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Diversity of worship poses challenges for Fort Leonard Wood chaplains
Pulaski County Daily News ^ | 11/7/2009 | Darrell Todd Maurina

Posted on 11/07/2009 7:19:31 PM PST by darrellmaurina

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Nov. 7, 2009) — American society may be less religious than it was a few generations ago, but its religious diversity has greatly increased. That change has dramatically impacted the Army, which must now offer religious services not only for Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants but also for a wide variety of different Christian denominations and minority faiths. That’s far different from what Lt. Col. John Bjarnason, Fort Leonard Wood’s family life chaplain, saw when he joined the Army in 1969. “We have a wide range of all kinds of different choices for our trainees to go to church. When I first came into the military, we had a choice: Catholic or Protestant,” Bjarnason said. “Actually there were three choices: drill sergeant time, Catholic time, or Protestant time, or drill sergeant time, but who would ever choose drill sergeant time if they could choose Catholic time or Protestant time?” That diversity includes Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. “Today is Friday, Friday is the Muslim day of worship,” Bjarnason said. “Today there are two groups of Muslims meeting and one of them is right here in this (chaplain’s office) building.”

(Excerpt) Read more at pulaskicountydaily.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; US: Missouri; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: army; chaplain; leonardwood

1 posted on 11/07/2009 7:19:32 PM PST by darrellmaurina
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To: darrellmaurina

My son was there last year. He chose church over drill sargeant time. LOL!


2 posted on 11/07/2009 7:28:49 PM PST by Enough_Deceit (Proud Mama of a US Marine and a US Soldier Bitterly Hanging On to Her Guns and Religion. Ooorahh!)
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To: darrellmaurina

Great.

Witches and mudslimes. Our govt will build plenty of on-post mosques for the benefit of radicals to dismember us.

Keep smilin America.


3 posted on 11/07/2009 7:38:10 PM PST by petertare (--.)
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To: petertare

4 posted on 11/07/2009 7:41:59 PM PST by sailor4321
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To: Enough_Deceit

I went to Fort Lost in Woods as well for Basic.

I chose Protestant time as well, lol.

Actually it was God leading me to Himself :D


5 posted on 11/07/2009 9:43:25 PM PST by GulfWar1Vet
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To: GulfWar1Vet
Charlie 1-2, first of the best, better than the rest, drive on sergeant drive on!
6 posted on 11/09/2009 11:18:54 AM PST by HenpeckedCon (1/20/13 - Obama's Last Day!)
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