Atheist Chaplain, an Oxymoron?
Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines chaplain as, “a priest or other Christian religious leader who performs religious services for a military group (such as the army) or for a prison, hospital, etc.” It defines Atheist as, “one who believes that there is no deity.” One would question the validity of religious professional who believes in no god. It would be a gross understatement to say that the military Chaplaincy is politically-charged to an extent that is without precedent in American history. A loud and well-connected minority of scoffers, using the false canard of “diversity”, has bullied the United States military into allowing Pagan chaplains.
Group preparing to press military for atheist chaplain, source says
In what some might see as an oxymoron, an advocacy group apparently is preparing to ask the Defense Department to appoint a chaplain — for atheists.
A source tells Fox News that the Military Association of Atheists and Free Thinkers plans to make the request on Tuesday, floating its president Jason Torpy as the proposed chaplain.
Asked for comment, the association referred FoxNews.com to its position in support of a prior bid to name a “humanist” chaplain.
But a Defense Department official confirmed that a meeting is planned between the applicant and the Navy on Tuesday.
Rep. John Fleming, R-La., who last year opposed the creation of such a position, also voiced concerns about the planned request. He told FoxNews.com he’s got to wait and see how the proposal plays out, but threatened to use legislation to block it if necessary.
“We’re only finding out about this now,” he said. Fleming said the law is clear that any chaplain needs to have an “endorsing agency” and questioned whether the applicant would have that here. “We just don’t see any avenue, but you know we’ve been surprised before by the military.”
The move would come after lawmakers, including Fleming, battled over the same issue last year.
Democrats tried, unsuccessfully, to pass legislation creating such a post in 2013. In response, Republicans offered up a measure of their own to prohibit the Pentagon from naming such a chaplain. The House approved the measure in July.
With Congress at odds, though, the Defense Department could decide on its own.
A separate organization, The Humanist Society, endorsed Oxford-educated religious scholar Jason Heap last year to be the first-ever humanist chaplain in the U.S. Navy.
The MAAF supported the application. All along, the group has argued that more people identify as atheists and humanists than any other non-Christian denomination.
But Republican lawmakers who have fought these efforts have described the push as nonsensical. The motto of the Army Chaplain Corps is, after all, “Pro Deo et Patria,” or “For God and Country.”
Fleming said last year that the idea of an atheist chaplain is “an oxymoron.”
“It’s self-contradictory — what you’re really doing is now saying that we’re going to replace true chaplains with non-chaplain chaplains,” he said.
But the MAAF argues that military chaplains are not providing enough outreach for those who do not believe in God.
According to research in 2009 by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, about a quarter of military servicemembers who participated in the study said they had “no religious preference.” More than 3.6 percent identified as humanist, while a little over 1 percent identified as pagan.
Several organizations and religious scholars have pressed the U.S. military to consider naming chaplains for those servicemembers.
“Such broad-based and growing support of professionals and experts should make it easy for the Department of Defense and the Navy to open their doors to diversity of belief that includes humanists and other nontheists,” the group said in a statement last year.
Fox News’ Jim Angle and FoxNews.com’s Judson Berger contributed to this report.
Have You Prayed Today?
Here is your fun fact for the day!
We don’t plan to come find you and bonk you on the head, but make sure you spend time today in prayer. Lift up not only our men and women serving but the chaplains who are serving beside them, encouraging them and praying for them.
“Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Air Force Republishes Chaplain’s ‘No Atheists in Foxholes’ Article to Base Website
BY ALEX MURASHKO, CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
The U.S. Air Force republished a chaplain’s devotional article to a base website after an official initially removed it in response to a complaint about its reflections on the famous quotation “There are no atheists in foxholes,” often attributed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In early July, a devotional article by Lt. Col. Kenneth Reyes (USAF) wasposted on the website of the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in the Chaplain’s Corner titled “No atheists in foxholes: Chaplains gave all in World War II.”
Shortly after the publication of the devotional, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation requested that the Air Force remove it off the base website and formally discipline Reyes, claiming it insulted those with no faith, according to WND.
The letter from the MRFF to the Air Force stated that in his article Reyes chose to “publicly denigrate those without religion.”
The activist group also stated that Reyes “defiles the dignity of service members by telling them that regardless of their personally held philosophical beliefs they must have faith.”
The Air Force removed the article within hours of receiving the complaint, according to WND.
“Chaplains have the freedom and obligation to speak about faith and religious values, and this freedom should not be censored or prohibited,” said Alliance Defending Freedom litigation counsel Kellie Fiedorek in a statement released Tuesday. “The Air Force should be commended for recognizing this and returning Chaplain Reyes’s essay to the ‘Chaplains Corner’ portion of his base’s website.”
ADF filed a Freedom of Information Act request earlier this month in an attempt to determine what led to the chaplain’s essay being censored in the first place. “We will continue to monitor that as we stand ready to defend our men and women in uniform just as they stand ready to defend us,” said Fiedorek.
In his devotional article, Reyes writes that he interviewed a former World War II prisoner of war and friend who indicated that the phrase has been credited to Father William Cummings.
Father Cummings was a civilian missionary Catholic priest in the Philippines and the phrase was coined during the Japanese attack at Corregidor, Reyes writes.
He explains, “During the siege, Cummings had noticed non-Catholics were attending his services. Some he knew were not Catholic, some were not religious and some were even known atheists.
“Life-and-death experiences prompt a reality check. Even the strongest of beliefs can change, and, I may add, can go both ways – people can be drawn to or away from ‘faith.’ With the pending surrender of allied forces to the Japanese, Cummings uttered the famous phrase ‘There is no such thing as an atheist in a fox hole.'”
In an American Legion Program broadcast from the White House on Feb. 7, 1954, Eisenhower used the expression during in his remarks.
Reyes’ devotional article: ‘No atheists in foxholes’: Chaplains gave all in World War II.
Original Article: http://www.christianpost.com/news/air-force-republishes-chaplains-no-atheists-in-foxholes-article-to-base-website-102226/