Let the Military Fight Terrorists -- Not Jesus

Okay, what's going on here? Are our armed forces being forced to rely on an all-encompassing generic god for their guidance, comfort, and protection--in the name of "tolerance?" Within an article in The Washington Times come these revelations: "'I am a Navy chaplain being fired because I pray in Jesus' name,' said Navy Lt. Gordon Klingenschmitt. ...Official military policy allows any sort of prayer, but Lt. Klingenschmitt...cites his training at the Navy Chaplains School in Newport, R.I., where 'they have clipboards and evaluators who evaluate your prayers, and they praise you if you pray just to God,' he said. 'But if you pray in Jesus' name, they counsel you.'"

I honestly want to know if I'm seeing this issue correctly and completely. Excerpts from this next article say more, but I encourage you to read it in its entirity along with other links provided in this entry:

U.S. military bans Christian prayer: Chaplains forbidden to pray in name of Christ

By Rand Green, Editor & Publisher, Perspicacity Press, © 2005 Rand Green Communications

NO PRAYERS in school. No mention of God in the Pledge of Allegiance. No Christmas decorations on public property. No wearing of crosses by airline pilots on duty. The removal of images of the cross from century-old city seals. There is seemingly no limit to the ways in which those who want to remove all vestiges of religion, and particularly of Christianity, from the public view are seeking to undermine the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.

Their latest target is the United States military. Chaplains in the military are now being told they cannot mention the name of “Jesus� when they pray, except within the confines of their own churches.

North Carolina Congressman Walter Jones...told of a conversation he had...with a Navy chaplain who was also a Methodist minister. The chaplain had recently given a prayer at a remembrance service for marines killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. “He closed his prayer in the name of Christ Jesus, and about two hours later he got a call from a major in the Marine Corps who told him that in those kind of settings, outside the church, he is not to pray in the name of Jesus Christ.�

It is “an atmosphere of intimidation,� and it is having “a chilling effect,� said Jay Sekulow. “This is political correctness that is just absolutely run amok here. The idea that you would ... censor or silence these pastors because you don’t like the idea that they would pray according to the dictates of their own faith is to me just absurd.�

The current crackdown on prayer in the military, and more specifically in the Air Force, which has just recently issued new restrictive guidelines, is “an overreaction to the situation at the Air Force Academy,� said Mr. Sekulow...

How this started is explained in this article from World Net Daily, which said:

In a move that echoes the recent decision of the U.S. Department of Defense to deny Boy Scouts use of military facilities, the U.S. Air Force Academy is warning Christian cadets to curb their faith.

Officials at the Colorado Springs military college have instituted a new training program, Respecting the Spiritual Values of People, to teach the cadets, 90% of whom are from Protestant or Catholic backgrounds, tolerance toward non-Christians. The program follows an August survey that found complaints of religious bias.

At the Nov. 2 kickoff for the Respecting the Spiritual Values of People program, cadets were advised by head chaplain Michael Whittington to not hold Bible studies in their dormitories, but he was overruled by Commandant Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida.

Another article from World Net Daily provides additional information:

"We support free exercise of religion, but we do not push religion," Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff, a Navy veteran, told the paper. He said he was hired earlier this year to assist the secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force with writing the guidelines. The new rules come on the heels of criticism of the academy by a pair of congressional Democrats, Reps. Steve Israel of New York and Lois Capps of California.

Why are some offended by certain religious expressions? As examples, a report from a military task force cited "fliers that advertised a screening of The Passion of the Christ at every seat in the dining hall" and "when a chaplain defends saying 'Jesus will be with you, Jesus will save you' with the response 'That's the way we do it here – we promote Jesus.'"

The ACLJ, a concerned Christian group, is compiling a petition to protect military prayer for submission to the President.

Let me recommend that the readers study this issue further to determine for yourselves if the military is falling prey to political correctness and religious intolerance and if this movement should be confronted. Our soldiers are put in harms way every day and they need comfort and peace from the God they worship--not a false idol created by government.

A good answer to this problem might best be this: WWJD?