Tag Archives: Navy

US Military Launched Investigation into Content of Chaplain’s Prayer

costin

The US Department of Defense Inspector General recently revealed it had ordered the Air Force to investigate the content of a chaplain’s prayer.

The context was the now well-known complaint by Michael “Mikey” Weinstein against US Air Force Chief of Chaplains (MajGen) Dondi Costin. In response to Weinstein’s complaint, the DoD IG said [emphasis added]:

We asked the Air Force IG to examine both the act of giving the benediction and its content. After conducting interviews and gathering additional facts, the Air Force IG found that Maj Gen Costin’s benediction was a generic, non-sectarian prayer seeking God’s blessing on the event’s honoree…

This is a shocking revelation, particularly in light of who did it. What business does the DoD Inspector General have analyzing the content of a chaplain’s prayer? Under what authority Read more

Mikey Weinstein’s John Compere Fails in Air Force Times Rebuttal

On 8 November, the Air Force Times published its letters to the editor online. Among them was one from retired US Navy Commander Wayne Johnson, who took Michael “Mikey” Weinstein to task for his attacks against US Air Force LtCol Michael Kersten.

Johnson had some advice for the Air Force. Rather than telling Weinstein to pound sand, Johnson suggested something simpler:

Nuts! [emphasis added]

‘NUTS’ TO DEMAND

In a recent interview with base public affairs for a Meet Your Leadership series at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Kersten, 39th Medical Support Squadron commander, mentioned his Christian faith and quoted the Bible.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation and its president, Mikey Weinstein, is demanding the Air Force rebuke what Kersten said as well as punish him. If the Air Force has real integrity, it should respond to this demand with the words of Army Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe, commander Read more

Christian Marine, Fighter Pilot Find New Callings

Alan Clyne recently retired from the US Marine Corps after a long career. Clyne was in Iraq in 2005 when he was tasked with driving an armored bulldozer to clear a path for engaged fellow Marines:

It was there, at a tiny forward operating base called Camp Gannon in November 2005, that Chief Warrant Officer 4 Clyne and a fellow Marine, Master Sgt. Scott Witmer, hopped aboard an armored Caterpillar D9 bulldozer that neither man had been trained to operate and drove into a high-risk rescue mission in an active combat zone.

A tank accompanied them — from Read more

Professor Calls for Military Chaplains to Confront Moral Injury

Dr. Martin E. Marty of the University of Chicago Divinity School recently cheered on US military chaplains who are confronting issues of moral injury.

Marty apparently came to see the issues associated with moral injury relatively recently:

A latecomer to the discourse, I became alerted to all this by the work and writings of thoughtful experts. For example, I have carefully read and now recommend Moral Warriors, Moral Wounds: The Ministry of the Christian Ethic by Wollom A. Jensen and friend James M. Childs, Jr. One is a military chaplain and the other a theological ethicist; the two provide close-up and soul-deep analyses and reports.

Dr. Jensen is a retired Navy chaplain (Captain) and Read more

US Supreme Court Passes on Chaplain Klingenschmitt

Former US Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt was discharged from the Navy in 2007 following a fairly public controversy over praying in Jesus’ Name and his subsequent court-martial. However, the court-martial wasn’t why Klingenschmitt was discharged.

During that same time period, Klingenschmitt changed endorsing agencies, a not uncommon administrative exercise:

On September 25, 2006, twelve days after his [court-martial] conviction, Dr. Klingenschmitt voluntarily tendered his resignation from the Evangelical Episcopal Church. On that same day, the Evangelical Episcopal Church notified the [Navy] that Dr. Klingenschmitt had lost his ecclesiastical endorsement, effective October 1, 2006.

On September 28, 2006, the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches executed an ecclesiastical endorsement for Dr. Klingenschmitt and transmitted a copy of that endorsement to the Chief of Navy Chaplains by facsimile on September 29, 2006.

Chaplains are required to have an endorsing agency.  Changing endorsers, which Read more

Column: US Military Silencing Christian Chaplains

Andrew Miller of the Philadelphia Trumpet — a “prophetic” magazine of the Philadelphia Church of God — recently wrote the US military is making it “illegal for Christian chaplains to give Bible-based advice“. While consistently (and unnecessarily) tying his argument to President Obama, Miller cites three specific events:

The military…has made it known that Christian chaplains are expected to enthusiastically endorse homosexual activity in the ranks, regardless of their religious beliefs.

In 2010, Adm. Michael Mullen told a chaplain who opposed the repeal of the military’s ban on openly homosexual service members, “If you cannot get in line, resign your commission.”

Miller also cited the case of US Navy Chaplain Wes Modder, who was “targeted” by a fellow Sailor who tried to get him kicked out over the tenets of his faith.

Finally, he recalls the case of US Army Chaplain (Capt) Joseph Lawhorn:  Read more

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