Tag Archives: Chaplain

Family Research Council Cites ChristianFighterPilot.com

Just a short time after a gunman fired on a security guard at The Family Research Council building in Washington, DC — apparently because he ‘didn’t like their politics’ — the FRC and the Liberty Institute published The Survey of Religious Hostility in America (PDF, 2MB).  The Survey is 135 pages covering “more than 600 recent examples of religious hostility” detailing “religious bigotry throughout America.”  The paper includes not just independent government action, but moves by citizens to use the government to take action “hostile” toward religion.

America today would be unrecognizable to our Founders. Our first freedom is facing a relentless onslaught from well-funded and aggressive groups and individuals who are using the courts, Congress, and the vast federal bureaucracy to suppress and limit religious freedom. This radicalized minority is driven by an anti-religious ideology that is turning the First Amendment upside down.

Naturally, the report covers perceptions of religious hostility in the US military, with which they included this citation of ChristianFighterPilot.com:  Read more

Former Marine, Current Army Chaplain Serves All

US Army Chaplain (Capt) David Harvey was originally Marine recruit Harvey in 1989.  He is one of many chaplains who were formerly enlisted; Chaplain Harvey now serves both Soldiers and Marines.  His background gives him a unique connection to the Marines who recently arrived near his Army unit:

A chaplain’s priority of work is his own unit, then other military units. I’m not assigned as a Marine chaplain by any stretch of the imagination, and I’m not trying to take over for the MEU chaplain, but when the Marines find out you’ve got the club ring, got the tattoos, you can establish a rapport with them right away.”

Read more.

Chaplain Team Preps for Mass Casualties

The US Army North chaplain team is tasked to support Task Force 51, an intragovernmental team that would stand up if a CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) event occurred.

[Chaplain] Maj. William Nicholas said everybody’s role in the task force is important but the role of the chaplain and chaplain’s assistant is unique because in a predicament people might need the presence or the love of God.

The team would support everyone involved in whatever Read more

Fatwa Issued for USAFA Basic Cadets during Ramadan

Ramadan occurred during basic training at the US Air Force Academy this year — a strenuous time of physical exertion during which the religiously-mandated fast would likely be detrimental to both health and performance.

Islamic USAFA basic trainees were able to abstain from their fast due to a fatwa issued by Imam Mohamed Jodeh, a civilian described as “the liaison between the Academy’s Muslim community and the chaplains:”   Read more

Chaplains Go Where You Go

Most people probably know where Iraq and Afghanistan.  A few know less popular countries like Qatar and Bahrain.  Fewer have heard of Tajikistan.  What about Botswana?

U.S. forces traveling to the Republic of Botswana Aug. 1-17 for Southern Accord 2012, are under the spiritual care of Army Chaplain Read more

Kunsan Air Base Chaplains Defend Military Marriages

The Air Force assignments in Korea are generally one-year remotes, meaning Airmen are stationed in Korea for a year while their family waits back home.  That doesn’t mean the Air Force stops supporting their families and helping them strengthen their marriages.  In fact, the opposite is true:

A Marriage Care Retreat hosted by the Kunsan AB Chapel from Aug. 8-10 here gave them and 20 other couples the chance to work on their relationships.

The Kunsan Chapel intended the Marriage Care Retreat to be a means for those “physically separated from their spouses to still connect with them,” though it also Read more

Air Force Colonel: There are Many Roads to God

Critics of religious freedom in the US military have sometimes claimed that speaking one’s faith while being associated with the military is forbidden.  For example, Michael Weinstein’s MRFF used to have a stockpile of chaplains’ articles from local base papers they would re-publish, often with little comment except shock and the implication that what the military member (a chaplain) was doing was wrong (an implication their acolytes were quick to assume was fact).

MRFF volunteer Rick Baker has gone further, saying uniformed officers can’t even put a religious bumper sticker on their private car.  Chris Rodda, Weinstein’s research assistant, has gone so far as to explicitly state it is wrong for officers to “publicly espouse” their religious beliefs on the internet, even when they do so as private citizens.  (She’s wrong, of course, but that hasn’t stopped her in the past…)

It is worth noting that these criticisms have been aimed Read more

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