Tag Archives: Religion

Navy Conducts Annual Blessing of the Fleets

The US Navy reported that the annual “Blessing of the Fleet” ceremony was held at the Navy Memorial in Washington, DC, last week.

Chaplain of the Marine Corps and Deputy Chief of Navy Chaplains, Rear Adm. Brent W. Scott, gave the invocation and blessing to the centuries-old tradition…

The Blessing of the Fleets ritual is intended to safeguard crews and ships from the danger of the seas.

This was the 25th annual ceremony, though the tradition extends for centuries.

To date, it has apparently Read more

Army Chaplain Reaches Troops with Cigars, PT

An interesting intro in to an article about a military chaplain from the Fayetteville Observer:

When Father Luke pulls out his Bible, soldiers scatter.

So Chaplain (Capt) Lukasz J. Willenberg, also known as Father Luke, set out to reach his troops regardless — and it worked:

He started Holy Smokes – a lounge time after Sunday night mass…[at] Bagram Airfield…A division band played jazz in the background as Willenberg led casual conversations about anything the soldiers could entertain.

“We’d have over 100 people,” Willenberg said. “Here we are, in a deployed setting. We can build a camaraderie session. We’re building each other up so we can keep going with the mission.”

While Holy Smokes provided something for the troops, it also gave Chaplain Read more

Atheist Objects to Closeted Christian Coming Out

Matthew Spence was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy from 2012 to 2015. He recently wrote an Op Ed in the Washington Post entitled “I was a closeted Christian at the Pentagon” — meaning, for those confused, he hid his Christianity on the job.

It’s a fascinating read, both from the perspective of a Christian and that of a government official. It’s interesting to see Spence discuss how he felt pressured to hide his Christianity, the impact that had on him spiritually, and what happened when he decided he wasn’t going to do that anymore:  Read more

Gospel Competency: An Imperative For Military Chaplains

by Sonny Hernandez

As a military chaplain, I have been privileged and blessed to serve the nation’s finest men and women who have endured laboriously for the defense of freedom. There is an exponential amount of men and women from around the world who have coalesced to serve selflessly and honorably against all enemies foreign and domestic. The sacrifice of family separation, elongated deployments, and all of the cataclysmic experiences of spiritual warfare can lead to many adversarial effects. Some of those aggravated effects are: depression, anger, sadness, hopelessness, family troubles, divorce, drunkenness, sexual immorality (bestiality, adultery, fornication, and homosexuality), attempted suicide and even death. This is why competent, Bible-believing military chaplains are imperative to provide Gospel-centered preaching and counseling to those who serve in the Armed Forces.

There are always going to be incursions on military chaplains who believe Read more

Harriet Tubman: Christian Abolitionist to Grace $20 Bill

harriet-tubman-1875The US Treasury Department announced this week that well-known abolitionist and conductor of the underground railroad Harriet Tubman would replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill in 2020:

In being featured on the front of the $20 bill, Tubman will be the first African American on U.S. paper money ever, and the first woman in 100 years.

Lew called it a “powerful message,” and described Tubman’s life as the “essential story of American democracy.”

The praise of many “progressives” for the change is made amusing by the fact Tubman was motivated by her Christian faith — even to the point of breaking the law.

In today’s society, Read more

Mikey Weinstein Claims Indifference Toward Religious Views

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein used to say he would give his last drop of blood — and encourage his kids to give their last drop of blood — to defend the right of people to have their religious beliefs, even if he disagreed with them. While most of Weinstein’s talking points haven’t changed over the past ten years, this one has: He dropped this oft-repeated phrase long ago — likely because he knows it isn’t true.

Still, he leaned in that principled direction recently when on a “religious liberty panel” — a panel with such “diverse” religious liberty experts as the ACLU, AU, and Pedro Irgonegaray, one of Weinstein’s MRFF “voices.” In that panel, Weinstein said:

I don’t care what their [religious] views are. What I care (about) is when they try to use the power of the U.S. military to propagate it.

That’s a demonstrably false statement. Just take one quick example: When Read more

Article: Stop Calling Ted Cruz a Dominionist

Robert Gagnon and Edith Humphrey at Christianity Today wrote an interesting article entitled “Stop Calling Ted Cruz a Dominionist.” In essence, it takes critics of Ted Cruz to task for using a label that clearly doesn’t make sense.

They summarize some of those accusing Cruz of being a “dominionist,” including John Fea, professor of American history at Messiah College, and Warren Throckmorton, professor of psychology at Grove City College (think Chris Rodda with credibility).

They then explain where the term and accusations are coming from:

The term has become elastic, encompassing Christians who believe the United States was once a predominantly Christian nation as well as those who hold “right-wing” views. But as many writers have noted, this elastic sense has become a bogeyman.

Jewish journalist Stanley Kurtz called it “conspiratorial nonsense,” while Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson declared: “Thin charges of dominionism are just another attempt to discredit opponents rather than answer them.”

Even the liberal journalist Lisa Miller called the loose accusation of dominionism “the paranoid mot du jour.”

The two authors then give examples from Ted Cruz’s life that seem to Read more

Transgender Fighter Pilot To-Be Awaits Policy Change

The New York Times recently bemoaned that it was “unfair” to US troops who have publicly announced their gender identity issues for the US military to fail to follow through with its unstated promise of letting them serve in whatever gender expression they chose.

To be clear, US military policy states those who “identify” as a gender other than their actual one have issues that disqualify them from serving. In July of last year, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter stood up a “working group” to study the impact of allowing troops with gender issues to serve [emphasis added]:

“At my direction,” Carter said, “the working group will start with the presumption that transgender persons can serve openly without adverse impact on military effectiveness and readiness, unless and except where objective, practical impediments are identified.”

The working group was to study the issue over the succeeding six months.

Eight months later, the New York Times chided Carter for Read more

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