Victory for Military Chaplains Who Pray "In Jesus Name"

[Brad Pardee]

Paul Finkelman wrote:


> Sounds very much like someone tooting his own horn?  Is excessive pride
> also a sin?

Interestingly enough, it sounded like somebody who was accused of 
selfishness attempting to place his actions in context in order to defend 
the impugning of his character.

> One can only wonder how G-d will respond to someone who brags about his
> work to make outcasts of gay members of the human family.  Perhaps the
> Chaplain should try marching a mile or two in the boot of a gay sailor
> or soldier.

Again, where was the bragging?  If somebody calls the chaplain selfish, 
isn't he allowed to say, "No, I don't believe I was being selfish.  Here's 
why."

Also, I didn't see a thing about trying to make anybody outcasts.  Are you 
suggesting that a person who believes that Scripture teaches that sexual 
intimacy is reserved for monogamous heterosexual marriage should simply keep 
their views to themselves?  Or is freedom of religion reserved for those who 
believe that God simply says, "Be nice people and otherwise do whatever you 
want"?

> I am no expert on the chaplain's faith, but have spent a great deal of
> my life studying religion and this is the first time I have ever heard a
> Christian assert that praying  fomr the Book of Psalms compromised a
> Christian's faith.

Praying from the Book of Psalms is not, in and of itself, compromising a 
person's faith.  Being required to pray ONLY from the Book of Psalms to the 
exclusion of every other prayer in the Bible, however, is another matter.

It sounds to me very much like the Navy has, in essence, said that a person 
can only be a chaplain if they act as if they don't actually believe 
anything.  That doesn't sound like what 200+ years worth of American 
fighting men and women were willing to die to defend.

Brad Pardee