Today's Washington Post has published a story on "Chaplains Group Opposes Prayer Order." Conservative Christians in congress are demanding that President Bush issue a directive guaranteeing the right of chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus whenever praying at events where attendance is mandatory. An organization representing 70% of military chaplains opposes such a directive. An organization of Evangelical chaplains representing around 10% of military chaplains favors the directive.
I think the simplest solution is to mandate that every time an evangelical military chaplain insists on praying in Jesus name at an event where attendance is mandatory, that that chaplain be required to attend an event where a chaplain from a minority faith prays in the name of another god.
It would be interesting to hear what these same chaplains have to say after they've been ordered to listen to a few Wiccan prayers.
1 comment:
Interesting thought, but as a Christian I believe praying "in Jesus name" is scriptural and that censoring prayers by limiting a Chaplin?s belief is wrong. As an American I support the idea of not censoring others prayers. It goes along the line of thinking ?I may not believe what you say but I will defend your right to say it. The Non- Christians may not agree with using the name of Jesus, but we are not asking them to endorse it, and the same is true the other way around. We can tolerate the opposing view for the few minutes of time at a mandatory event without asking others to believe and respect the other persons view.
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