{"id":1127,"date":"2009-10-05T00:25:03","date_gmt":"2009-10-05T07:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=1127"},"modified":"2009-11-21T21:20:15","modified_gmt":"2009-11-22T05:20:15","slug":"experiencing-combat-with-a-man-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/05\/experiencing-combat-with-a-man-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Experiencing Combat with a Man of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

The integration of Chaplains in US military operations is so seamless that it is actually difficult to read a story about ongoing combat operations without hearing about the role of the military’s spiritual advisors.\u00a0 In a recent piece at the LA Times<\/em><\/a> about the commander’s changing tactics in Afghanistan, the reporter happens to describe a Chaplain riding in an MRAP with soldiers:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

“If anything happens, tell my babies I love them,” [a soldier] said.\u00a0 But the rest of the crew did not want the jinx of such dark talk.<\/p>\n

“Knock it off,” [another] said.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, knock it off,” echoed Capt. David Burris, the unit’s chaplain.<\/p>\n

The chaplain has come under attack twice in the short time he has been in Afghanistan. No one was seriously hurt, but the guardsmen jokingly argue about whether he is a protective talisman or a Taliban magnet. Still, when in peril, they turn to Burris for reassurance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From the back of the MRAP, the chaplain piped up once more across the intercom.<\/p>\n

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me,” Burris said. “Thy .50-cal. and 240, they comfort me.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Someone will probably complain about the mixture of religious speech and military firepower coming from a US Chaplain, or say he was using the official government intercom to proselytize the spiritually-vulnerable combat-hardened soldiers.<\/p>\n

To the men in the MRAP, however, he’s just one of the guys–sustaining them through combat operations by his sacrificial ministry of presence.\u00a0 And they love him for it.<\/p>\n

God bless him in his ministry.<\/p>\n

And a .50-cal in the hands of an American soldier in Afghanistan is<\/em> quite a comfort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The integration of Chaplains in US military operations is so seamless that it is actually difficult to read a story about ongoing combat operations without hearing about the role of the military’s spiritual advisors.\u00a0 In a recent piece at the LA Times about the commander’s changing tactics in Afghanistan, the reporter happens to describe a Chaplain riding in an MRAP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[58,23,4,70,19,75,2,11,17,10],"class_list":["post-1127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chaplain","tag-afghanistan","tag-bible","tag-churchandstate","tag-evangelism","tag-government","tag-invocation","tag-military","tag-prayer","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}