Navy Chaplain Receives ADM Zumwalt Award
US Navy Chaplain (Lt) David Duprey recently received one of two Admiral Zumwalt Awards for Visionary Leadership — a prestigious recognition of leadership not often recognized in the chaplain corps: Read more
Tag Archives: Religion
Al Mohler: The End of Legislating Morality
The Rev (Dr.) Albert Mohler wrote an interesting article responding to comments by Jonathan Turley, the lawyer for the successful Utah “sister wives” legal challenge and law professor at George Washington University [emphasis added]:
Turley’s article is an example of a concerted, very sophisticated, libertarian argument that is fast gaining ground in American life. Just last year the state of Colorado decriminalized adultery. The president of the Independence Institute testified for the decriminalization, stating that “it is a conservative value to get rid of bills that are useless.”…
The original statute was hardly useless. It was a profound moral statement about the sanctity of marriage and the crime of violating the marriage vows, thus subverting marriage and the family and endangering children and weakening the larger community.
Mohler also revisits the argument that the state should not “legislate morality,” which he accurately rebuts by Read more
Bagram Chaplains Provide Healing Beyond Medical Care
An Air Force article highlighted the services of the chaplains who serve in the Craig Joint Theater Hospital at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan:
Chaplain (Capt.) Gary Willeford, a member of the hospital RSTs. “Issues of faith may come up with the traumas that they have experienced. We come alongside of our patients and remind them that God has not forgotten Read more
CNN Columnist Solves Issue of Sexual Assault
A few weeks ago Roxanne Jones, by-lined as 2010 Woman of the Year from Women in Sports and Events, wrote an article at CNN with an astonishing perspective on sexuality in the modern era.
First, she notes how she sent her son off to college:
I filled my son’s duffel bag with about 300 condoms and told him watch out for party girls but have fun; meet new people but stay focused on academics…
Parents need to step up. I’m doing my part, raising a son to respect women…
Given the current culture, she feels she may have left out an important message for the modern era [emphasis added]:
Never have sex with a girl unless she’s sent you a text that proves the sexual relationship is consensual beforehand. And Read more
Chaplains Praise Post-DADT Military, Criticize Fellow Chaplains
In a Unitarian Universalist article entitled “End of DOMA brings new openness for military chaplains,” a chaplain and his endorser recently spoke about the ability to be “more open” now that DADT has been repealed:
[Unitarian Universalist] chaplains are now able to more easily support soldiers who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual and to help provide services for them and their families…
“The big difference is in my ability to be much more open myself about what my stance is,” said Chaplain (Captain) George Tyger, an active duty UU military chaplain. “As a UU minister, I represent the Unitarian Universalist Association in the military. Before DADT went down, I had to tiptoe around the issue, and now I don’t. I can say, ‘This is how I feel; I’m 100 percent affirming.’”
It’s an interesting highlight in an era in which most people seem to assume military chaplains universally have a problem with homosexuality.
By the same token, its no small irony that while a “100% affirming” military chaplain now has the confidence to boldly proclaim his support for homosexuality, non-affirming chaplains have reportedly had their confidence Read more
US Navy Disregarding DADT Repeal Plan?
Update: The theme continued at the Air Force Times nearly three weeks later.
The US Navy recently announced (on its continuously updated DADT page) that it had coordinated with Japan to understand that “spouse” in the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) would cover a “same-sex” couple. (Published at the Washington Post, repeated at Stars and Stripes.) As a result,
The Navy [said] in a notice to personnel that it had added Japan to its list of overseas assignments for same-sex couples…The Navy has made only Japan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, available
as overseas assignments for gay couples.
The specifics of that announcement were largely missed or simply viewed as another “victory” by homosexual advocacy groups, including the American Military Partner Association, which
described the Navy’s decision as “welcome news” but noted that the armed forces do not treat same-sex spouses equally at many duty stations abroad.
Oddly, neither the AMPA nor anyone else seems to have noted this “special treatment” for homosexuals in assignments was never supposed to happen.
The Pentagon’s DADT repeal report Read more
Chris Rodda, Mikey Weinstein Go Off Script on Religious Freedom
Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation believes the 2014 NDAA language requiring the US military to accommodate religious expression — not just religious belief — is “a good thing.”
Simultaneously, Weinstein’s MRFF also believes the language is “a blank check for bullies.”
Awkwardly, Weinstein and his “special research assistant” Chris Rodda issued opposing MRFF statements on precisely the same subject.
In mid-December, Rodda, speaking for Weinstein’s “charity,” said this in a little-noticed MRFF posting [emphasis added]: Read more
Homosexuals Claim Discrimination over Military Marriage Retreat
As repeal of the policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” was occurring “uneventfully,” critics of repeal repeatedly noted that the other shoe had yet to drop on certain points of controversy.
For example, how would the military handle the potential of homosexuals wanting to attend marriage seminars or retreats — when the chaplains who lead them may not affirm a homosexual lifestyle, and the troops who attend them may theologically disagree with homosexuality?
It would seem the shoe finally dropped — and homosexual advocates have claimed “discrimination.”
For its part, the Air Force appears to have been the first service to publish explicit guidance on how to handle such situations:
When you advertise a [Marriage Care] retreat, announce the chaplain who will be leading the event and the chaplain’s endorser. If the chaplain is permitted to train same-gender couples in a MC event, then you may register all eligible married couples. However, if the chaplain is not permitted to train same-gender couples in a MC event, be prepared to offer…a MC event at another base or at a later date to a same-gender married couple.
If a same-gender married couple will be attending a MC event, make this known to the other couples as they register. If those couples choose not to register for this event, be prepared to offer them…a MC event at another base or at a later date.
As was discussed at the time, the Air Force has recognized Read more