The Hill notes that as part of a Barbara Walters interview, President Obama spoke of the prayer and Bible reading that mark his “everyday life:”
“Michelle and I have not only benefited from our prayer life, but I think the girls have too,” the president told Walters. “We say grace before we eat dinner every night. We take turns”…
When asked if he prays himself, the president said: “I do. Every night.”
As attributed to BrigGen Cecil Richardson, current USAF Chief of Chaplains:
The Lord is my Crew Chief; I shall not be broken.
He maketh me to undergo routine maintenance; he leadeth me beside the quiet hangars. Read more
Officers’ Christian Fellowship has an article entitled “A Christian Officer’s Toolbox,” which presents a variety of practical ways in which Christian military officers can integrate their faith and their profession.
The list of suggested tools, written by US Navy LtCmdr Brian Haggerty, includes Read more
The ongoing public debate over homosexuality and the US military (most often referred to as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”) presents a unique conflict for Christians in the military. There are those who believe homosexuality is morally wrong and must be prohibited at every possibility, and there are those who believe people have the freedom to do as they please in their private lives. This situation has implications from both the Christian perspective and the military perspective (in isolation), though they must be integrated to form the military Christian’s perspective. Each of these three is addressed individually below.
The Christian Perspective
The Christian faith considers homosexuality a sin, just as theft, adultery, murder, and lust are sins. Still, Christianity does not condemn the person who expresses a homosexual preference. In addition, while many people in this world are tempted to sin (as was Jesus during his incarnation), the temptation to participate in sinful conduct is not itself wrong. Finally, man is a fallen creation and has a sinful nature; thus, succumbing to temptation and sinning are a common experience of many on this earth — even the stereotypically staunchest Christians.
For a Christian, it is disheartening to see the culture, government, and now military move to end opposition to immoral behavior. This is a dramatic indicator of the direction of cultural morality in the United States: Few other issues have so rapidly moved from Read more
An interesting, if somewhat prosaic, article at Army.mil discusses two Army Chaplains creating a new Sunday night service at Fort Jackson, SC (home of the new joint Chaplaincy center). Notably, the article highlights the motivations of Chaplains who are trying to serve the needs of the troops:
[Chaplain (Maj) Daniel] Middlebrooks explained that one of the goals was to add to the worship options on post by starting a Sunday evening service aimed at those who may not be able to attend service on Sunday mornings, as well as those who would like to participate in a second service that day…
“I’ve talked to my Soldiers, and overwhelmingly, there is a great majority that would prefer to come on a Sunday evening after Read more
Lance Cpl. John T. Sparks, killed in action on October 8th, was remembered by his unit in Afghanistan. The memorial was a somber, lighthearted, and faithful tribute to a young warrior.
“Sparks loved machine guns,” said [Cpl. Jeffery] Holsey. “He would always say that ‘Everyone wants to be a machine gunner until it is time to be a machine gunner, because the hurt we carried separated the men from the boys.'”
The short, quiet ceremony was marked by Bible verses and prayers honoring Sparks. Final Roll was called three times for Lance Cpl. John T. Sparks only to be answered by silence. Taps followed in a final farewell.
The US Army has faced a growing tragedy in the number of suicides in its ranks. It has amassed a veritable plethora of programs in an attempt to stem the rising tide that kills Soldiers at an alarming rate.
Chaplain (Col) Chester Egert writes an astute piece at Army.mil, noting there are “common threads” in “acts of self-destruction.”
Chaplain Egert notes that while the Army has a variety of programs to fight suicide — he counts more than 600 — there may be an omission in the emphasis on the internal issue of self-worth and intrinsic human value. Read more
Religious freedom in the armed forces — something the US military takes very seriously — sometimes goes beyond the servicemembers that most are apt to think of. In the case of Fort Hood, Texas, it also applied to the children. As noted by the Army news release:
Students and staff from Fort Hood’s Smith Middle School took part…in an event known as “See You at the Pole” Sept. 22.
SYATP is an annual, student-led global day event that draws students from across the world to their school’s flagpoles to pray for their nation, schools, students and teachers, according to the website.
More than 20 students and faculty members took part bringing their own prayers and a group prayer. Read more