Posted on 02/11/2013 11:24:48 PM PST by robowombat
Catholic military chaplains could soon become outlaws
By Father George Rutler
The Geneva Convention’s classification of military chaplains as noncombatants has traditionally been interpreted in the United States to mean that chaplains normally do not carry weapons. This often puts them in precarious positions when they are in war zones. Over four hundred chaplains have been killed in the line of duty. Catholic chaplains are especially exposed to dangerous situations by their obligation to administer Absolution and Anointing. They have received every kind of decoration for valor, and seven have been awarded the Medal of Honor.
All four chaplains awarded the Medal since the Civil War have been Catholic. Among them, Lieutenant Vincent Capodanno, a Maryknoll priest and Navy chaplain, who served with the Marine Corps and was killed while aiding the second Platoon of M Company at the battle of Dong Son in Vietnam, has been proposed for heaven’s highest honor, canonization as a saint.
The military chaplaincy is under threat by our own government as part of its social agenda. One year ago, the Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains tried to forbid Catholic chaplains from reading a statement from the Military Ordinary, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees all priests in the Catholic Ordinariate for the Armed Forces, in which he objected to federally mandated health insurance covering sterilization, abortifacients and contraception in violation of the right to religious freedom. Now the government would compel chaplains to acquiesce in “same-sex” simulations of marriage. The Army’s deputy chief of staff in charge of personnel has said that military members who dissent from this agenda are “bigoted” and “need to get out.”
As behavior contrary to Christian morality becomes a civil right, Catholics in particular could soon become, quite literally, outlaws. Our current President recently announced that he will disobey a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act, signed by his own hand, which states that chaplains cannot be forced “to perform any rite, ritual or ceremony that is contrary to the conscience, moral principles or religious beliefs of the chaplain.”
I am always edified by the sacrificing spirit of good soldiers, and as a chaplain to West Point alumni here in New York, I am pleased when cadets serve at Mass. Governments that have tried to manipulate soldiers and doctors and teachers in perverse ways have always had a short shelf life. The nineteenth-century French political philosopher Frédéric Bastiat warned: “When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe.”
Military chaplains do not bear arms, but they have recourse to another arsenal: “Therefore take unto you the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect” (Ephesians 6:11).
Over two years ago Bostick, who the Mahdi has chosen to make the new commander of the Corps of Engineers displayed both his hubris and moral squalor as reported here in a letter to the Washington Times:
By Rob Fulcher-The Washington Times Thursday, September 23, 2010
The military community of Stuttgart, Germany, hosted the only “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” sensing sessions for Europe. I was one of about 500 people who attended.
As we say in the Army, bottom line upfront - I have zero confidence in Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick and his committee’s ability to produce a fair and balanced report on their findings. From his opening remarks all the way through the last question, Gen. Bostick and the other members on his panel were more condescending than parents to their children. When members of the audience asked questions or gave opinions in opposition to the proposed change, Gen. Bostick and his crew responded with phrases or sentences beginning with “when the policy changes” and “after implementation,” if we were lucky to get a response.
There were several points and ideas presented by members of the military that Gen. Bostick didn’t even deem worthy to respond to. The best question came from a warrant officer, “Before we rush to possibly ruin our military, wouldn’t it be best to have an anonymous survey to find out how many gay people are in the military and how many of them would actually openly admit being gay if given the opportunity?” Gen. Bostick simply asked for the next question, which wasn’t really a question. A black senior noncommissioned officer stood up and challenged the general on the issue of civil rights stating, “I am black, and I find it highly offensive that you would consider homosexuality to be the same as civil rights of blacks.” Again, Gen. Bostick sat smug in his chair without a response.
After awhile, the sanctimonious and pompous answers given by him and his panel were easy to overlook. However, the simultaneous gasp of a few hundred people came when Gen. Bostick responded to the morality and religious aspects of homosexuality. It is absolutely true that Gen. Bostick in part thinks that Christians were bigots and racists and those who felt homosexuality was immoral should start looking for a new line of work. He even went on to say that there will be zero tolerance for chaplains to preach against homosexuality and those that did would most likely be dealt with under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The real question that needs to be asked before any change to the military should be “Will this make the military stronger?” Regardless of what the answer is, we must not be afraid of the truth, no matter how much we might not like it or how unpopular it might make us.
ROB FULCHER
Patch Barracks
Stuttgart, Germany
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/23/witness-to-bostick-comments/#ixzz2KfNSZtZz
Bostick is an evil looking person who positively exudes arrogance and drips the sin of pride. With such men as this leading our military I leave it to the reader to draw the appropriate conclusion as to what the judgement of history will be.
So Mr. Obama is now to the Left and much more radical than former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler on matters of the military chaplaincy? Doesn’t that seem strange to you?
Military chaplains ping
Bostick appears to be one Holder’s “people”.
...one OF Holder’s people.
This might interest you.
With an atheist Marxist, strutting little would-be dictator as president, it’s no surprise that chaplains are “anathema.”
In fact, it would be more surprising if they weren’t.
I've never been comfortable with the idea of having clerics serving in uniform, where they are constantly under the often-adversarial wills of God and Caesar.
Here is reality, if you are not an outlaw in one way or several descriptions of what the Obama regime describes then you are doing nothing to defend the Constitution.
We are REQUIRED by the 2A to be outlaws, the illegal usurped supremacy regime of course will call us all sorts of dirty names, but never the less its our stand, our belief, to defend our way of life..NOT theirs.
The REAL outlaw is infesting 1600 Penn.
At this point in time, I believe they are protected by public law that requires them to be representatives of their denomination, but I'd have to reread the exact wording of the law to see if it is worded for an era in which no one could have ever conceived of this era of have military gays, gay weddings, and the like.
In a recent lawsuit, an Army SSG filed suit against a chaplain for saying "our heavenly father" in a prayer he prayed at the end of a training session. In other words, it was an entirely innocuous prayer that would have held up in most religions, except those with female deities. (Even then it could be argued as a figure of speech.)
I have no use for innocuous praying in any required event, but that's the state of our military today. At a religious event the chaplain can pray however (s)he likes. At a non-religious event, the chaplain is strongly encouraged to be "pluralistic". (O thou the one who might or might not be there?...oi veh...)
The army responded with this bit of gobbledygook, which at least was trying to give support to their unit and their chaplain.
The Army denies any wrongdoing.“The Battalion Chaplain spoke to the companies gathered in the theater and he encouraged the young Soldiers to lean on a higher power in their journey through life,” it wrote in a statement in October of last year. “The chaplain’s prayer had no reference to any specific deity, and ended with the words, ‘through Your holy name.’ This is the same ending offered during each training course, graduation ceremony or other military-sponsored event.”
“The Army is cognizant of our soldiers’ religious freedoms, and would never violate their free exercise of religion or choice not to profess a religious faith,” it added.
The army makes it sound as if the politically correct phrase that they now teach chaplains to say is: "through your holy name."
We might do better to return to the procedure of our messianic brethren who don't speak the name at all.
I'm serious.
Thou Unnamed One.
The future of the chaplaincy should this Obama term be replaced with another liberal?? I think the chaplaincy will be terminated as part of the military and replaced with psychology degreed political officers in each battalion, as was the old soviet army.
Perhaps, perhaps, he envisions an army similar to the “300” Spartans, who were totally immoral and ultimately wiped out by who? (Providential that Sparta no longer exists?)
I believe God still judges nations by their legal systems. We are facing the wrath of Jesus who has been given all authority.
I like “I AM WHO I AM”
It has merit
Makes my heart sick to read what obama and the left are doing to our military and to our chaplains. Who needs the chaplains’ service, counsel, honest prayers more than those who would protect the rest of us? To tie their hands or shut their mouths shows absolute distain for their value to our fighting force.
As far as replacing Jesus, Father, God, .......I DO like The Great I Am. The Word, The Way, The Truth,....there are so many possibilities
Something tells me the muslim chaplain will not be told to “shut up with the allah talk.”
That is unfair to those who are being told to “shut up with the Jesus talk”, but that’s not surprising. Christianity scares liberals to death. (One of the many proofs that Christianty is true is the unreasonable opposition to it when other religions don’t receive that same opposition.)
“I Am” definitely appeals to me. Even now, I still pray, “We pray for the peace of the Messiah. Amen”
I wonder if that would still fly.
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