Posted on 05/12/2005 12:41:32 PM PDT by wagglebee
Here’s a story that will throw you for a loop: a "chaplain” at the U.S. Air Force Academy is complaining that the school’s administration has a "systemic and pervasive” problem of promoting religious religious values with a Christian bent.
The chaplain, Capt. Melinda Morton, a "Lutheran minister” spoke out publicly on Tuesday as an Air Force task force arrived at the academy to investigate charges that officers and staff members pushed their religious beliefs on cadets.
And she claimed that a tolerance program developed at the academy, called Respecting the Spiritual Values of all People (R.S.V.P.), was watered down after it was shown to officers.
Maj. Gen. Charles C. Baldwin, chief of chaplains for the Air Force, screened the 90-minute R.S.V.P. film in October, according to Capt. Morton, and asked her: "Why is it that the Christians never win?” in reaction to some of the program’s depictions of cadet interactions.
"Chaplain” Morton’s complaints about too much religion at the military academy is creating waves, and earned her hero status in a report in the New York Times Thursday.
Gen. Baldwin acknowledged in an interview that he felt too many scenes in the film portrayed Christians at fault for excessive evangelical proselytizing.
He also said he asked that the Air Force cut segments on non-Christian religions such as Buddhism, Judaism and Native American spirituality.
The problem in dealing with proselytizing and church-state issues at the academy, he explained, "always is, when is a person crossing the line, or when are they being a positive person of faith, like our president.”
Last year, the Colorado Springs academy invited Yale Divinity School professor Kristen Leslie and six Yale graduate students to visit the school and observe how the chaplains minister to the cadets.
A memo from the Yale team cited the "stridently evangelical themes” at a worship service attended by 600 new cadets.
Leslie said a chaplain urged cadets to pray for those who didn’t attend and "remind them of the consequences ... those not ‘born again will burn in the fires of hell.’”
But academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker disputed that account, saying several other chaplains told him that no one mentioned burning "in the fires of hell.”
Morton, a 48-year-old "Lutheran minister," said she was removed from her post as executive officer to the chief chaplain, Col. Michael Whittington, last week. She claimed the dismissal came after he pressured her to deny details of what happened at the religious service.
But Whitaker said Whittington sent Morton an e-mail on May 4 saying he was removing her "to ensure a smooth and complete transition” for new leaders.
Morgan said she had stepped forward because "it’s the Constitution, not just a nice rule we can follow or not follow. That includes not using your power to advance your religious agenda.”
She acknowledged that after speaking out, "I don’t think I have much future in the Air Force.”
You're right, there were only men there, but did He teach that only those few could do the things He was instructing them to do?
During His time on earth, was it in any way safe for young pure women to travel without men to protect them? Would there have been any kind of assumptions made about women who did that sort of thing?
That's too bad. Sounds like you should do us all a favor and hold it for at least 10 minutes.
Along with the Presbyterians, the United Methodists, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopalians, and so on. This isn't exactly anything new.
Not exactly. But the rest of what you said is right on.
Wow.
"Hate" to tell you this -- although only because you're quite clearly too intellectually, emotionally, cognitively and spiritually immature to grasp it.
But no-one -- not even a Narcissist, such as you are appearing to be -- is capable of "feeling" another's emotions. Any and all hatred you feel and/or any other emotion that has penetrated your psychoses, along with any desire for "vengeance" -- and I of course believe you when you say you feel hatred and the need for the latter -- is your own.
And I in any case am full of joy -- and feel only love.
Including for you.
Blessings -- Brian
[And meanwhile permit me to refer you to:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1402102/posts ;
Post #4. ]
<< There is no "feminism" here. I have college degrees, .... Mr. Okie and I prefer to be an educated couple. >>
What on Earth, do you fantasize, does having "college degrees" has to do with "being .. educated?"
Whatever shall I do with them. Oh, my! Oh, my!
BTW, if you guys are going to get so upset over denominational disputes, then don't enter the threads.
Yeah: you are probably right, Christs plan has just outlived its usefullness so lets throw it away. Times have changed and Christ should chnage with it.
I also would be willing to bet if you started to argue scripture with her or the Constitution, and pointed out her errors, she would pull rank on you.
The natural implication when they kill the men and don't kill the women is they rape the women.
Along with the Presbyterians, the United Methodists, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopalians, and so on. This isn't exactly anything new.
Just because it has been done before doesn't make it right.
Paul's epistles contain numerous instructions to the early churches regarding the qualifications of pastors, bishops, and other church offices. In every instance he mentioned only men as being qualified for those positions of authority.
In his 1st epistle to Timothy Paul specifically rejected the idea of placing women in positions of authority in the church. The pastorate is certainly a position of authority, therefore any church or denomination which ordains women as pastors is deliberately ignoring the clear teaching of the word of God on that issue. It is not mere coincidence that in practically every case the denominations and churches which ordain women pastors are the ones which have also sunk the deepest into apostasy and unbelief in most other areas of doctrine and practice.
God designed two distinctly different genders for different roles in life. That doesn't mean the he loves one gender more than the other, or that one's role is less important than the other's. It does mean that God is sovereign and that he makes the rules for his Church, whether we think those rules are "fair" or not.
Why not?
Very regrettable but true.
You joined today to tell us THIS?!
Oh shaddap.
Put an awful lot of time into your short stay.
They are if they want to keep their position or be promoted. The woman is probably upset because she can't (yet) officiate vows for homosexual addicts.
"...aggressive proselytizers...proselytizing..."
Yeah, you're gonna last long here.
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