Tag Archives: Chaplain

Catholic Chaplain’s Lawsuit over Gov’t Shutdown Dismissed

Father Ray Leonard is a civilian contract chaplain who filed a lawsuit after the US military refused to allow him to perform services during the budget crisis known as the “government shutdown” last year.

Father Leonard’s lawsuit has been dismissed as moot (PDF), essentially because the government allowed him to return to work after it re-opened.

Legally, if a defendant reverses a policy in response to a lawsuit, the courts will not (necessarily) consider the claim moot. In this case, however, the judge decided the military did not change its mind because of his lawsuit, but because the government re-opened. Paraphrased, this “mootness” exception says  Read more

Chaplains Serve in Afghanistan during Holy Days

The Stars and Stripes recently covered a few chaplains who were busy during the recent holy day celebrations for US troops in Afghanistan:

US Army Chaplain (Col) Mike Charles serves in Kabul, Afghanistan, has deployed four times, and notes the week celebrating Christ’s resurrection is one of the busiest of the year:

Charles must ensure that religious leaders are available for the week’s numerous religious events – from Passover to Easter Sunday – and that troops across all corners of Afghanistan are able to worship appropriately.

That protection of religious exercise involves both going Read more

DoD Rebuffs Mikey Weinstein Criticism on National Day of Prayer

As he has occasionally done before, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein has complained about the upcoming National Day of Prayer to be held at the Capitol, equating the National Day of Prayer Task Force, which is helping to organize the event, with al Qaeda.  Weinstein “respectfully demands” not only that any DoD participation be prohibited, but that the DoD

aggressively investigate and appropriately punish any of the individuals and/or organizations that would have allowed for uniformed personnel to participate in this sectarian spectacle

The Defense Department appears non-plussed:

Army officials on Friday said there were no plans to back out of the event. The Army still intends to send Read more

Air Force Reverses, Will Review Religious Freedom Policy (Video)

View the video from approximately 4:10.

How’d you like to be the cadet who posted Galatians 2:20?  You are personally responsible for influencing religious liberty policy in the US Air Force.  Nicely done.

A few weeks ago the US Air Force Academy made the news when a Bible verse was stripped from a USAFA cadet’s dry erase board. The incident led Congressmen to question the Air Force leadership about the incident when they appeared for a budget meeting. Secretary James and Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh were initially defensive, citing AFI 1-1 as the justification for the command action against the cadet, though they did agree to provide a written explanation for the action. General Welsh famously expressed his “single biggest frustration” over what he called the untrue “perception [of] religious persecution” in the Air Force.

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, Secretary James seemed to have tweaked the Air Force reaction.

In response Read more

Fort Hood Says Chaplain Shielded, Protected Soldiers

In the days following the last Fort Hood shooting, several stories emerged about those who were there. Once again, a “female officer” confronted the gunman and ended the spree. As with many shootings, the assailant stopped when confronted with equally deadly force — renewing calls for the military to lift the “gun free zone” status of military bases.

Another story was buried in just a short paragraph of a local CBS report, though the station elected to cite it in the headline, “Fort Hood Chaplain Saves Soldiers By Shielding Them With Own Body, Breaking Windows To Allow Them To Flee.” Quoting LtGen Read more

Atheist Chaplain Analyzes USAFA Whiteboards, Freethinkers

Chris Stedman, the Assistant Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, took to the Religion News Service to express his view on recent events at the US Air Force Academy. Specifically, he addressed Todd Starnes’ comparison of how USAFA took down a Bible verse recently and censored Christian cadets in the past — but allowed atheists to advertise their beliefs. Stedman said:

The stated reason for removing the Bible verse—attempting to ensure that no person, perhaps particularly religious minorities, feels coerced or discriminated against—is a good one… Read more

US Chaplains Teach Koreans Field Ministry

Chaplains (Cmdr) John Owen shows the contents of a chaplain field kit to Republic of Korea Marine Corps chaplains…(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Matthew Manning)

A group of US military chaplains exchanged ideas with their Korean counterparts during MEFEX 14 in South Korea. The article notes that the Koreans have chaplains, too, but apparently are most comfortable in the chapel setting. They were interested in learning how the US chaplains performed ministry in the field: Read more

1 … 61 62 63 64 65 … 163