The Fight over Evangelizing Military Chaplains

[CrimsonWhite]

Good read. Personally I see no problem with Military Chaplains spreading their faith.

Christian Soldiers: The growing controversy over military chaplains using the armed forces to spread the Word.

Ever since former president George W. Bush referred to the war on terror as a “crusade” in the days after the September 11 attacks, many have charged that the United States was conducting a holy war, pitting a Christian America against the Muslim world. That perception grew as prominent military leaders such as Lt. Gen. William Boykin described the wars in evangelical terms, casting the U.S. military as the "army of God." Although President Obama addressed the Muslim world this month in an attempt to undo the Bush administration's legacy of militant Christian rhetoric that often antagonized Muslim countries, several recent stories have framed the issue as a wider problem of an evangelical military culture that sees spreading Christianity as part of its mission.

A May article in Harper’s by Jeff Sharlet illustrated a military engaged in an internal battle over religious practice. Then came news about former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s Scripture-themed briefings to President Bush that paired war scenes with Bible verses. (In an e-mail published on Politico, Rumsfeld aide Keith Urbahn denied that the former Defense secretary had created or even seen many of the briefings.) Later in May, Al-Jazeera broadcast clips filmed in 2008 showing stacks of Bibles translated into Pashto and Dari at the U.S. air base in Bagram and featuring the chief of U.S. military chaplains in Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Gary Hensley, telling soldiers to “hunt people for Jesus.”

In the aftermath of that report, the Pentagon responded that it had confiscated and destroyed the Bibles and said there was no effort to convert Afghans. But while the military dismissed the Bagram Bibles as an isolated incident, a civil-rights watchdog group, Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), says this is not the case. According to the group's president, Mikey Weinstein, a cadre of 40 U.S. chaplains took part in a 2003 project to distribute 2.4 million Arabic-language Bibles in Iraq. This would be a serious violation of U.S. military Central Command's General Order Number One forbidding active-duty troops from trying to convert people to any religion. A Defense Department spokeswoman, in an e-mail to NEWSWEEK, denies any knowledge of this project.

The Fight Over Evangelizing Military Chaplains | Newsweek National News | Newsweek.com

 

[pinqy]

Good read. Personally I see no problem with Military Chaplains spreading their faith.

I do. It's not their job (which is to admister to the spiruatal/psychological needs of all military regardless of belief), it hurts their job (by alienating service members of different beliefs who would be less likely to go to the chaplain for help), and in many cases (such as the Bibles in Afghanistan and Iraq) what they're doing doing is illegal, both in the host nation and under Military Law. You can't take a position for the governement and then act as if the government has no right to control your actions.

 

[strollingbones]

why should a non christian who is willing to fight for their country be subject to this crap? how offensive this is to other religions. I do not believe that it is the "army of god", this was brought up a long time ago when a pagan died and wanted a pagan symbol on his tombstone...why in the hell should that even have been a problem? cause of christians, seems they want to force us all to live by their codes and symbols....so yes i have a problem with this.

 

[Al Gunn]

They should test the chaplain's faith and give him a rifle, send him to the front, and then see what his god does to protect a man spreading His word.

 

[alan1]

Good read. Personally I see no problem with Military Chaplains spreading their faith.

That was an interesting article.
While I personally don't have a problem with the military providing religious leadership for our soldiers that want that, I don't think those religious leaders should be trying to proselytize. The fact that they printed up and distributed or tried to distribute bibles in a foreign language says they were going outside of the boundaries of their jobs. They are supposed to be there for our troops, not use their position to influence the people of another country. In fact, I would say that by doing so, they were in direct violation of their job responsibilities. They are paid by the US military to support the US military, not paid to preach to nor convert anybody else.

 

[Sunni Man]

Don't be fooled

This so called war on terror is a crusade against Islam.

We are currently trying to spread christianity in both Iraq and Afghanistain.

 

[editec]

Religion has no place in the military.

The very fact that they make these guys officers in an orgnization whose purpose is to kill people is an offense to my GOD.

The rest of you are welcome to your belief in your GOD, but I do get sick to death of you morons pretending that this fundamental conflict between what you profess and what you do doesn't exist.

Who would JESUS kill, boys?

Nuf said?

 

[alan1]

Religion has no place in the military.

The very fact that they make these guys officers in an orgnization whose purpose is to kill people is an offense to my GOD.

The rest of you are welcome to your belief in your GOD, but I do get sick to death of you morons pretending that this fundamental conflict between what you profess and what you do doesn't exist.

Who would JESUS kill, boys?

Nuf said?

Provided that you believe in god,
Who needs god more than the man that would kill?

 

[pinqy]

They should test the chaplain's faith and give him a rifle, send him to the front, and then see what his god does to protect a man spreading His word.

It's actually illegal for chaplains to be armed.

 

[Smartt33]

Good read. Personally I see no problem with Military Chaplains spreading their faith.

Christian Soldiers: The growing controversy over military chaplains using the armed forces to spread the Word.

Ever since former president George W. Bush referred to the war on terror as a “crusade” in the days after the September 11 attacks, many have charged that the United States was conducting a holy war, pitting a Christian America against the Muslim world. That perception grew as prominent military leaders such as Lt. Gen. William Boykin described the wars in evangelical terms, casting the U.S. military as the "army of God." Although President Obama addressed the Muslim world this month in an attempt to undo the Bush administration's legacy of militant Christian rhetoric that often antagonized Muslim countries, several recent stories have framed the issue as a wider problem of an evangelical military culture that sees spreading Christianity as part of its mission.

A May article in Harper’s by Jeff Sharlet illustrated a military engaged in an internal battle over religious practice. Then came news about former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s Scripture-themed briefings to President Bush that paired war scenes with Bible verses. (In an e-mail published on Politico, Rumsfeld aide Keith Urbahn denied that the former Defense secretary had created or even seen many of the briefings.) Later in May, Al-Jazeera broadcast clips filmed in 2008 showing stacks of Bibles translated into Pashto and Dari at the U.S. air base in Bagram and featuring the chief of U.S. military chaplains in Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Gary Hensley, telling soldiers to “hunt people for Jesus.”

In the aftermath of that report, the Pentagon responded that it had confiscated and destroyed the Bibles and said there was no effort to convert Afghans. But while the military dismissed the Bagram Bibles as an isolated incident, a civil-rights watchdog group, Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), says this is not the case. According to the group's president, Mikey Weinstein, a cadre of 40 U.S. chaplains took part in a 2003 project to distribute 2.4 million Arabic-language Bibles in Iraq. This would be a serious violation of U.S. military Central Command's General Order Number One forbidding active-duty troops from trying to convert people to any religion. A Defense Department spokeswoman, in an e-mail to NEWSWEEK, denies any knowledge of this project.

The Fight Over Evangelizing Military Chaplains | Newsweek National News | Newsweek.com

A form of chaplains have been involved in military operations for centuries. In the US, they became an official part of the Military in 1775. With that said, I don't think they are using the military. Quite contrary to that George Washington, and obviously many other military leaders, recognized the need and great contribution the chaplains were to the soldiers. When our military leaders use scriptures and prayer in their meetings, they are doing just what the founding fathers did.

 

[Al Gunn]

Yes, military chaplains SHOULD be spreading their faith and distributing bibles to the locals during war, because foreigners don't hate the US enough as it is, you need to give them some more reasons.