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Military
Chaplains,
Have
We Really Thought This Through?
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I
would like to bring your attention to a letter written by James
Madison (writer of the Bill of Rights). In the letter
Madison declared his opposition to employing chaplains at
public expense. His grounds were that it violated the
US Constitution. --See the link below.
First and
far most, I want it clear that I believe if our government is going
to pay for chaplains, then our government should not tell them how
they can pray or what they can or cannot say. With this in
mind...
James Madison was a Christian man and he had
reason to oppose tax dollars paying for anything considered to
be of a religion in nature. James Madison in so many
words said (exact quote is below) that a devout spirit in and
out of the armies would produce more of that devout spirit, and
that then a shortage of voluntary instruction would rarely
happen. And he knew that if a devout spirit did not exist in and out
of the armies that putting official teachers in, would likely not
produce that devout spirit.
Christ
Puts Out Ministers, Not The US
Government
Chaplains
should enter the armed services as anyone else does. And they
should be paid like anyone else is paid and for what others are
paid for. They should not be paid for being a chaplain. However,
churches should be allowed to send in chaplains of their own, a type
of missionary work, paid for by the individual churches.
The
minute a chaplain gets paid by the U.S. government, he
then becomes subject to behaving as the government tells him to
behave. Remember, his job is a 'chaplain.' When we work for someone,
they get to tell us how to do our job. So, if a person's job is a
chaplain, then the boss can tell him how to do his job.
And this is where the problem lies.
Those who are in the
military should be able to be who they are and what faith-belief
they are. If they bow their heads and pray in Jesus' name, that
should be allowed. (It should not matter if they are in uniform.)
And if on their own time they want to get together with others of
their faith and have a gathering in the Lord, that should be allowed
as well. If they are not getting paid by the government for
being a chaplain, then they cannot be told how to behave as
such.
Where
I go, my Christianity goes. As Paul was, I am an ambassador for
Jesus Christ. And if I worked for my government there
would be no pay for that which I am. My pay would
be for whatever government job I held. People would know of my
Christianity, as clearly as they would know my sex is female. I
walk out my faith, by the power of God. And I do not need a
government paycheck to do that which Christ has for me to
do.
What
faith belief are chaplains?
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Do
we really want tax dollars paying for any practice of a
faith-belief? And just what faith beliefs are chaplains
of? Some of these chaplains fill the need for any type of
religion or 'religious' need.
The religion
that is being paid for by the US government is the same
religion of the ACLU and the UUC. It is a worldly, hug a tree
and respect all faiths (except the true faith of true
Christianity). This is why we are seeing chaplains being told how to
'pray.' The US government is not supposed to pick
one religion over another, hence, when it does, it picks one
that is to cover 'all.' (But we know this is not really
possible.)
Most
true Christians would not want a military chaplain that prays to a
'catch all' god. But what many are not realizing is that some
chaplains 'pray' in a false name of Jesus. Just because a
chaplain says he is praying in Jesus' name, does not mean he is
praying in the real Jesus' name. Fact is, not all chaplains are
real Christians.
Devout
vs. Not Devout
As
James Madison tried to get across in his letter: We need a devout
spirit in the armies. As a result, it will rarely happen that there
is a lack of religious instruction and that such would be from
a voluntary source (within or without). But, if a devout spirit is
not the case of armies, then official services of such an
army's teachers are not likely to produce a devout
spirit.
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If
the spirit of armies be devout, the spirit out of the armies
will never be Less so; and a failure of religious instruction
&, exhortation from a voluntary source within or without,
will rarely happen: if such be not the spirit of armies, the
official services of their Teachers are not likely to produce
it.
~
James Madison |
©
Copyright 2006 Debra J.M. Smith --October 3,
2006 |
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