It really does stretch the limits of belief sometimes...the Air Force, aka Christ's Bomber Legions, PTE, LTD, Inc. apparently had a document floating around that directed their chaplains to proselytize the "Unchurched". Really.
The Air Force, facing a lawsuit over alleged proselytizing, has withdrawn a document that permitted chaplains to evangelize military personnel who were not affiliated with any faith, Pentagon officials said yesterday.
The document was circulated at the Air Force Chaplain School until eight weeks ago. It was a "code of ethics" for chaplains that included the statement "I will not proselytize from other religious bodies, but I retain the right to evangelize those who are not affiliated."
...
...Among other evidence, the suit cited a July 12 New York Times article that quoted Brig. Gen. Cecil R. Richardson, the Air Force's deputy chief of chaplains, as saying: "We will not proselytize, but we reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched."
...
Weinstein called the guidelines insufficient, but evangelical Christian groups attacked them as overly restrictive. "Mikey Weinstein might not like it, but it is the job of an evangelical Christian chaplain to evangelize," said Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy for the Colorado-based Focus on the Family. "It's protected by the First Amendment's guarantee of free exercise of religion."
Tom Minnery needs a little lesson in the Constitution. He and all his happy little bands of evangelical warriors for the lord are free to proselytize all they want, as much as they want anytime they want. But not on the federal dole, and not on the governments time. How hard is that to understand?
A question for Mr. Minnery...would he be pleased if we were to solicit for the Druid (reformed, we love shrubs too) Church side by side with his ministers at an Air Force function? Nope, didn't think so...I guess all that Freedom of Religion stuff only works for dead carpenters and alcoholic preznits.
posted by Jo Fish on 10.11.05 at 11:43 PM
Comments:
I remember, as I debated whether or not to put in my retirement letter prior to my O-6 board, a Catholic chaplain telling me that coming back to the church would be "good for my career."
That helped me make up my mind about putting in that letter.
You're a little slippery with words there. You say "directed" (i.e., ordered to) when the policy was "permitted" (allowed to if you want to).
Two, you are the one who's wrong on the Constitution. Members of the military do not give up their right to free exercise of religion just because they wear a uniform. That is as true of chaplains as it is of troopies.
Moreover, Thomas Jefferson authorized the gov't to print and distribute Bibles to the first public schools being set up in Washington DC, so there goes your historical precedent. And if you want to solicit for the Druids, reformed or otherwise, you're perfectly free to do so on any military base in the country, and I'm sure Tom Minnery would support your right to do so. The First Amendment protects everyone or it protects no one.
The problem with Mikey Weinstein is that he objects to Christians doing what Jesus commands them to do: preach the gospel. Weinstein, in effect, wants the gov't to tell Christians how to practice their own religion.
posted by: bean on 10.12.05 at 02:52 PM [permalink]
As an atheist I must point out to Tom Minnery that the constitution aknowledges my right to be free from religion... all religion... he can believe any ridiculus nonsense he wishes to believe on his own. Chaplains should be funded by their churches, not the taxpayer. I hope in the next century we make better progress away from superstitious beliefs than we did in the 20th... what an embarassment!
You mean the Thomas Jefferson who wrote, "Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity."
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
"But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
Jefferson's views on religion were fairly complex, but most scholars agree that he was a deist.
"The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, & they [the clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: & enough too in their opinion, & this is the cause of their printing lying pamphlets against me. . ."
Fundamentalists fumble when they make a point of disregarding the fact that Jefferson did not see God as the property of Puritans, but more the blind watch-maker that set the universe as we know it,in motion. There was plenty of protests against both Jefferson and Madison from the fire breathing ministers of the time for not establishing a state religion like England. Reason in the intellectual sense won the day.
"I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism and demonism, and really see nothing but the latter in the being worshipped by many who think themselves Christians."
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard Price, Jan. 8, 1789 (Richard Price had written to TJ on Oct. 26. about the harm done by religion and wrote "Would not Society be better without Such religions? Is Atheism less pernicious than Demonism?")
posted by: madison on 10.13.05 at 05:54 AM [permalink]
