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3/20/2008 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- The Air Force deputy chief of chaplains traveled to Southwest Asia in March to meet Airmen and to speak at the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing's annual National Prayer Breakfast. Chaplain (Brig. Gen.) Cecil R. Richardson was the guest speaker during the breakfast, delivering a message on the United States national motto: 'In God we trust.' The National Prayer Breakfast is "an opportunity for Americans to demonstrate what it means when our Constitution says we can freely exercise our faith," said the chaplain, who assists the Air Force chief of chaplains in overseeing a corps...

France has launched a groundbreaking program to educate future imams and Muslim chaplains about the country and its values. The goal: to put a French stamp on Islam, the second largest religion in France. Lisa Bryant has more from Paris. The courses are being held in an unusual location - the Catholic Institute of Paris, an institution better known for training priests and Christian scholars than Muslim clerics. Established in collaboration with the French government and the Paris mosque, the program began in January with a largely male class of 25. It aims to give the students a broad understanding...

          WHO ARE YOU CALLING A HYPOCRITE? I always chuckle a little when I must sit through someone's "sermon" on why he/she doesn't ever darken the door of a church. Invariably, at the top of the list of reasons given for not attending is something about the church being so full of hypocrites. You know, those people who affect virtues and qualities they don't have ... religious fakes. The humor in this line of argument rests not so much in the fact that I never hear anything original, but rather in the facts surrounding the...

SACRAMENTO, (AP) -- An evangelical chaplain who leads Bible studies for California lawmakers says God is disgusted with a rival fellowship group that includes people of all faiths. "Although they are pleasant men in their personal demeanor, their group is more than disgusting to our Lord and Savior," Drollinger wrote on the Capitol Ministries' Web site. The comments drew immediate fire from others in the capital, including the Republican lawmaker who sponsors Drollinger's Bible study group. Drollinger said "progressive religious tolerance" is an offense against God and causes harm to its practitioners. He said the other Bible study group was...

The Utah State Senate will begin differently today. As in other states, the Utah's Senate meeting begins with a prayer or religious rite. However, today will mark the first time a Hindu prayer has opened the Utah Senate meeting. Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain, will read a prayer from the "Rig-Veda," an ancient book of Hindu scripture that dates back more than 3,000 years. Zed will first read the prayer in Sanscrit, a language considered sacred by Hindus, and then an English translation. After the prayer, Zed will meet with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and with Elder Quentin L. Cook...

        ARE YOU TOO BUSY FOR GOD? We know sea service life can be a continuous stream of movement and activity. Sometimes it seems as if it will never slow down long enough for us to catch our breath. Although we think that all of our activities are crucial, we need to honestly ask ourselves, "Are these things really important?" A prophetic messenger said, "And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever." (Isaiah 32:17). This means we must commit ourselves to hearing the Lord's voice. How else...

Navy Chaplain Dick Pusateri has witnessed the stress of war on the faces of troops put in harm's way daily, in the strained relationships of families facing long deployments and the confessions of men shaken by the human cost of war. For too long, chaplains were among the few people combat Marines felt they could turn to in a crisis. The Navy and Marine Corps aim to change that by sending teams of mental health professionals to the frontlines this month, after studies showed a jump in the past five years in cases of combat-related mental health disorders, primarily post-traumatic...

          THE MAN IN THE GLASS I first heard the poem some years ago as a song performed by a former pop musician turned Christian entertainer. Its words had a powerful impact. They were a challenge to self-examination, and a warning about the consequences of life lived without integrity. A reminder that each of us must live with his or her self. And that we KNOW what's behind our image, no matter how carefully crafted, or how convincing it may be to others. I wonder if it might also speak to you. It's entitled "The...

<p>The Wheaton College student newspaper, The Record, reports today that the influential evangelical college’s president, provost, and chaplain have removed their names from a letter to Muslim leaders that has attracted criticism in some quarters.</p> <p>“Loving God and Neighbor Together” was published in the November 18, 2007, New York Times as a response to an October statement from 138 Muslim scholars and clerics calling for interfaith cooperation. Wheaton College president Duane Litfin and provost Stanton Jones were among the signatories, along with pastors Rick Warren and Bill Hybels, National Association of Evangelicals president Leith Anderson, Youth With a Mission chairman Lynn Green, Frontiers mission founder Greg Livingstone, theologians Miroslav Volf and John Stott, and Christianity Today Media Group editor-in-chief David Neff.</p>

          ATTITUDE Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, and where they had been on vacation. Every afternoon when the man in the bed...

          GOD WILL NOT LET YOU FALL My family and I went camping this past summer. We took several hikes down the little river bed as it flowed through the Cuyamaca State Park near our home in San Diego. We topped for a picnic lunch, and ate with our feet in the cool running water. As I ate my sandwich, I started tracing a trail through the rocks that shot up into the air in front of us. It was an old habit from days gone by of rock scrambling: no ropes, no hardware, no...

          YOU ARE SPECIAL "I don't know why I was even born," the young sailor confided! "I'm ugly. I'm not talented. I've never been what you would call smart. I don't really have any friends. And I can't seem to do anything right. I feel like I've spent my whole life letting people down. Sometimes I wonder if even God could love me!" That conversation took place more than a decade ago, but I still remember it as if it were yesterday. That one and a lot of others over the years with the same...

          WE NEED EACH OTHER Like the light of a fiery meteorite streaking through the night sky, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the destiny of all persons on this planet is moving to an understanding of interrelatedness. As our world grows smaller, due to modern transportation systems and advanced telecommunications, the message is resoundingly clear ... no person is an island. Although there remain "hot spots" around the world, most people are now discovering that we can no longer be independent but rather we must be interdependent. In other words . . .WE NEED...

          DARE TO DREAM Someone once commented that "One of the most powerful things in the world is a dream. Not those dreams that come to us while we sleep, but those we consciously pursue while we are awake." Think of how dreams have shaped our modern life. Of Martin Luther King whose famous speech began, I have a dream today." And of Robert Kennedy who said, "Some men see things as they are and ask "Why?"; I dream things that never were and ask 'Why not?'" Think of how children's lives are often shaped...

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — Today the birth of the savior will be celebrated by an extended family that is far from their real ones, the 11th Signal Brigade’s chaplain said. For this special holiday “married and single soldiers here in Iraq are our family,” Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Mark Zerger said. For those who are Christian the day has a significant meaning for it is about “Christ coming into the world to have a personal relationship with us. That’s the true meaning of Christmas,” the Southern Baptist pastor said. And, while the brigade soldiers are separated from their families, it is...

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — At the insistence of Sgt. Michael Oatis, Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Mark Zerger got up at 5:30 a.m. one October day and went jogging. “I don’t like to jog early in the morning,” the 11th Signal Brigade chaplain said. Later would have been better, but Zerger agreed to his chaplain assistant’s plea to go running earlier than normal. As they were jogging they heard the siren warning of an impending attack. Looking up they saw a rocket go overhead and then heard a loud boom. The rocket had hit something. “I wondered what was hit,” the chaplain...

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — It makes no difference what a person’s faith is, or even if a soldier does not believe, chaplains work across theological lines in helping GIs solve personal problems. In a combat area, the work of the Army’s uniformed religious leaders takes on greater significance, Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Mark Zerger said. The building that is his office for the next 13 months, has sandbag protection on this tightly-controlled military installation. As the 11th Signal Brigade’s chaplain, the 55-year-old Zerger said deployments are stressful for soldiers who are called to leave their families and comfort of their stateside...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- ... The U.S. military has followers of Judaism, Christianity and Islam serving in Iraq. This December, all three faiths observe major holidays within weeks of each other. For some troops, it is not just difficult celebrating these holidays away from home. They are also turning to their faiths that espouse peace to cope with the reality of the war in Iraq... ... At nearby U.S. Army Camp Liberty, Chaplain Felix Kumai says he counsels Christian soldiers who see complications with biblical commandments like "Thou shalt not kill," as they serve God and country. "It is a...

The e-mail below from an army chaplain's assistant was forwarded to me from a trusted church fried. The chaplain's assistant requests Christian books or books with a Christian theme for the Chapel Ministry Center there. Below are some of his suggestions. Problem is, I don't really know how you would get the books there. If anyone knows how this would be done, please put that information in a Reply below. Maybe some of us at FR could clean out our bookcases and send some good Christian themed books overseas to our courageous soldiers. E-mail from Chaplan's Assistant: Subject: Last minute...

For the first time since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, a chief rabbinical chaplain is servicing the spiritual and religious needs of Jewish soldiers in Russia's armed forces and various security services. Rabbi Gurevich and three Russian Jewish soldiers. Photo: Courtesy Rabbi Aharon Gurevich, 34, was appointed after being asked to fill the role by the chief rabbi of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Russia, Rabbi Berel Lazar, who had received official permission from the Russian government to establish a military rabbinate. Upon accepting the post, Gurevich was granted the rank of colonel by Russian authorities and was given permission to visit...