Posted on 10/13/2009 8:56:08 PM PDT by Saije
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is long gone; Rick Warren, just an Inauguration Day memory. The hordes of ministers around town who were hoping they'd somehow wind up with the first family in their pews have (mostly) given up.
The president has been pastorless for quite a while now. Well, sort of.
Seventy miles from Washington's prying eyes, Barack Obama has been attending church from time to time at Camp David, where services are led by a 39-year-old Navy chaplain with a famous last name, a compelling life story and a fervent belief in a God who works miracles.
Carey Cash, the great-nephew of singer Johnny Cash and the younger brother of a former Miss America, sees the hand of God in every part of his journey: from the football fields where he once aspired to the NFL to the medical facilities where he learned he'd never play again; from the battered Humvee where he came under fire on the streets of Baghdad to the tiny chapel where he preaches to the country's commander in chief in the Western Maryland mountains.
Although Cash was assigned to Camp David by the Navy, the president really likes the guy. Cash, Obama told religion reporters this summer, "delivers as powerful a sermon as I've heard in a while. I really think he's excellent."
But don't make the mistake of referring to the imposing 6-foot-4 Southern Baptist chaplain as the president's pastor. The White House has said that's not the case.
None of the president's advisers have forgotten the firestorm that engulfed Obama during the campaign when inflammatory sermons by Wright, Obama's longtime spiritual mentor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, were made public.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
‘Problem is, he facilitates one who would destroy America. Otherwise, a supposedly good pastor.
Of course not...Obama would never place himself under the authority of a Christian (fascists, socialists, communists, Saudi kings, etc., are okay).
“Problem is, he facilitates one who would destroy America.”
Not much point in preaching to the converted. But really I don’t see how the chaplain is “facilitating” anything. He’s answerable only for his own words and actions, not what those who listen or don’t listen choose to do.
“He’s answerable only for his own words and actions, not what those who listen or don’t listen choose to do.”
Exactly.
He only facilitates Obama if he agrees with his anti-Christian policies. If Rev. Cash is a true man of God, he will let the Holy Spirit do the talking, and he will do the praying for someone who needs a relationship with our Savior as much as the rest of us do. It’s up to Obama and his Maker what to do with what he hears.
This surprises me. I’ve known several chaplains and they were all captains or majors. Isn’t lieutenant kind of low on the food chain, as well as young? What do you have to do to qualify to be a chaplain?
That depends on what he is preaching. Without hearing his sermons, I doubt you can lay Obama's actions at the foot of the preacher.
“He only facilitates Obama if he agrees with his anti-Christian policies. If Rev. Cash is a true man of God, he will let the Holy Spirit do the talking, and he will do the praying for someone who needs a relationship with our Savior”
It is encouraging to learn that someone like this has been placed in the path of Obama. Perhaps amazing grace will happen. We all should pray fervently that it does.
It is definitely encouraging to learn that Obama is actually in attendance, regardless of what his motivation may be. We can leave it in God’s hands, but praying for grace to descend, and enlightenment to occur, is something that all of us can do.
No task is too big (or ego too large) for Him.
Interesting. Prayers for this Southern Baptist preacher that he can reach Obortion Obama and influence the WhiteHouse resident’s faith in a positive way.
Ping!
"Yes, our men were lost and separated," Cash recounts in "A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God's Presence Amidst the Chaos of the War in Iraq." "But our God was not confused. Just as he had from the very beginning of the war, He was providentially working all things together for the good of a cause that was just and true."
The book also offers an unflattering assessment of Islam, which Cash views as a flawed faith.
"Sadly, grace is often absent in Islam, which is based upon binding religious law, requiring strenuous adherence to every tenet of the 'Five Pillars of Allah,' " Cash writes. "A religion that emerges from the soil of strict adherence to law as a means of gaining God's favor will always tend toward extreme self-sacrifice."
Cash has drawn criticism from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group that monitors Christian proselytizing in the military, for his participation in Campus Crusade for Christ's Military Ministry, a program for evangelical chaplains to "help every troop, every leader, every family member hear and receive the lifesaving message about Jesus."
"This is an organization that has repeatedly stated its goal of transforming our military into a force of 'government-paid missionaries for Christ,' " said Chris Rodda, a foundation spokesman. "Any chaplain or commander who would support or condone these tactics or goals is a problem."
The White House declined to comment on the criticism. But those who served with Cash in Iraq have nothing but praise for his deep faith, warm manner and forceful sermons.
"I have absolutely no surprise that the president is moved and inspired by or finds that his message is powerful," said Brig. Gen. Frederick Padilla, Cash's commander during his deployment. "You don't have a heart beating in your chest if you don't feel this way when you hear this man talk."
He has Johnny Cash’s eyes.
Based on what you posted, Cash is excellent. His focus appears to be on spreading the news of God’s grace through Jesus. And he’s not afraid to mince words.
That’s what Obama needs to hear.
LT in the navy is the same as a CAPT in the other services. Still an O-3.
Cash went on to play football at the Citadel in South Carolina, where he was a 270-pound NCAA all-American offensive tackle. He drew interest from several NFL teams, his mother writes in one of her books. But after graduating from the Citadel in 1992, he began having blurred vision and headaches.
The diagnosis: an inoperable brain tumor. Doctors told Cash it wasn't cancerous, but it was located in a dangerous place on the brain stem. If it grew, it could threaten his life. Football was out of the question.
"My life may have been as good as over in the eyes of some people," Cash writes. "But something deep inside was calling me to turn my eyes away from the situation and to trust God, who knew exactly what He was doing."
With the encouragement of his father-in-law, a Navy chaplain, Cash entered Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with the goal of becoming a chaplain, too. He served as a youth minister, pastored a small Tennessee church and eventually received a medical waiver to enter the Navy Reserves based on a doctor's assurance that his tumor would not grow.
After much prayer, Cash writes, his headaches and blurred vision went away, which he attributes to God's direct intervention.
In August 2001 -- just a month before terrorists would bring down the World Trade Center -- Cash entered active-duty service and was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, part of the first ground force to enter Iraq in 2003.
As the convoy of tanks, trucks and transport vehicles moved through southern Iraq toward Baghdad, Cash and his assistant, Petty Officer Redor Rufo, drove alongside in their Humvee, large white crosses painted on each door.
Cash prayed with sweating Marines inside massive amphibious assault vehicles and conducted brief, informal services, using tailgates and ammunition boxes for altars. He baptized men with canteens of water.
At one point, he writes, he and Rufo were sprayed with bullets as Cash finished up a service in Saddam City. They threw themselves behind the Humvee's front bumper and were unharmed.
"He didn't ever seem scared and nervous like the rest of us," recalled Bill Bonner, a corporal in the battalion. "He was always just there to keep us going. He was a stalwart in the way that he faced the challenge of dealing with combat for the first time."
BTTT
Navy LT = Army CPT (both ranks are in the grade of O-3).
Of course, it’s always fun for an Army Captain to call a Navy base...
...Except the Navy and Air Force are the only services with CAPT as the abbreviation for Captain.
Navy CAPT = O-6 (= Army, Marine, Air Force Colonel (COL))
Air Force CAPT = O-3 (= Army, Marine CPT or Navy LT)
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