Tag Archives: Chaplain

Chaplains Visit Billy Graham Library, Refocus Ministry

Seven chaplains from Fort Bragg recently visited the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, NC, helping them “refocus” their ministry:

“Praise God we’ve got to go through the cross to get in there,” Capt. Mike Krog said, referring to the cross-shaped glass entrance to the Library…

The men–all paratroopers who have served overseas–were eager to take the Library’s Journey of Faith tour which documents how God used Billy Graham, the son of a dairy farmer, to reach millions around the world with the Gospel.

The military is a “rigorous mission field,” and the chaplains Read more

Special Forces Chaplain on Unconventional Ministry

Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal has an interesting article from US Army Chaplain (Capt) Tim Crawley, probably one of the few chaplains to attend and complete a few Special Forces courses:

After my chaplaincy training, I was given the opportunity to attend the Army’s Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS). Upon successfully completing selection, I was invited to attend the Special Forces Qualification Course, the arduous “Q Course,” approximately 18 months of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion.

Chaplain Crawley writes how the education on Unconventional Warfare had an “uncanny application to ministry leadership.”

His 7-phase application is an interesting Read more

Archdiocese Offers Mass at Recruit Training Center

As noted in an official Navy article, Catholic Bishop Robert Coyle, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, recently visited the US Naval Recruit Training Center at Great Lakes, Illinois. He was able to meet with the Command’s leadership and celebrate communion with trainees at the Recruit Memorial Chapel. As every trainee of every branch knows, the ability to celebrate one’s faith during the intensity of basic training can provide the support and strength to persevere:

During Catholic services at RTC, recruits volunteer to sing in the choir or serve at the altars. Recruits can also offer prayers, read scripture and take Holy Communion. According to Seaman Recruit Katrina Biggs, taking Read more

Air Force May Change Religious Freedom Policy

Mikey Weinstein’s confused take on the Air Force’s policy:  It’s like an umbrella in a tsunami…

McClatchy asked the question no other media outlet has in the past few weeks: What ever became of the “offsite” Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said she was convening?

Late last month, James and Welsh convened a “Religious Freedom Focus Day” conference of senior chaplains and legal and manpower officials to discuss the policy. An Air Force spokeswoman, Rose Richeson, declined to make the results of the April 28 meeting public, saying it would be “too premature to provide an interview.”

It would seem, though, someone may have heard what occurred:

Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council…said that based on what he’d heard from people at the meeting he expected the Air Force to “make a policy change shortly.”

The article says Perkins’ statement “alarms supporters of the policy,” and cites exactly one person: Michael “Mikey” Weinstein.  The policy Read more

The Need for Military Chaplains

The Southern Baptist Convention recently noted the value of US military chaplains even here at home — in the wake of the second Fort Hood shooting:

“This tragic event highlights the critically important ministry of chaplains,” Doug Carver, executive director for chaplaincy at the North American Mission Board, said. “They are able to minister immediately in situations like this, even before churches can respond, because chaplains are there in the military community as soldiers themselves.

“The armed forces don’t see chaplains as pastors in uniform. They see them as members of the family,” Carver said. “The culture in the military is so close-knit that when a soldier is hurt, that means a family member is hurting. Military life is family.”

Carver’s point is an important one: Chaplains are not Read more

VA Chaplain Ends 42-Year Career

A local paper, repeated at the Stars and Stripes, highlights the fascinating story of 91-year-old VA Chaplain Ben Vegors, who has served at the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial Veterans Affairs Medical Center’s chapel for more than four decades.

[Over the years], he’s helped many men and women recover their faith as their bodies recovered from the effects of military service.

“Here in the chapel it’s been a real good thing,” said Vegors, his voice rich with the memory. “I’ve directed hundreds back to their churches.”

The story starts much earlier, with his conversion in 1940 and his service in B-24s during World War II. Read the full story here.

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US Air Force Academy Hosts Wiccan Priestess

While the US Air Force Academy is regularly accused of being dominated by Christianity, its support for other faith systems routinely goes unnoticed or unpublicized (even by its own Public Affairs, apparently):

Selena Fox, who calls herself a Wiccan priestess, was recently hosted by the USAFA chaplains. (She’s holding a chapel coin.) They took a hike with some local pagans up to Falcon Circle, formerly known as the LZ, an “outdoor chapel” area created with some intent to host earth-centered religious adherents a few years ago.

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Commentators Cite Military Chaplains after SCOTUS Prayer Case

John Ragosta, Paul Finkelman and Steven K. Green, “legal scholars and historians who participated as amicus” in the recent Greece prayer case at the Supreme Court, struggled to understand what the Supreme Court intended to mean by its ruling:

The court fails, though, to explain what this means, an issue that the dissent takes up. Should prayers occur before the public is invited into the room? Should prayers be directed only at the board? Should the members themselves take turns invoking prayers, making it clear that they are personal and not “official” prayers?

These scholars missed the obvious issue that Read more

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