‘Get in line’ or ‘resign’ Admiral tells military chaplain
by Jean McCarthy
Wed Jun 20, 2012 14:49 EST
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 20, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Although the U.S. Military fight and die to uphold freedom, high-level military chaplains report they are increasingly being denied freedom of conscience and freedom of speech. There is also alarm about the negative effects on troop morale over the undoing of the 237-years’ practice of providing traditional religious support for U.S. soldiers.
“We were promised that we would see no change - very little change,” says Col. Ron Crews, alluding to a two-star officer’s assurance that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal would not impede the ministry of military chaplains. That promise, he says, has not been kept.
Col. Crews, executive director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, was speaking at a panel along with military chaplains and religious freedom activists during the 2012 National Religious Freedom Conference in Washington D.C on May 24.
Well I have not read the news resource that you quote from but we are a military family and there have been plenty of other sources that I have heard of over the last 4 years that back up this very real fear of military chaplains and the faithful Catholic who serve and their families. Things like worrying that they would be ‘forced’ to preform ‘marriages’ for openly homosexual soldiers in a military chapel something that I understand did happen recently just not by a Catholic military chaplain. Just MHO .
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 20, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Although the U.S. Military fight and die to uphold freedom, high-level military chaplains report they are increasingly being denied freedom of conscience and freedom of speech. There is also alarm about the negative effects on troop morale over the undoing of the 237-years’ practice of providing traditional religious support for U.S. soldiers.
I did not know where to put this so if it is in the wrong forum then feel free to move it moderators.
That said, this is just downright sad. This will probably decrease the number of chaplains in the military as word about this spreads unless something is done to address this problem.
I did 12 years in the Air Force. During my time in service there were several times I had to put “service before self” as they say, and stay late, work extended hours, etc.
Ultimately our military is a volunteer service. As it should be. But it comes as no surprise the admiral said that. There’s always a chain of command and ultimately, you must comply or get out. It’s the military after all, NOT a democracy.
I’ve been out of the military since 2009 and while I’m grateful for the person it made me and the life lessons learned and skills it taught me.
I don’t regret it, but now that I’m out of the military, my blinders have been removed.
Congratulations. Instead of attacking Life Site News, you launch a personal attack. Is that what you think this forum is for? I think that’s called hijacking a thread. You made absolutely no comment so far on the news article.
Then your attack on me isn’t even truthful. I never implied “not seeing Life Site News as absolutely trustworthy on all occasions is equivalent to been an ‘unfaithful Catholic’.” It’s just not there. This is far from being the first time you’ve used half truths to make false accusations about me. What is your problem?
Unfaithful Catholics here on CAF do what I described. They hijack threads by making no comments on the article, and instead, make comments about Life Site. That, however, is not the cause of them being unfaithful Catholics. It is an effect. Cause, effect. Big difference.
Now, do you have anything to write about the administration’s persecution of Christianity in this latest episode?
I don’t know how the Air Force operates, but in the Army the chaplains have to hold true to the teachings of their particular faith. A Catholic chaplain would, by regs, be subject to offical negative actions if he conducted a gay marriage.
I believe that Chaplains DO attend to all military members, not just members of their own Faith. However, Catholic chaplains, at least, also provide the sacraments to Catholics. That could not be done by other chaplains.
And it’s not just Catholic chaplains who might have an objection to being required to perform same sex wedding ceremonies, or who might worry about being muzzled from talking openly about their religious beliefs to their own coreligionists.
Freedom of religion should not be suspended by the fact of being in the military.
I served for 21 years as a Chaplain’s Assistant. I know Chaplain Carver and Chaplain Goldstein, two of the chaplains mentioned in the article. This issue is of grave concern and I feel the military will be losing some good chaplains due to this.
Chaplains of all branches are responsible for the religious needs of their units. Ergo, a Christian Chaplain can not conduct a muslim prayer service, but still must provide for the free exercise of religion of that muslim soldier, within the constraints of the units mission. A baptist chaplain can’t baptize a baby because it contradicts the denomination’s doctrine…but at the same time he must be able to point the soldier to a chaplain or other resource that can baptize babies.
This attempt to force chaplains to conform will end up forcing many to leave due to a crisis of conscience. It’s a sad day for the military…and the US.
Why not save money have one chaplain for all monotheistic faiths too. Great idea!
Ideas like that highlight the fact you could care less about the Chaplaincy, or about what the military members need or desire in their lives. Don’t insult our intelligence by throwing out bad ideas in an attempt to humor us. Just say so up front, and save everyone time from now on.
Exactly we also have Jewish Rabbis who are military chaplains and Muslim Imams …I think that is what they are called. There has already been censorship, I have witnessed it . Chaplains changing from saying in the name of Jesus to things like simply God the creator which for a pagan sun or tree worshiper could have a different meaning than what the Christian chaplain meant.
Think of this tragic scenario a Catholic soldier is on the battle field or about to go into battle and there is no Catholic Priest in Afghanistan to whom he has been able to go to for mass, listen to some good spiritual direction, confession , perhaps he goes to battle with knowledge of mortal sin and he has not been able to receive sacraments in a whole year? That soldier would surely not be 100% fit for duty because he would be distracted about the state of his soul to say the least.
The number of Catholic Chaplains is already at an all time low, much less than protestant clergy and even though all the clergy do serve soldiers of other denominations with counseling, post trauma counseling ( this kind of counseling by the way is know to be ‘safe’ by soldiers because it does not go to the commanders) , marriage and family counseling etc. The dilemma is that Bishops have to release a priest to go into the military , they essentially are on loan from home parishes. I spoke to one young priest here about going and he said he wanted to but his Bishop would not let him go. Every one needs to please join the good Archbishop Broglio and pray for more catholic military chaplains. People in my civilian parish here of 2000 registered families ( only a 1/3rd of whom attend mass regularly) think they have it rough because we are down to one priest, one retired Spanish priest and a Daecon and so they had to reduce the number of masses from 6 to 5 on a weekend. The church seats at least 2000 and there are always empty seats and you had better get pretty close to your neighbor in the pew too… at our military chapels if you come on time you might be standing in the back of Church and there is usually on 2 or 3 masses.
Admiral Mullen is a joke. A guy who rose the ranks being nothing but a low-grade clerk and this guy has the audacity to tell Chaplains to put up or shut up. This is a so-called “admiral” who soiled himself when a group of Somali pirates decided to hijack a couple of tankers.
We are a military that went from leathernecks to petticoats. Never in the history of the US Military have we had such weak-kneed leadership. No more Patton’s, Grant’s, LeMay’s, Hasley’s, Dewey’s, Nicholas’s…just a bunch of weakling milquetoasts, sitting down for tea and crumpets.
And I don’t care if I get an infraction, this has to be said. Christianity is under attack by our own military, from the Bible burnings in Afghanistan, to this and it’s a scandal that so many Christians just sit by and let it happen.
Agreed. There’s no more Pershing’s or McArthur’s as well.
Trivia: The leathernecks came from how American soldiers fought in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao during the Philippine-American War. When the American forces invaded Mindanao, they encountered various native armies. The latter tended to wield swords and spears along with a few firearms. The native armies tend to decapitate American soldiers in battle. Hence, the U.S. military at the time have decided to use leather kerchiefs to protect the necks of U.S. soldiers from getting slashed.
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