Included below:
Christianity Today re-covered the prior discussion on “atheist Chaplains,” asking the same question others had previously:
All religious groups make absolutist claims of one kind or another. But how can a belief system — or is it a lack of belief system? — championed by figures like Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens support Christian soldiers in any meaningful sense? When considering chaplains who support Hitchens’s rather broad contention that “religion poisons everything,” how can such leaders “provide the means for others to observe their own faith”? If Christians are indeed suffering from a “God delusion,” as Dawkins has suggested, how can a chaplain who promotes Dawkins’s ideas offer belief-respecting encouragement to a Christian soldier?
The author acknowledges a similar accusation can be made against exclusive religions, but there is a positive response in the Christian faith and historical precedent (something Chaplains are already doing):
One might counter by suggesting that Christians themselves Read more
As previously noted, a lower-than-planned incident at a Blue Angel’s event caused the team to end that show early and cancel multiple other shows — including those associated with the US Naval Academy graduation.
The commander of the Blue Angels, who was the lead aircraft in the “incident,” requested he be relieved.
Cmdr. Dave Koss requested that Rear Adm. Bill Sizemore relieve him of his command following a lower-than-normal maneuver during the team’s last performance at the Lynchburg Regional Air Show May 22.
Koss indicated there may have been other “instances” of note: Read more
US Army Chaplain (Col) Nosson Sachs received the 2011 Chaplain Joseph I. Hoeing Memorial award in May from the Rabbinical Council of America.
The award, according to the RCA, recognizes an individual chaplain who, “through his unselfish concern for the spiritual needs and welfare of all military personnel, embodies the dignity of Judaism and brings honor to the Torah and glory to his people.”
According to the article, Sachs was specifically honored Read more
The mantra for many years in the military has been how to do “more with less.” Presumably an indicator of efficiency, it soon became a cliché that did little to salve the workloads of military servicemembers who found themselves with more missions to accomplish — and yet fewer people and funds than in prior years.
General Raymond Odierno said it was time to avoid that “trap:”
“We must avoid the trap of doing more with less, which is a recipe for creating a hollow force,” General Odierno, the commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command, said…
General Odierno also said Read more
American citizens enjoy freedoms those in some other countries can only imagine. These freedoms are protected by the sacrifices of US service men and women, many of whom have given their lives in that service. Members of the US military have protected people they don’t know, rights they often can’t practice, and the freedom of others to advocate ideologies with which they disagree.
They have fought, and died, for something greater than themselves.
Remember their sacrifice this Memorial Day.
The US Naval Academy practice of conducting a noon-meal prayer is making its near-annual trek through the media. This time, Talbot Manvel, an “adjunct instructor” at Annapolis, wrote an article in the Baltimore Sun saying the USNA puts “tradition ahead of the Constitution.”
So how is the academy defying the Constitution? It has established a religious practice: prayer at its mandatory noon meal for its midshipmen (students). They are marched into the mess hall, called to attention to listen to announcements, and then to prayer by a chaplain before sitting to eat. They are not permitted to leave, and thus they are forced to listen.
(Manvel becomes the latest Naval Academy instructor to publicly malign his employer.) Manvel’s article is rife with error. He cites Mellen v. Bunting, in which the 4th District Court held mealtime prayers at VMI were unConstitutional — a ruling the Supreme Court declined to review. However, he ignores the ruling’s own qualifier: Read more
The plan to raise a memorial to Jewish US military Chaplains killed in combat — to accompany the memorials already in place for Protestant and Catholic Chaplains — received a boost when the US Senate passed a resolution honoring their service.
The US House was poised to pass the necessary legislation to approve the memorial last week. The legislation would also eliminate the currently required Congressional approval that has delayed the Jewish memorial for several years.
Via ArmyChaplaincy.com and also at ReligionClause.