Tag Archives: Church and State

“God of Wonders” in Orbit and Afghanistan

Traditionally, Space Shuttle crews in orbit receive a musical “wake up call” at the end of their “sleep cycle” (“night” occurs every 90 minutes or so).  From the NASA website:

Wakeup calls are a long-standing tradition of the NASA program. Each day during the mission, flight controllers in the Mission Control Center will greet the crew with an appropriate musical interlude.  

Apparently, the music is chosen based on requests by the crew or their families.  This morning, the Atlantis crew awoke to “God of Wonders,” as performed by members of Third Day and Caedmon’s Call on the City on a Hill album, for astronaut Michael Good.  This morning’s transmission can be heard on NASA’s site.  After the song was played, Astronaut Mike Good said he looked forward to a productive day that would “bring glory to the Lord of all creation.”  From the transmission Read more

Some Upset at US Govt’s “Destruction” of Bibles

As previously discussed, the US military has said it destroyed the local language Bibles mailed into Afghanistan by a church in the United States.  Dr. Carl Moeller of Open Doors USA, which has ministries focused on delivering Bibles and support for persecuted Christians, called the destruction a waste that was “beyond necessity.”

There’s certainly many organizations that could put them to good use…I don’t think it had to go to the degree that they took it. I think it sets a very bad picture of the U.S. military’s perspective on Christianity, and frankly that troubles me.

CNN also covered the story (video). In the end, the military’s decision Read more

National Day of Prayer, 7 May 09

Updated: Obama’s proclamation can be read here.  Text below the fold. 

This year’s National Day of Prayer is Thursday, 7 May 2009.  As discussed every year at about this time, the President proclaims a National Day of Prayer on the first Thursday in May in accordance with Public Law 100-307 (history).

Much ado was made of President Obama’s failure thus far to make the proclamation, in addition to questions that circulated over whether he would continue the tradition of hosting an observance at the White House.  (Former proclamations by President Bush, which normally preceded the day by several weeks, have been removed from the White House website.) It has now been reported that Obama will make the proclamation, as required by law, but not host a White House observance of the day.

Last year Michael Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation threatened to add military associations with the National Day of Prayer task force (a private group) to his DoD lawsuit, though he never followed through on his threat. Read more

Updated: More al Jazeera Chaplain Video

In an apparent response to the claims that it took things out of context, al Jazeera has posted a seven minute unedited video clip of the “Bible study group” in which the local language Bibles were shown.  The original video, discussed here, was severely edited and has caused an internet uproar calling for court martial for the Chaplains and discharge for all the military members involved.

The fuller video is somewhat vindicating, and demonstrates that the al Jazeera clip did, in fact, take the Chaplain’s and soldiers’ words out of context. The Chaplain, accused in some places of illegal action, gives very good, very legal advice, and talks about the “hearts and minds” of the Afghani and Muslim culture.  He very specifically, and very emphatically, says violating General Order number one is not the “sword they want to fall on.” Read more

US Military Chaplains on al Jazeera

As noted at the Huffington Post, al Jazeera has posted a news article and segment (video on YouTube) showing military Chaplains in the Middle East with Bibles in the local language and preaching “conversion.”

While seemingly inflammatory on its face (as evidenced by the outrage in subsequent comments on the websites), the newsreel is actually an “exercise in context.”  For example, it highlights this quote, also re-posted in both the al Jazeera and Huffington Post articles:

[T]he chaplains appear to have found a way around the regulation known as General Order Number One.

“Do we know what it means to proselytise?” Captain Emmit Furner, a military chaplain, says to the gathering.

“It is General Order Number One,” an unidentified soldier replies.

But [another soldier] says “you can’t proselytise but you can give gifts.”

The voiceover then continues, and the Huffington article goes on to emphasize the crime of conversion in Afghanistan.

Both ignore the significance of the very next statement by the Chaplain, which is almost obscured by the al Jazeera narrator. Read more

Sikh Coalition Campaigns for Military Service

Updated: CNN now carries the story. 

The Sikh Coalition has announced a “campaign” to convince the US Army to allow members of the Sikh faith to serve in uniform.  Two medical students, one a dentist, one a doctor, were reportedly recruited by the Army only to be told later that they would not be able to wear their religious apparel while in uniform.

According to the site, the Sikh faith requires that they carry their “articles of faith,” which include “unshorn” hair, a turban, a metal bracelet, a kind of shorts, and a kirpan (or “Sikh sword”).  In general, these accoutrements have been found to be inconsistent with military uniform regulations; therefore, Sikhs would have to give up these articles of faith while in uniform Read more

DoJ Moves to Dismiss Chalker/MRFF Lawsuit

The Obama Administration’s Department of Justice has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Specialist Dustin Chalker and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.  The lawsuit (discussed previously and available here) alleged that Chalker was forced to attend formations that had Christian prayers.  It asked that the Courts direct that the DoD not require Chalker to attend formations at which a prayer was given.

The motion to dismiss contains a variety of strong points (some of which have been mentioned on this site previously).  In particular Read more

Military Chaplains in High Demand

There has long been a shortage in Chaplains in the Guard and reserve, as previously noted.  The Stars and Stripes notes that reservists are currently in high demand, as they are activated to fill posts of Chaplains who are deployed downrange.

Said one such Chaplain, who had been activated multiple times over the past decades:

“[The soldiers] sought reassurance that they were there for the right purposes. A lot of them had religious questions about God — ‘What does God think about this?’ People wanted to be baptized. There are no atheists or agnostics in foxholes.”

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