Dr. Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has an interesting and lengthy response to a chaplain’s letter asking if its ok not to pray in Jesus Name — one of the points of controversy for chaplains in the US military:<\/p>\n
Praying in Jesus’ name isn’t simply a cultural addendum at the end of a request…We pray in Jesus’ name because Jesus commanded us to do so (Jn. 14:13)…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Moore notes that men of faith are expected to pray in accordance with their faith.\u00a0 No one expects a Muslim to pray like an Episcopalian, just as the Hindu who opened Congress with his version of prayer<\/a> was not expected to sound like a Baptist or a Catholic.\u00a0 (A Fort Bragg chaplain recently did the same thing<\/a> — in Jesus Name.) It is no more logical to assert that a Christian should neuter his prayer.<\/p>\n
Again, chaplains are leaders of faith — no leaders of a civic religion:<\/p>\n
Chaplains don’t serve chiefly a civic function. They are there, first of all, to guarantee the First Amendment liberties of military and other personnel to the free exercise of religion. If the government decides that the only chaplains who can serve are those willing to pray like Unitarians in public, one wonders what would remain of the purpose of chaplaincy at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n