Archive - May, 2006

Lest we forget

By 29 May 2006. Filed in Deployment.

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On this Memorial Day, we honor the dead—those fallen in defense of this great nation. Let us ever remember them and the price they paid. And let us continue, with diligence, the protection of such valued liberty.

The words of Rudyard Kipling’s hymn come to mind. We mustn’t be confident in our own might or our own designs without first being confident in the Lord.

God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The captains and the kings depart;
Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Ninevah and Tyre!
Judge of the nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the law—
Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not to thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word—
Thy mercy on thy people, Lord! Amen.

Prayers in Jesus’ name

By 27 May 2006. Filed in Ethics, News & Commentary.

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I posted the following elsewhere. It offers only a brief introduction of my thoughts on public ceremonial prayer in Jesus’ name by military chaplains.
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At the schoolhouse [Army Chaplain School], my class was told repeatedly not to pray in Jesus’ name. When I was a chaplain candidate, a supervisory chaplain asked me to write a prayer for a graduation; he scolded me for inserting Christ’s name in an “ecumenical setting”. I know of similar incidents secondhand.

I have also run into supervisory chaplains who would go to the wall for their chaplains who prayed according to the forms of their faith.

If the Army didn’t want me to minister according to my faith, it wouldn’t require me to have an ecclesiastical endorsement. If the Army prefers that I be deity-indifferent, it should have not required me to have an ecclesiastical endorsement. I can’t pray to a civic god because no such god exists; I can’t pray to an unknown god. My faith is in a specific (the specific) God, and to pray to anyone or anything else–or no one else–is only meaningless babble. If a commander bars me from praying at a ceremony because I do so in the name of Jesus, then he doesn’t understand prayer and only wants it for show–not to pray in Jesus name would be mere ceremonial blather. Meaningless prayer is no prayer at all.

I should expect clergy of other religions to feel the same about their own prayers.

There is no need, in prayer at a public civic ceremony, to have an “altar call”. After all, the prayer is directed to God, not to the crowd. The crowd is afforded the opportunity to listen in on the prayer, as a means of encouragement, reflection, and–if they desire–agreement. At a change of command, for example, the goal of the ceremony is not spiritual revival but recognition of the staff change; so, I should be offering a prayer that focuses on that topic. However, I will certainly direct the prayer to Almighty God; I will not invoke the favor of some nameless deity. I do not profess faith in a nameless god, and the Army knew that when I came in and wanted it that way.

Provide or perform? A ceremonial prayer is not an issue of providing. Since chaplains are called on to pray (to God), they are performing religious services according to their faith tradition. It is impossible to pray to an atheistic god because, in an atheistic worldview, no god exists. The fact that chaplains are called on to pray implies belief in God.