It is not uncommon for military members and their families to meet regularly with people who share their faiths (despite occasional resistance to those meetings). Marines at Camp Pendleton have met for breakfast and atheists have gathered at Fort Hood.
In Hawaii recently, an article on the local chapel at Wheeler Army Airfield noted “Brown Bag Buddhists” have been meeting to learn about the Eastern religion. The Read more
The Journal of Faith and War has published a lengthy set of articles on “The Religious Rights of those in Uniform.” The series was written by Jay Sekulow and Robert Ash. Dr. Sekulow is chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (and debated Michael Weinstein at the US Air Force Academy in 2007). Robert Ash (USA, Retired) is a West Point graduate, served 22 years in the Army, and teaches law at Regent University.
The articles originally appeared as “Religious Rights and Military Service” in Attitudes Aren’t Free: Thinking Deeply about Attitudes in the US Armed Forces, which contained the infamous article by Chris Rodda denigrating the celebration of Easter by Christians in the military.
The publication is a refreshingly positive perspective on what men and women of faith can do while serving in the US military. So often critics have emphasized (or created an environment focused on) impermissible conduct; as a result, some military members (or religious persons considering military service) may assume their religious exercise is restricted.
That is not the case, as the JFW articles show.
The first article covers the “General Legal Principles” Read more
An Army article notes an innovative attempt at supporting the religious free exercise of US servicemembers in the field:
The easily deployable tent structure, also known as a “sacred shelter” by developers at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center, provides units with a small worship facility that can be set up rapidly in the field.
“This provides a facility for spiritual fitness, whether or not a chaplain is available, in an austere environment,” said Chaplain (Capt.) Andrew Shriver, 421st Multifunctional Medical Battalion chaplain.
The “portable chapels” were based on Chaplain Shriver’s own design from 2007 in Afghanistan for Soldiers who were constructing new FOBs. They are designed to be cheap, easy to assemble, and even have partitions so separate faiths can be exercised simultaneously.
Interestingly, when the unit at Wiesbaden, Germany, tested out the prototype, the tent had a demo set up. While a “stereotypical” religious demo might have included something like a cross, Chaplain Shriver showed a setup for an Islamic prayer room: Read more
Jason Torpy of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers recently wrote an article with mixed praise and criticism for the US Air Force Academy’s religious climate. Notably, he claimed the USAFA “freethinker” group had
been operating outside the Academy’s chaplain office due to misunderstandings of policy and intellectual freedom.
Apparently one of the problems was an explicit USAFA policy against “denigrating” other religions. The issue?
The term “denigrating” seemed to prevent discussion of nearly anything related to atheism.
According to Torpy, Read more
Chaplain (Maj) Khallid Shabazz was formerly an Army field artilleryman named Michael Barnes — a Lutheran with a rough reputation and two Article 15s. After converting to Islam while in the Army, Read more
Albert Mohler notes a USA Today opinion column recently calling on the US government to use the power of the purse to force nondiscrimination policies on houses of worship:
Asra Q. Nomani, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, argues that the Internal Revenue Service should move to deny tax-exempt status to any place of worship that holds to different roles for men and women. In “End Gender Apartheid in U.S. Mosques,” Nomani writes, “I’ve come to the difficult decision that women must use the legal system to restore rights in places of worship..”
As Mohler notes, Asra Nomani isn’t advocating for those in her Islamic faith to alter their practices; she’s calling for action by the US government. He also highlighted a glaring absence in Nomani’s treatise: Read more
On 12 July 2011, Sergeant First Class Leroy Petry received the Medal of Honor in a ceremony at the White House. SFC Petry was honored for his selfless actions when he picked up and threw an enemy grenade that had fallen among his team. The grenade discharged and catastrophically amputated his hand.
SFC Petry has remained humble throughout, thanking his family and asking for prayers for the sacrifice of military families in support of the US’s mission: Read more
The Baptist Press notes that US military Chaplains aren’t just in Afghanistan and Iraq:
In the mountainous heart of Honduras, for example, where the four military branches work together in drug interdiction, Chaplain (Maj.) Dan Thompson and Chaplain (Capt.) Paul Cartmill serve some 500 soldiers who are part of Joint Task Force-Bravo located at Soto Cano Air Base near Comayagua.
Chaplains Thomas and Cartmill are still serving deployed servicemembers, though the “pace” for those troops might be a bit different than they’re used to in their combat Read more