NYT: Evangelicals Are a Growing Force in the Military Chaplain Corps

[Pirate Smile]

COLORADO SPRINGS - There were personal testimonies about Jesus from the stage, a comedian quoting Scripture and a five-piece band performing contemporary Christian praise songs. Then hundreds of Air Force chaplains stood and sang, many with palms upturned, in a service with a distinctively evangelical tone.

It was the opening ceremony of a four-day Spiritual Fitness Conference at a Hilton hotel here last month organized and paid for by the Air Force for many of its United States-based chaplains and their families, at a cost of $300,000. The chaplains, who pledge when they enter the military to minister to everyone, Methodist, Mormon or Muslim, attended workshops on "The Purpose Driven Life," the best seller by the megachurch pastor Rick Warren, and on how to improve their worship services. In the hotel hallways, vendors from Focus on the Family and other evangelical organizations promoted materials for the chaplains to use in their work.

The event was just one indication of the extent to which evangelical Christians have become a growing force in the Air Force chaplain corps, a trend documented by military records and interviews with more than two dozen chaplains and other military officials.

Figures provided by the Air Force show that from 1994 to 2005 the number of chaplains from many evangelical and Pentecostal churches rose, some doubling. For example, chaplains from the Full Gospel Fellowship of Churches and Ministries International increased to 10 from none. The Church of the Nazarene rose to 12 from 6.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/national/12chaplains.html?hp&ex=1121140800&en=47abcdf18c8fdedc&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[pfitz59]

1. Disband the Chaplain Force entirely.....

Fire all the insane monkeys!

[Coastie for Truth]

8. What you have in some military organizations

is a "Master of Social Work" corps - of military psychiatric social workers - who fill many of the counseling and "social work" and "psychological" functions of the better ("ecumenical" and "non-creedal") chaplains (the fundie chaplains don't do any of that stuff).

You are talking about 18-19 years "kids" - away from home for the first time - who see mega death for the first time ("crispy critters" and pulped corpses -- not washed, cleaned, made up, dressed bodies in an expensive casket). This is "A" (not "The" but "A") factor in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - ask any cop or firefighter or EMT.

These kids need that "Master of Social Corps" or Chaplain type.

[IndianaGreen]

16. Christianity is being taken over by its Taliban wing!

Chaplains are not supposed to proselytize! The fact that these religious pukes want to push their twisted religion, together with the silence from mainstream Christians, means that there is no alternative but to call for the abolition of the chaplaincy corps. They are poisoning the minds of our soldiers, airmen, and sailors.

[Patty Diana]

17. JUST GREAT!! KILLING FOR GOD AND SAINT BUSH

[saigon68]

21. WHO WOULD JAYZEUS KILL?

Answer: All the rag-heads </sarcasm>

[msongs]

2. go forth and murder, my sons......... n/t

[NAO]

3. Antidote to Fundamentalist Nut-Cases is a Revival of the Freethought Mvmt

Antidote to Fundamentalist Nut-Cases is a Revival of the Freethought Movement

I think what we need is a Freethought movement similar to what the US had around the turn of the 20th century. Robert Ingersoll was touring the country, lecturing on secularism and exposing the claims of revealed religion to be false.

Unless something breaks the stranglehold of religious fundamentalism in the US - and in the world - I think we are going to continue the slide into Theocracy and destruction.

The Freethought Zone
Science and Reason Over Religion and Superstition
http://freethought.freeservers.com

Freedom from Religion Foundation
http://www.ffrf.org

Secular Humanism
http://www.secularhumanism.org

Secular Web
http://www.infidels.org/index.shtml

Robert Ingersoll's "Why I Am Agnostic"
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/why_i_am_agnostic.html

Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason"
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/thomas_paine/age_of_reason/index.shtml

Dominionism's Theocratic Designs and Radical Clerics

Fundamentalist Radical Clerics such as Falwell, Dobson, and Robertson are not merely medieval throwbacks or misguided religious hacks. They are part of a well organized subversionary movement known as "Dominionism". Dominionism constitutes a serious threat to American Democracy. These Radical Clerics have developed and are executing a detailed plan to gradually replace the free, secular democratic society of the United States with a Theocracy.

It is critical that people become aware of the extreme agenda these people have for the United States and ultimately for the world. The results of the 2004 Presidential Election were not a fluke or something that was drummed up over a period of months. It has been in planning for over 20 years, and what we are seeing take place now is, in the words of Katherine Yurica, "the swift advance of a planned coup".

The Swift Advance of a Planned Coup: Conquering by Stealth and Deception - How the Dominionists Are Succeeding in Their Quest for National Control and World Power
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheSwiftAdvanceOfaPlannedCoup.htm

The Despoiling of America: How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm

Video on the Christian Reconstructionist Dominionist Theocratic Agenda
http://www.theocracywatch.org/av/video_dominion.ram

The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party
a public information project from TheocracyWatch.org
http://www.theocracywatch.org

The Religious Right - An Anti-American Terrorist Movement
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8816.htm

[leesa]

4. One of these assholes presided over my neighbors funeral, which would

have really annoyed him since he was an aetheist. It was really vulgar.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

5. I have an idea.

Let's have the "Religious Right" (which is neither) make up the entire armed forces. That way, our religious fanatics can go to the Mideast and fight their religious fanatics and leave all the sensible religious and nonreligious people the hell alone.

[Erika]

6. W's pre-emptive strike policies are anti Christian n/t

[Coastie for Truth]

9. That is true --

but those 18 year old, last GI in the last rank -- do need "something."

[Coastie for Truth]

7. Two paragraphs from the article sum up the conflict

"We are not generic chaplains," said Col. Bob V. Page, who helped organize the conference. "We say, 'cooperation without compromise.' I cannot compromise my faith."

Chaplains are the often unsung members of the clergy who pray, counsel and go to war alongside American troops. Whatever their church or creed, when they join the military they pledge to serve the spiritual needs of every faith.

An inherent conflict in the role of the military chaplain.

John Cardinal O'Connor, one time Chief of Chaplains of the United States Navy, and later Arch Bishop of the Arch Diocese of New York said the exact opposite of Chaplain Page - military chaplains are fungible and interchangeable and serve the spiritual needs of every faith, they serve the spiritual needs of the last E-1 Seaman Recruit in the last rank, away from from for the first time.

One must ask Chaplain Page - if he can't compromise his faith -- he can be replaced by the XO or the Senior Enlisted Adviser or the S-1's leading NCO. That's how this Coastie sees it.

[kestrel91316]

13. News flash, chaplains:

This means you have to minister to the needs of pagans, too. And you had damned well better be nice about it.

[Coastie for Truth]

15. See my append #8 - N/T

[Robeson]

10. But they must convert the infidels in this continual war....

...or hadn't you heard?...

[LiberalFighter]

11. What did the chaplains do in WWI WWII Korea Conflict Vietnam?

[Coastie for Truth]

14. They served both the "spiritual" and "psychological" needs of all

and did not try to evangelize or proselytize.

[LiberalFighter]

19. You should had included in your post that you were a Vietnam Vet

To show that you are presenting facts from first hand experience.

I assumed that was how the chaplains served in those periods mainly from the show M.A.S.H. The Roman Catholic priest in the show also performed services in the manner of the person's faith.

[Coastie for Truth]

23. When I first came home in 1969 -

I spoke against a proposed ACLU law suit to disband the Chaplain Corps (argument - it violated the "establishment" clause).

But these Evangelicals. I would almost support a combination of:
1. Disbanding the Chaplain Corps per se.
2. Creating a "Master of Social Work" Corps (or something similar) in its place.
3. Providing for "spiritual needs" through "attached" and "accredited" clergy - in an NGO, like the USO (BTW - the USO is not mainly show people - it is mainly Red Cross and Salvation Army types - especially social workers and family emergency interventionists).

BTW- I am a veteran -- and the most important role of the Chaplain to the last Private or Sailor in the last rank - is as a "Social Worker-Family Emergency or Crisis Interventionist."

[kestrel91316]

12. I was raised Presbyterian and I swear .............

I don't recognize the religion these nuts are practicing.

[Politicub]

18. What are the qualifications for an evangelical chaplain?

Just being born again or revirginized?

[LiberalFighter]

20. As far as I am concerned if they are born again...

they are dead!

[thebigidea]

22. "a comedian quoting Scripture" - yeah, Leviticus is a laff riot!