Torture

Keith Green used to say, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger.” Or wemight say, sitting in church is no guarantee that you’ll soak anything up. A sad Pew study reinforces this point. But it isn’t just an indictment of churchgoers–it’s an indictment of America, and how far we’ve fallen if only a small minority believe torture can never be justified.

Re-Up

I’ve been thinking about it a long time. At one point I had decided that it wasn’t likely. Resigned myself to some good memories. But then a friend’s commissioning got me to reflecting some more, as did some conversations with some folks from Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries. And a visit to Killeen finalized my determination. I’ve applied to reenter the Army National Guard as a chaplain.

As followers of this blog know, I’ve wrestled with a lot of things, including the experience of CH (CPT) James Yee. They had told us in chaplain school that we took a risk entering this ministry, that we must at times cut against the grain, and that faithfully following our call could get us into trouble–but we must do it, they said.

I’ve come to the conclusion that for me, it isn’t about the policies or practicies of a particular administration, it is about the soldiers. I’ve been committed to young adult ministry, and here’s the largest concentration of young adults in the country, with the lowest degree of church attendance. And at this time the military is having a very hard time recruiting chaplains.

So, I’ve done it. I’ve submitted the Army’s paperwork, will have the physical this weekend, and have started the endorsement process. And I’ve started to cut down on food and get into a PT regimen. So, we’ll see where it goes from here. Hooah.

A Methodist Church Prepares for Swine Flu

Texas church goes to wrapped communion elements because of swine flu scare.

Mickey Rourke as St. Francis

Discussed at Commonweal blog. There are lots of things I like about the movie, too. Chief negative for me: Vangelis’ score.

“Jesus Killed Mohammed”

That horrible phrase is the title of Jeff Sharlet’s current cover story in Harper’s. Allegedly, some soldiers had it written in Arabic on their vehicle. The story, which you can read at the newsstand, is about what he calls, “The crusade for a Christian military.” Yes, there are some problems. But he really gives an incomplete picture. He suggests that there were denominational quotas for chaplains until 1987, when, supposedly, all Protestants became “Protestant.” Well, no. The military did retain the old “Protestant/Catholic/Jew” labels until around then (lumping Eastern Orthodox with Protestants!), but Protestant chaplains remain Protestant chaplains, regardless of their denomination. Now there are Muslim and Buddhist chaplains, too. And no, they didn’t get rid of denominational quotas–but the military did have to face the reality that the priest shortage among Catholics and the anti-military stance of the liberal Protestant clergy meant that their slots were never filled. Still aren’t. They don’t want units to go without chaplains, so of course they are then going to accept those who are available. Even with that, only 50% of chaplain slots in the National Guard are filled in some states.

Torture Is Not a Conservative Value

Rod Dreher links to Ken Adelman.

New Additions to Luther’s Works

Concordia is expanding the American Edition of Luther’s Works.

“Faith in Flux”

New study looks at changes in religious affiliation. Interactive chart. Executive summary. Those who were raised Catholic or Protestant who are now unaffiliated “just gradually drifted away” for the most part. Those who were unaffiliated and now go to a church did so largely to get their spiritual needs met (51%), but for 23% it was because of who they married.  Looking at why they joined their current faith, over 74% of each say because they “Enjoy the religious services and style of worship.”

Ex-Catholics who become Protestant are not generally upset about teachings about abortion, homosexuality, divorce, birth control, women’s issues, Catholic social teaching, etc. Rather, they say (71%) that their spiritual needs were not being met. Disagreement with those issues does figure strongly with those who leave Catholicism and do not become Protestant.

There wasn’t enough of a sample of people who were Protestant who became Catholic, or who left Catholicism or Protestantism for a non-Christian religion or vice versa. All of these together constitute only 9% of the US population.

A Chaplain’s Story

Chaplain Emil Kapaun, a POW during the Korean War.

Revisionist History

Robert Duncan posts an article by one Richard Frank on the atomic bombs. Frank says,

Most Americans today are surprised to learn that in 1945 and for approximately two decades thereafter no significant controversy accompanied the use of atomic weapons to end the Pacific War.

Opposition only surfaced in the 1960s, he claims, from “critics” or “revisionists.”

But it is Frank who is the revisionist.

Here’s from the Catholic journal, Commonweal, from August 1945 (republished in 1995 for the 50th anniversary, hence the 1995 date on the page):

The name Hiroshima, the name Nagasaki are names for American guilt and shame.

The war against Japan was nearly won. Our fleet and Britain’s fleet stood off Japan’s coast and shelled Japan’s cities. There was no opposition. Our planes, the greatest bombers in the world, flew from hard won, gailantly won bases and bombed Japanese shipping, Japanese industry and, already, Japanese women and children. Each day they announced to the Japanese where the blows would fall, and the Japanese were unable to prevent anything they chose to do.

Then, without warning, an American plane dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Russia entered the war. There was no doubt before or after Russia entered the war that the war against Japan was won. An American plane dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

We had to invent the bomb because the Germans were going to invent the bomb. It was a matter of avoiding our own possible destruction. We had to test the bomb and we tested it in a desert. If we were to threaten the use of it against the Japanese, we could have told them to pick a desert and then go look at the hole. Without warning we dropped it into the middle of a city and then without warning we dropped it into the middle of another city.

And then we said that this bomb could mean the end of civilization if we ever got into a war and everyone started to use it. So that we must keep it a secret. We must keep it as sole property of people who know how to use it. We must keep it the property of peace-loving nations. That is what we said about the atomic bomb – together with odds and ends about motors the size of pin points which would drive a ship three times round the world – that is what we said about it, after we had used it ourselves. To secure peace, of course. To save lives, of course. After we had brought indescribable death to a few hundred thousand men, women, and children, we said that this bomb must remain always in the hands of peace-loving peoples.

For our war, for our purposes, to save American lives we have reached the point where we say that anything goes. That is what the Germans said at the beginning of the war. Once we have won our war we say that there must be international law. Undoubtedly.

When it is created, Germans, Japanese, and Americans will remember with horror the days of their shame.

There were similar articles in The Christian Century and L’Osservatore Romano.

And note this article by Michael Kort of BU in the New England Journal of History:

The debate over the use of the atomic bomb against Japan dates from August 1945. Truman’s first critics spoke out after the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even before Japan formally surrendered on September 2, arguing mainly on the basis of pacifist or religious principles.

He cites The Christian Century LXII (August 29, 1945), 974-976.

So who are the revisionists? Those who think no one had a conscience in 1945.

Pennsylvania Town Fears Hindu “Mosque.”

Story.

Newsweek and Religion

Secular authors tend not to understand any variety of religion. I think this article in Newsweek, “Two Pastors Haunted by Columbine,” is a good example of this. Lisa Miller and Matthew Philipps try to make this a liberal/conservative thing. It isn’t. It’s about how to minister in a time of crisis. Of course a minister working with the family of a killer is in a different situation than a minister working with the victims and their families. Of course both are going to preach the gospel–that’s a pastor’s job at all times.

The authors don’t explain why the pastor of the Klebolds would “get in trouble” for caring for them. This article notes he went on a planned sabbatical right afterwards–and the church felt abandoned. Marxhausen admits it was “stupid.” This article notes there were other tensions. And this one quotes church leaders as saying the issues surrounding his leaving had nothing to do with the tragedy, that the church supported fully the way he reached out to the family.

This article from 1999 talks about Dylan Klebold’s funeral.

Homosexuality and Religious Liberty in the EU

EU lawmakers seek to remove religious exemptions–would force churches to perform gay marriages.

“Spirituality” in LA Public Schools

The folks from the Kabbalah Centre of commercialized pseudo-Jewish mysticism have managed to infiltrate LA public schools. Lots of folks are upset.

Among those concerned, LA Times reports, is

… Orthodox Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, an adjunct chair in Jewish law and ethics at Loyola Law School, who doesn’t believe the program belongs in public schools. He said that as the nation has grown more diverse and religion has been removed from the public square, there is a yearning for moral teaching. But he said the program’s founders offer more hype than substance.

“Whenever there is a hunger, there is a danger that hucksters will feed the hunger with phony food,” he said.

SONscreen

If you are in LA this weekend, don’t miss the SONscreen film festival–especially the Saturday afternoon panel featuring Barbara Nicolosi and Ryan Bell.

Kurt Peterson, RIP

Ken Grant posts a tribute to our classmate Kurt Peterson. Obituary.

Kurt always reminded me of Alan Alda for some reason. I guess it was the acerbic wit. Oh, the times we had together … the Seminary coffee shop, the “Blue Parrot,” hanging out in his room or ours, usually in the company of Steve Stahl. We were in touch a couple times a year in recent years–but still in touch. He had been ailing for a couple of years, so I knew this was coming. But it is always a shock when you hear of a good friend dying–especially when you find out two weeks after the fact.

Polls.

Barna claims most American Christians don’t believe the Holy Spirit exists. Problem is, they used terms like “living force” and “living entity.” These are the pollster’s terms, not the terms of Christian theology.  I don’t believe the Holy Spirit is a “living force”–that’s a term out of Star Wars. I wouldn’t call him a “living entity.” That suggests that the Holy Spirit is a being among beings rather than the second person of the Holy Trinity.

Sikhs in the Military

Sikhs have served in the militaries of many nations–but they face problems in the US. Accommodations are made from time to time for the wearing of the beard, uncut hair, and turban, but not consistently. The Sikh Coalition is asking for a consistent policy that would permit Sikhs to serve.

Talking of Death and Resurrection

Jill Carroll in Houston Chronicle.

Pr. Hoye Released for “Good Behavior”

Pr. Walter Hoye, jailed in California for witnessing in front of an abortion mill (where he was harassed and abused by the workers), has been released after 18 days.

The Rev. James Dobson

No, he’s not a minister. But some newspapers have been having problems with that little fact.

New Catholic Tony Blair Lectures Pope

Tony Blair thinks the pope needs to change his mind about homosexuality.

Leonardo’s “Last Supper”

An exploration of the painting.

Letter from Santa Rita Jail

From Pr. Walter Hoye, II.

A Tale of Two Houses

Al Gore v. George W. Bush.

Orthodoxy in America

Metropolitan Jonah to Ecumenical Patriarch: “There is an American Orthodox church. Leave it alone.”

Hitchens v. Craig

CT on Hitchens/Craig debates.

How Spiritual Are America’s Jews?

New study by Synagogue 3000.

The first-ever comparative national study of spirituality among American Jews and Christians demonstrates that young Jews are more spiritually inclined on every available measure than their elders. The historic large gap in spiritual orientation between Jews and others is narrowing, especially among younger adults, those 35 and under. The S3K Synagogue Studies Institute report, written by Professors Steven M. Cohen and Lawrence A. Hoffman, both of Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, draws upon a web-based national survey of 1596 Jews and 1520 respondents drawn from the general population.

This growth of spiritual receptivity among young adult Jews can be attributed to 3 factors:

1. The growth in the number of Orthodox Jews, especially among people under 35.
2. The parallel, and even more substantial, growth of intermarried families and Jews by choice, both signifying the growth of Jews with Christian parents, husbands and wives. These family members appear to render their Jewish relatives more open to, and comfortable with, the ideas, expressions and language of spirituality.
3. Even non-Orthodox Jews with two Jewish parents (a shrinking population sector, albeit still a majority) are more receptive to spiritual language than older counterparts.

Sex, Lies, and Vindictiveness

Pete Vere on the Legionaries.

Army Recruiting

TIME.