The Commanders of the ships of the 13 United Colonies are to take care that divine services be performed twice a day on board and a sermon preached on Sundays, unless bad weather or other extraordinary accidents prevent.
That’s how the Navy chaplaincy began in 1775.
It seems times have changed a bit, haven’t they?
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Wheaton College — an unabashedly Christian university — has had an ROTC program since a few years after the close of World War II. Wheaton requires its faculty to be of the Christian faith, a requirement also levied upon its ROTC instructor, as the instructor is considered to be a member of the Wheaton faculty (though they are paid by the US military, not the school).
When the position of ROTC instructor was recently advertised among Army officers, the “must be of Christian faith” requirement caught the attention of a Soldier who pointed it out to Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s MRFF. Weinstein was typically unmoved [emphasis added]:
Wheaton and its fundamentalist Christian ROTC unit are to the United States Constitution what a dog with a full bladder Read more
While “spouse groups” in the Air Force are technically gender-neutral, the fact remains they are often perceived as re-labeled “wives groups.” They are made up almost exclusively of women who are married to male military members. That leaves male spouses as a potentially underserved minority.
A male spouse at Aviano experienced the results of that long “history”:
Spouses are often assumed to be women and at a commander’s convention with his wife, Lt. Col. Rosie Duarte, the 31st Force Support Squadron commander, there was no exception. When spouses received their gift at the end of the event, [John] Duarte got what every spouse did — a broach.
Duarte decided to found a new group — which is explicitly male. He Read more
Are there too few atheists buried at Normandy?
It’s an interesting way to phrase the complaints about crosses and Stars of David when they pertain to representations of the iconic cemeteries of American soldiers in Europe.
Quoted in a Washington Times article by Valerie Richardson entitled “Anti-religion group gripes about lack of atheists buried at Normandy,” Sam Grover of the Freedom from Religion Foundation had this to say:
“It is unfortunate that the iconic headstones at the Normandy cemetery do such a poor Read more
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:
Haste, haste to bring Him laud,
The babe, the son of Mary.
Continuing a tradition begun last year, the US Air Force Band “flash mobbed” the Smithsonian and performed What Child is This? and Carol of the Bells, to the delight of the crowd:
The Air Force Times Flightlines blog noted that the official Air Force Band website said the first song was Greensleeves. While Greensleeves is the same tune as What Child is This?, the vocalists were clearly singing the lyrics to the latter.
Military members can Read more
The Air Force announced Tuesday that Capt William DuBois was killed when his F-16 crashed “in the Middle East” in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. Officially, the crash was declared not combat related and was said not to have occurred in Iraq or Syria. CNN reported it occurred in Jordan.
As with all such incidents, the Air Force will investigate the cause. The crash follows another recent fatal crash out of Tyndall AFB just last month.
US Soldiers deployed in support of Operation United Assistance (deployment to Africa in response to the Ebola outbreak) have many of the same — if not more — logistical challenges as those deployed further downrange. Chaplain (LtCol) David Bowlus described conducting outdoor worship services in Monrovia, Liberia, as the chapel tent ended up being requisitioned to house other Soldiers.
The article on the chaplains in Africa noted they are Read more
As described in the Digital Journal:
Mikey Weinstein, an Air Force Academy graduate, is worried that radical Christians pose the same kind of threat ISIS does in the Middle East…
Weinstein routinely uses over-the-top language to describe Christians, partially to gain attention and partially to coat-tail the topic du jour, so associating US military Christians with ISIS is par for the course.
Further [emphasis added]:
Many in the military believe their No. 1 duty is destroy anyone who opposes Christianity, Weinstein says.
It’s a good thing conspiracy theories are, by definition, unprovable. It saves Weinstein the trouble of having to support his wild accusations with those pesky things called “facts.”