Military accused of pushing Christian faith again

I have two videos that talk about God. One is I Grieve and the other is PTSD Not God's Judgment. I did not talk about being a Christian in any of the videos I've done. In PTSD Not God's Judgment, I did include a picture of Christ because He addressed that there is no great love than being willing to lay down your life for your friends. Other than that, I try very hard to keep my branch of Christianity, as well as Christianity itself out of the videos I do. While I am a Christian, a Greek Orthodox Christian, I fully understand that there are many branches of Christianity itself along with other faiths. While they Bible is used by the major religions of the world, each group has their own ideas of what to believe.

For those who still find no problem with what the military is doing pushing one particular branch of Christianity, you need to be wondering what happens to your own views and your own choices? There are Christian sects who do not believe in the Holy Trinity or the Divinity of Christ. Some do not believe in the Saints. What do you think happens if a commander is allowed to enforce his theology upon his command? Still find this kind of pushing faith harmless? What is you have a commander who believes that you have to speak in tongues to be true but no one under his command can even pretend to? What if the commander does not believe in any of this but his men do? Do you see how damaging this all can be?

While the Purpose Driven Life is a good book for those who are exploring their faith, I cannot recommend it for people who are dealing with PTSD because it is not helpful for that. I've read it but you also have to consider that I've been reading religious based books all my life and was the head of Christian Education for a church. There are many books I've read that would be more appropriate in helping Christian soldiers and veterans heal but I would not recommend any of them be suggested by the military and certainly not enforced reading.

If I can draw the line when I am invested in the spiritual health of people as a Chaplain, why can't the military do the same?

Soldier alleges religious bias at Lakenheath

By Sam LaGrone - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Oct 1, 2008 13:08:22 EDT

An atheist serviceman has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Defense Department of several counts of religious discrimination, including at least one instance on an Air Force base.

Army Spc. Dustin Chalker and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation are accusing DoD of a laundry list of violations of separation of church and state.

Chalker and the MRFF cite more than a dozen violations, from military installations around the world, that promote the “practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense and the United States Army,” according to the suit.

Among the violations, the suit complains about a mandatory suicide-prevention briefing from an Air Force chaplain that borrowed heavily from a wildly popular Christian self-help book.

Chalker alleges that at a commander’s call at RAF Lakenheath, England, last March, an Air Force chaplain gave a talk on suicide prevention that heavily referenced concepts from “The Purpose-Driven Life,” a self-help book based on evangelical Christian theology.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/airforce_lakenheath_suit_093008/