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It is in the breaking news sidebar!
Posted on 04/11/2003 3:50:39 PM PDT by drlevy88
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army Office of the Chief of Chaplains is checking into a report by Knight Ridder Newspapers that an Army chaplain in Iraq withheld clean bathing water from U.S. soldiers who did not first agree to hear a sermon and be baptized.
The allegation against Chaplain Josh Llano, 32, of Houston, has drawn heated responses from religious, civil libertarian and atheist groups who say the practice amounts to religious coercion. Army officials said that so far their investigation hasn't shown that to be true.
"Neither the Army nor the Army Chief of Chaplains approves of religious coercion, but reports we've gotten indicate that's not what this was at all," said Pentagon spokesperson Martha Rudd, who added that there was plenty of additional water available to soldiers at that camp.
(Excerpt) Read more at bayarea.com ...
Since when are chaplains in charge of water distribution in units? That's the supply officer/sergeant’s job. The only clean water this chaplain was "withholding" was in his tiny little baptismal pit - which, surprise surprise, was reserved for baptisms.
I saw this story being played up last week among the America-haters on DU (yes - I was peeking around there to see what our 5th column was up to). Several posters there were squealing about how they've contacted their congressperson to rail against this "injustice” Senator Patty Murray's office featured prominently.
Quite a two-fer for these parasites: a chance to bash the military and Christianity in one shot.. and all while feigning this new-found "concern for the troops."
I saw this. The baptismal pit looked like a foxhole lined in plastic, large enough for person to be submerged in and there were cases and cases ... lots of cases ... of bottled drinking water surrounding it. As a photo op, the chaplin emptied a bottle into the pit.
Army Chief of Chaplains Gaylord Gunhus said he believes Llano was simply joking with soldiers of the Army V Corps combat support system at Camp Bushmaster near Najaf.And there it is."I have confidence in my chaplains," Gunhus said from his office at the Pentagon. "It had nothing to do with keeping people from having water or anything at all. Speculation is, he was jesting with a bunch of folks."
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