The Princeton Review has published its annual rankings of American colleges, which this year includes 371 academic institutions. (The website requires a free registration to see the rankings.) The 2009 discussion is here. The rankings are based on surveys submitted by students of the universities.
This year, the US Air Force Academy repeats its #14 ranking of “most religious students” Read more
Tim Tebow, the now-famous college football quarterback (previously discussed), is currently featured on the cover of Time Magazine, with the headline “Man of Many Missions.” With a fruitful college football career and an outspoken heart for Jesus Christ, Tebow truly does have many (very successful) missions. The champion college player had the option of quitting school and entering the NFL, but chose instead to finish his college career, in part because of
the platform that I had at the University of Florida, the opportunity that I had to minister to a lot of kids around the south, and the US for that matter, and just what was going on around the University of Florida, how much I loved it, how I loved being a Gator.
Tebow’s statements about the value of his witness express the very heart of Christianity, and of living Read more
How much do US Air Force fighter pilots get paid?
Perhaps as a result of the current economy, the pay scale of US military members (and pilots, in particular) has become an increasingly frequent question.
Unlike some private corporations, who may keep such information confidential, US government pay packages are public information. With very little detail, you can actually get a pretty good idea of how much any given Sailor, Soldier, Airmen, or Marine makes on a monthly basis.
The Air Force Times ran an article entitled “More 6-month tours” presenting the picture of longer combat tours for Air Force personnel. The content is unremarkable, but what was interesting was the picture the AF Times used to headline the article, even on the site’s front page. Taken by Petty Officer 2nd Class Todd Frantom, it shows a group of US Air Force Airmen praying as a group prior to “going outside the wire,” something the caption says is a “tradition” for every such mission. (See picture and read more below the fold.) Read more
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has made a significant fundraising push over the past several months. In a July fundraising email, the MRFF used a letter from a Holocaust survivor who “pled” for financial support for Michael Weinstein’s organization.
In the letter, the author, Walter Plywaski (who notes he is “previously Wladyslaw Plywacki”), appears to associate “fundamentalist Christianity” in the United States with his Nazi tormentors, a moral equivalency that has also been implied by Weinstein in the past. Plywaski says that Christians are using methods similar to those instigated by the Nazis: Read more
Much has been made of former US President Jimmy Carter’s recent missive in the UK Observer entitled “The words of God do not justify cruelty to women.” In it he says
[M]y decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult.
It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention’s leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses…ordained that women must be “subservient” to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors, or chaplains in the military service. Read more
Army Chaplain (Capt.) Rebekah Montgomery has been selected by the Military Chaplain’s Association as their Chaplain of the Year. The Unitarian-Universalist is a member of the Maryland’s Army National Guard. She is the brigade chaplain for the 58th Troop Command in Maryland, and also works at the National Guard Bureau. About the difficulty of quantifying a Chaplain’s role, she said
“We don’t see the direct results, but we trust God is using us in a profound and positive way,” she said. “You can’t quantify how many divorces didn’t happen. You can’t quantify how many suicides didn’t happen.”
Update: The Air Force has identified the crewmembers as Capt. Thomas J. Gramith, 27, of Eagan, Minn, and Capt. Mark R. McDowell, 26, of Charlotte, NC. Both were assigned to the 336th Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson AFB.
According to various sources, a USAF F-15E has crashed in Afghanistan, and the two-man crew has been killed. The crash was reportedly not due to hostile fire.