The “J” Word
Admit it, we’ve all been there: Your (non-Jewish) chaplain is offering the invocation at some event or ceremony and he or she is nearing the end of their prayer. You’ve been inspired (or are at least content) up to this point, but you start getting this uneasy feeling in your stomach. Is he going to finish with, “in Jesus’s name we pray”, or stick with the non-denominational theme?
My experiences, up to this point, have been far more of the latter than the former. However, thanks to the national attention the scandal at the Air Force Academy has generated, the subject of religion in the military has been in the headlines quite a bit. Here’s a list of articles I’ve come across over the past couple of months:
- Proselytizing chaplains are coming under fire
- Finding a balance between free speech and religious tolerance
- Jesus barred from Air Force invocations
- Navy chaplain goes on hunger strike to protest “censorship”
- Republican lawmakers angered by “attack on Christians”
UPDATE: Here are a couple more articles on the same subject:
What are your thoughts on this. As the “major” minority in this issue we certainly want our rights protected, but will the pendulum swing too far in the other direction and infringe on our right to practice Judaism?
Here’s another article on this subject from the 2/10/06 Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020902211.html
Guy & Gals,
I will admit that I am not very religious, but I am proud to be a Jew. This subject is touchy but I think this may be “much ado about nothing”. The U.S. is a majority christian nation, always has been. The fact is, Jews are in the single digits percentage wise, especially in the military. We are going to see more gentile chaplains then rabbies and we are going to hear the word Jesus. Take what you can spiritually from a prayer and if it ends in “Jesus’ name”, so what. People are going to pray in accordence with their beliefs and that the way it should be. Prayer may not always be secular. we should accept it and go about the business of fighting for our nation. As long as we are allowed to practice ou religion unimpeded,lets not make it hard for our Christian brothers to practice theirs. The “J” word should not bother us at all.
I found a quote I really liked in navybasket’s link to the Washington Post story from a Christian chaplain:
“When I read it, I thought, if I were nonreligious, I would feel protected; if I were a minority religion, I would feel respected; and as a member of the majority religion, I feel the need to be respectful,”
This would certainly be the ideal guidelines. We’re not going to please everyone all the time, but if we can all be respectful to other faiths, then we would be doing pretty well.
I added another link above to a JTA story that criticizes the new guidelines. The article also talks about how Jewish groups disagree (go figure) on how they feel about the revised guidelines.
Another thing to remember: these are guidelines for the Air Force Academy, which was having some specific problems with evangelical Christians on campus. It’s reasonable to expect these guidelines to find their way to military-wide reforms, but right now they are designed to address a very specific issue at a specific location.
Sir,
I recall when I was at 101st in Kentucky (1994-1996), on CQ duty during our brigade’s deployment cycle, there was this particular Christian ministry calling itself “The Soldiers Home”, which was engaged in heavy proseletyzing on post.
We had a soldier deeply involved with these folks, to the point where punitive action had to be taken against him for derelection and other violations of UCMJ. As a result, barracks restriction drove his “pastor” to visit us in the barracks.
Each one of his visits seemed, somehow, to coincide with my CQ duty, and for whatever reason, he deemed it necessary to share with me the bright light of his lord and savior. Blah. Long story short, complaining up the chain exposed a lot of sympathy for his message and his efforts, but only a secondary effort demonstrating that he was ripping off soldiers in his thrall got him banned from post.
There are a lot of religious soldiers of varying faiths, but I find that people who believe in the Xtian “Great Commission” struggle the most in an ecumenical environment. However, they’ll eschew Catholics and other denominations of Xtianity for the sake of converting an identifiable Jew. As if we haven’t heard their schtick a million times before! I begin to wonder, at times, if there’s not some kind of “afterlife bonus point program” for successfully converting Jews.
In the Army, the chaplaincy is specifically prohibited from envagalism of any kind. They are, I believe, allowed to officiate with prayers aligned with their faith. Most seem to offer nondenominational devotionals, but occasionally Jesus shows up.