also questioning the Air Force’s decision to allow the atheist sign — not because of the sign itself, but the “flying spaghetti monster” on it [ellipses original]:
the flying spaghetti monster display is now up…mocking every belief out there. They had a great opportunity to be recognized and they turned it into a mockery. Sad, really. Great job staff sergeant…17 years without a complaint, you come along…complain, then mock everyone with your display. Isn’t that against military policies…to mock others?
As noted previously, even local non-religious people have said the atheists appear to be mocking their fellow Airmen Read more
Students participating in the Army Junior ROTC high school program will now have more options when it comes to religious clothing in uniform. In October, Demin Zawity, a freshman at Ravenwood High School in Brentwood, TN, was told she could not wear her Islamic headscarf while in the Army JROTC uniform. While that policy was consistent with the US Army policy, there was some consternation even by Army officials, some of whom called JROTC a “citizenship” program, not a military program.
Now CAIR, the group that originally accused the Army of discrimination, has said the DoD told them
the Department of Defense will now allow Muslim Read more
The issue of the legality of the Camp Pendleton cross was elevated to higher headquarters, according to a local article.
A group of reporters was allowed to make the trek to see the memorial upon which the controversy was based. To his credit, Mark Walker of the North County Times accurately gave some depth to the content of the memorial:
The site is home to numerous mementos, as well as the crosses, neither of which is visible from nearby Interstate 5.
Each is surrounded by thousands of rocks carried up by Marines from sea level at Camp Horno as a homage to troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Many of those rocks have hand-scrawled messages of love and remembrance.
There are dozens of bottles of booze, Read more
Wise men still seek Him.
Have a wonderful celebration of the birth of our Savior.
Marines spread joy of Christmas, Soldiers donate to Catholic Charity, Toys for Tots teams with Christian non-profit…
Members of the US military continue to participate in traditional acts of charity and community service, even when such efforts are connected (however remotely) with religious organizations — despite Michael Weinstein’s efforts to quash such efforts last month.
The reason, of course, is that despite a somewhat unusual reaction from the US Air Force Academy last month, the US military has had no problem associating itself with religious organizations in their efforts to conduct humanitarian or charitable work. In fact, it seems the majority of such work is conducted in concert with organizations that are in some way connected to a faith group, probably because so many humanitarian and charitable organizations are faith-based to begin with.
And that’s OK — because there is no military policy, regulation, or Read more
US Army Chaplain (Maj) David Waweru followed an unusual path to become a chaplain. He grew up in Kenya, 20 miles west of Nairobi. His interest in the United States came from his interaction with American ministries, specifically, Campus Crusade for Christ:
“The job that really stands out to me is when I worked for Campus Crusade for Christ,” Waweru said. “This job stands out to me because that is when I had a lot of time with American missionaries, and I believe that is where my interest in coming to the United States began.”
His work with Campus Crusade encouraged him to become Read more