{"id":189,"date":"2008-05-31T20:41:25","date_gmt":"2008-06-01T03:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=189"},"modified":"2008-07-07T22:54:42","modified_gmt":"2008-07-08T05:54:42","slug":"respect-and-professional-conduct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/31\/respect-and-professional-conduct\/","title":{"rendered":"Respect and Professional Conduct"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christians can and should be involved in public discourse, particularly with respect to Christianity in the public square.\u00a0 This may mean that they will have opportunities to support statements with which they agree, refute those that they do not, and defend the actions of Christians against unjust or unfounded accusations.\u00a0 Throughout such discourse, they must endeavor to do so with tolerance and respect for the beliefs and ideas of others.\u00a0 While there is generally nothing wrong with a stern defense, it is sometimes easy to adopt prejudicial views rather than respond with consideration.\u00a0 While Christians should be emboldened to speak the truth, even the recent \u201cEvangelical Manifesto<\/a>\u201d took Christians to task for \u201cexpressing the truth without love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christians should remember, too, that tolerance<\/em> means to respect another\u2019s rights to have different beliefs.\u00a0 Contrary to modern interpretations, it does not<\/strong><\/em> mean that one has to accept<\/em> those beliefs or agree to their opposing truth claims.\u00a0 This was once simplified as respecting another person\u2019s \u201cright to be wrong.\u201d\u00a0 (Pluralism<\/em>, on the other hand, asserts that there is no single \u201cright\u201d answer; in fact, opposing beliefs may be equally \u201cright.\u201d)<\/p>\n

In the military, such respect for another\u2019s beliefs is not only recommended, it is required.\u00a0 While a civilian can run another person\u2019s faith into the ground without recourse, a military member who did the same to another would come under official sanction.\u00a0 This is not because the military supports one faith over another, nor is it because some faiths \u201cneed protection.\u201d\u00a0 Rather, it is because the \u201cgood order and discipline\u201d of a unit, and its ability to accomplish its mission, depend on a cohesiveness that cannot exist outside of an environment of mutual respect.\u00a0 Again, two military members may have any of a variety of opposing beliefs\u2014religious or atheist, Democrat or Republican, Northerner or Southerner.\u00a0 The military does not require that service members have the same<\/em> beliefs\u2014only that they treat each other with respect and accomplish the mission nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Institutionally, there are times the military may treat religions as \u201cspecial,\u201d because there are often greater issues as stake.\u00a0 For example, religious buildings are not routinely targeted in warfare by those adhering to the laws of war, and they are often avoided even if they do become legitimate targets.\u00a0 In Iraq today, it would not be surprising to find that US military actions are reduced on Friday, out of respect for the Muslim holy day.\u00a0 While similar intentional religious deference in America might be decried as unConstitutional, in Iraq those actions serve a strategic purpose.\u00a0 Islam is not merely a religious issue, it is a cultural one, and it permeates the actions and beliefs of both American allies and adversaries in the region.<\/p>\n

That is likely the reason that a US soldier was recently sent home from Iraq after he was found<\/a> to have used the Koran for a target on a small arms range.\u00a0 It was likely also the motivation behind high ranking officers apologizing to local Iraqis and kissing a Koran before gifting it to them.\u00a0 In the United States, that soldier\u2019s actions were not illegal (though the officers\u2019 actions may have been challenged on Constitutional grounds).\u00a0 Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), there are no direct prohibitions for the soldier\u2019s actions.\u00a0 Rather, his actions risked harming allied relations and reversing attempts to undo the anti-Islamic perceptions of Americans in the region.<\/p>\n

Officers may have spoken out of turn when they described his actions as \u201ccriminal behavior,\u201d but it is possible he will be punished under general rules for professional conduct.\u00a0 While some may disagree with the punishment of a soldier for actions that are not \u201ctechnically\u201d illegal and which seem to sanction a particular religion, there seems to be little doubt that, maliciously or not, his actions undermined the efforts of the military in Iraq.\u00a0 (His departure may also have been hastened to avoid potential calls for him to be subject to Iraqi law, which may include Islamic protections of the Koran.)<\/p>\n

The relationship among military members, the military institution, and religious issues is a topic of ongoing debate.\u00a0 Military Christians need not be silent, but they should endeavor to \u201cspeak the truth with love.\u201d\u00a0 They need not agree with all beliefs, but they should respect the beliefs of others.\u00a0 Finally, they should hold themselves to the highest standards of professional conduct, such that there is not even a perception of wrongdoing.\u00a0 Ultimately, America benefits from the civil, respectful, moral, and ethical leadership of its citizens and its soldiers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christians can and should be involved in public discourse, particularly with respect to Christianity in the public square.\u00a0 This may mean that they will have opportunities to support statements with which they agree, refute those that they do not, and defend the actions of Christians against unjust or unfounded accusations.\u00a0 Throughout such discourse, they must endeavor to do so with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4,2],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-churchandstate","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","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=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}