A rather benign article about US Army Chaplain (LtCol) Kenneth Sorenson attending the US Air Force Air War College (a somewhat rare chaplain cross-service opportunity) had an interesting photo:
Rumor has it that Chuck Norris (who was an Airman himself, at one point) proficiency advanced Air War College. Turns out “roundhouse kick” is an incontestable and inimitable grand strategy. Read more
Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s research assistant Chris Rodda has taken the MRFF attacks on military Christians to a new level. Weinstein and company have previously railed against Christians who expressed their religious beliefs, even if they did so in a church service. They’ve also blasted Christians for nothing more than having certain beliefs.
Mikey Weinstein’s research assistant, Chris Rodda.
Now, Chris Rodda has gone a step further, holding up for derision not expressed beliefs or even the beliefs of any particular service member. Instead, Rodda attacked cherry-picked (and misrepresented) policy statements from a chaplain’s endorsing agency, as if that implicated either a service member or religious freedom in general. Rodda’s characteristically rambling article at the Huffington Post is entitled “Ranger Chaplain’s Endorsing Agency: Women in Combat ‘Contrary to Nature,’ ‘Biblical Duty of Man to Defend Woman’.”
It’s worth noting that Rodda’s headline isn’t even true. Her quotes on nature and the duty of man came from the assemblies of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) in 2001 and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) in 2002. The OPC and PCA are two of seven member denominations of the endorsing agency known as the Presbyterian and Reformed Commission on Chaplains and Military Personnel. Those assemblies are not any chaplain’s endorsing agency. Rodda appears to have chosen sensationalism over integrity, which is ironic for someone who focuses so much on debunking “liars.”
Regardless, Rodda writes as the representative of Read more
The National Organization for Marriage, one of the primary groups that tried to defend traditional marriage in the United States, has become the latest non-military group to recognize the attacks on Christians in the military occurring because of the rise of socially endorsed ‘sexual freedom.’ Importantly, they noted these attacks are coming despite constant reassurances that acceptance of homosexuality would have no impact on those who didn’t agree:
Some radical activists who champion support for gay ‘marriage’ in the military have demanded that military chaplains who stand up for traditional marriage be dismissed from military service, told by the government to “get the hell out of the military chaplaincy” and calling Read more
An interesting article from the local Hanover newspaper covers the present-day re-enactment of Civil War military church services:
When a Civil War regiment marched into battle, it usually had more chaplains than surgeons backing it up.
Battlefield medicine may have been in its infancy, but religion was central to most of the men, and soldiers relied on faith to heal the spirit from the horrors of war.
“If you were in a potential battle area, you definitely wanted to make sure you went to church and didn’t want to go in there without that blessing,” said Kirk Davis, history director at Gettysburg Anniversary Committee.
In an interesting note: Read more
David Wells, pastor of Pleasant View Baptist Church in McQuady, Kentucky, was recently barred from ministering to residents of a juvenile detention facility because he refused to sign a policy that said he could not refer to homosexuality as sinful. The Liberty Counsel is now assisting Wells as he sues for reinstatement:
“They have not accommodated him and they’re clearly trying to restrict a particular viewpoint,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel…
Staver also said he Read more
Rabbi Elie Estrin (previously discussed here) recently graduated from Officer Training School, officially making him an officer in the Air Force Reserve — and the Air Force’s only chaplain wearing a beard:
During the five week Commissioned Officer Training Course, Rabbi Estrin ate Kosher MRE’s (ready-to-eat meals) and said that staff were fantastic about facilitating his required accommodations, some of which included his adherence to Shabbat and the 25 hour fast of Tisha Be’av, a day which commemorates the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem.
(Chaplain Menachem Stern currently serves in the US Army with a beard.)
Religious beards mark one Read more
In a little-reported story, US military chaplains from across the country mobilized to try to serve and bring peace to service members assigned to the Navy Operational Support Center in Chattanooga, where five troops were killed last month:
“We are here because we want to be here for the Sailors and Marines,” said Lt. Cmdr. David Hicks, a Navy chaplain from Charleston, South Carolina.”
Lt. Joel DeGraeve, Navy chaplain from Columbus, Ohio: “To reach out to each other and build each other up when we’re having life struggles is Read more
The US Navy conducts an annual “blessing of the fleet,” a tradition intended to “safeguard crews and ships” from the hazards of the oceans through a religious blessing.
It turns out the Navy also conducts a “blessing of the wings” as part of new Naval Aviators’ winging ceremonies. An official Navy article recounts that the chapel at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi held its first services on the infamous December 7, 1941, and as the new aviators went off to war, chaplains began “blessing” their wings:
According to the chaplains, during World War II, many Catholic chaplains began blessing the wings of Catholic aviators. This tradition continued throughout the years and eventually became a “Blessing of the Wings” service in chapels around the world.
Eventually the service included Read more