US Troops Walk Out on Chaplain’s Sermon
The following account is provided anonymously, and certain details have been intentionally obscured to protect the identities of those involved.
I walked out of a church service last Sunday.
It wasn’t because I had a crying child or a vibrating cellphone. It was because when the singing stopped, the pastor who stood up in front of the congregation to deliver the sermon represented religious beliefs I disagreed with.
Now why, you might ask, was I even at a church whose pastor didn’t hold the same beliefs as me?
Easy: I’m in the US military.
Unfortunately, we don’t always have the luxury of “choosing” our church. Other times, we might choose the chapel on the post, yet watch as the pastor — the chaplain — changes from one year (or even one Sunday) to the next. And every service member will go through the process of moving, which means a new “job,” a new home, and a new church — every couple of years.
The way some people seem to tell the story, the military is being run (or overrun) Read more
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With a group of US troops posing in front of a flag with a Christian cross, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein will no doubt pontificate on the propaganda value such a photo provides for al Qaeda and ISIS, and how these troops are endangering the lives of their fellow troops, violating their oaths and the US Constitution, etc., etc., etc. Standard bigoted fare.
Despite one ill-fated and ill-willed