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Pagan Pride at Syracuse U Bethany Stotts, February 15, 2010 This month Syracuse University’s Hendricks Chapel installed its first pagan chaplain, Mary Hudson, “in line with its goal of being more inclusive of all religions on campus,” reports The Daily Orange on Feb. 14. “Syracuse University may be only the second university in the nation to have a pagan chaplain, Hudson said. The only other one she was aware of is at the University of Southern Maine,” writes Rebecca Kheel for The Daily Orange. She continues, This is the first new chaplain since the appointments of the Buddhist and the...

Hendricks Chapel recognized Mary Hudson as its first pagan chaplain on Feb. 1, in line with its goal of being more inclusive of all religions on campus. This is the first new chaplain since the appointments of the Buddhist and the historically black church chaplains and the 11th chaplain at Hendricks. As a chaplain, Hudson will work at Hendricks two days a week, sponsor community outreaches and be apart of the Chaplains Council. Syracuse University may be only the second university in the nation to have a pagan chaplain, Hudson said. The only other one she was aware of is...

        ONLY GOD GIVES PEACE The Lord will give [unyielding and impenetrable] strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace. — Psalm 29:11 One of the greatest ways God speaks to us and leads us is through the inner witness. In other words, we just know inside what is right or wrong. It is a deeper level of knowing than “head knowledge.” This type of knowing is in the spirit—we simply have peace or a lack of peace. By the presence or absence of peace, we know what we should do. I...

A Manhattan grand jury voted Tuesday not to charge a Muslim jail chaplain with trying to sneak razors into a city jail, his defense lawyer said. An ex-con who served time for a 1976 murder, Zulqarnain Abdu-Shahid told a grand jury that he'd forgotten the potential weapons were in his duffel bag, his lawyer said. Abdu-Shahid, 58, was busted when a metal detector revealed he had straight razors and scissors in his bag as he reported to work at the Manhattan Detention Complex last week. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/02/10/2010-02-10_jail_chaplain_not_charged.html#ixzz0fAHsJl47

        GOD'S PERFECTION In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school career, while others can be main-streamed into conventional schools. At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, "Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything God does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child...

Here is video of GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann commemorating "The Four Chaplains" who gave their lives 67 years ago yesterday, February 3, 1943. They were serving on the U.S. Transport Ship Dorchester when it was hit by a Nazi torpedo. The Four Chaplains died because the gave up their own lifevests and gave them to young soldiers so they could live. It is said the Four Chaplains were seen linking arms and praying together as they went down with the ship. Here is video of singer Wintley Phipps singing their story in the song, "Four Chaplains on the Sea of...

A jails chaplain has been arrested and charged with bringing contraband into a Manhattan corrections facility. Investigators say Imam Zul-Qarnin Shahid, 58, of Staten Island was taken into custody this morning after he tried to bring three straight razors and a pair of scissors into the Manhattan Detention Complex. Police say the items were discovered inside a bag as it was going through an X-ray machine. Shahid is facing several charges, including four counts of promoting prison contraband in the first degree. Investigators say the Muslim cleric has been employed as a chaplain with the Department of Corrections since 2007....

        CHARACTER A wise person once said, "You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing to him or for him." (author unknown) Columnist Ann Landers put it this way, "The best index of a person’s character is how he treats people who can do him absolutely no good." In the Christian Scriptures, the Apostle Paul talks about entertaining "angels unawares." (Hebrews 13:1) What these writers are talking about here is more than an act. It’s an attitude - about life, about people, and most importantly, about...

        DON'T GIVE UP! Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. — Galatians 6:9 KJV Do you ever feel like giving up? Perhaps you’re discouraged about your finances or you’re facing problems with your health, your marriage, or your children. Sometimes problems seem so overwhelming that the road ahead seems too steep to climb. We all go through these times. I’ve wanted to give up and quit many times through the years. But when I realized I had nothing interesting to go back to,...

        ASPIRE TO A VISION A scene in the movie Karate Kid was quite striking. Daniel went to see Mr. Miyagi and found him trimming a delicate bonsai tree. Daniel was fascinated and wanted to try it, but he had no idea how it was done. Miyagi told him to close his eyes and picture in his mind the way he wanted the tree to look. After Daniel found that vision in his mind, Miyagi told him to open his eyes and start trimming the tree. Daniel's every move was deliberate and focused. Then he stopped....

Fledgling group ministers to Muslims behind bars By Frank Green A seven-year-old prison chaplain group recently was awarded a one-of-its-kind, $25,000 state subcontract to minister to a rapidly growing faith behind bars: Islam. But the all-volunteer Muslim Chaplain Services wants more state funding... The Chaplain Service of the Churches of Virginia, a Protestant group established in 1920, has the full, $780,000 contract... Relations between the two chaplain groups are cordial... So, too, do some secular experts... Mark Hamm ... said that "Islam, by all accounts, is the fastest-growing religion among prisoners in the Western world, including the United States." And...

        SEEK TO KNOW GOD BETTER [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly]. — Philippians 3:10 This was the cry of the apostle Paul’s heart as he sought to have such a deep relationship with Christ that the trials of life would barely be noticeable. At the beginning of this new year, it is a wise thing for you to seek also. There are plenty of...

...Alamoudi, who was given power of attorney by several Gitmo detainees, even persuaded the Pentagon to let an al-Qaida-tied Saudi charity fly planeloads of Muslim-American soldiers to Mecca...

1st Lt. Marjana Mair is confirmed as a Catholic at Tigris River Chapel in a ceremony presided over by Chaplain Maj. Tyson Wood. You could call it something of a religious trifecta for Marjana Mair. The soldier from Albany was among seven service members with the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade who just six days before Christmas were confirmed as Catholics while serving in Iraq. 1st Lt. Mair was also baptized and received her first communion.She was a Muslim for many years but wanted to become Catholic after studying the faith."I grew up (Muslim) for 18 years, but when I...

        PERSISTENCE -- THE KEY TO SUCCESS? Walter Wintle once wrote: "If you think you are beaten, you are; if you think you dare not, you don't; If you'd like to win, but think that you can't, it's almost a cinch that you won't. If you think you'll lose, you're lost, for out in the world we find Success begins with a fellow's will; it's all in the state of mind. If you think you're outclassed, you are; you've got to think high to rise. You've got to be sure of yourself before you can ever...

        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 message:...

NORFOLKCommodore Uriah P. Levy He left home when he was 10, running away to become a cabin boy, and eventually became the first Jewish commodore in the Navy, the highest rank available at the time. On Sunday, the Jewish chapel at Naval Station Norfolk – the oldest land-based Jewish chapel in the Navy – was rededicated to Commodore Uriah P. Levy, 50 years to the day after it was first named after him. Born in Philadelphia in 1792, Levy had a career that spanned pirate-chasing to authorship – he wrote “A Manual of Internal Rules and Regulations for Men-of-War.” It...

“Perfection is acquired through our efforts, and if we try to become saints, someday we will be saints.” — Father Emil Kapaun Chase Kear does not seem at first glance to be the poster boy for a Vatican investigation involving sainthood. He chews a little dip, hits targets at turkey shoots, listens to country music when he rolls. In his Facebook profile photo he dresses the part of a halfnaked bandito in a sombrero. He’s a self-described redneck; also foolish and drunk and stupid at times in the past, he says, though less so since his accident. He takes comfort...

“He died because he loved and pitied us. He died that we might live.” — Father Emil Kapaun The legend of Father Kapaun and the quest to elevate him to sainthood began in September 1953 as soon as Communist guards released prisoners at the end of the Korean War. A little band of fierce-looking Americans, with balding and blunttalking Ralph Nardella at their head, carried Emil Kapaun’s gold ciborium and a rugged wooden crucifix, an inch shy of four feet tall. They had risked their lives in a final act of defiance to bring those items across the fence line;...

        GIVING There is a story of two young men who were working their way through Stanford University. The day came when they were broke, and something had to be done. One of them had an idea. They would engage the great Paderewski for a piano recital and put their profits toward their board and tuition. All they had to do was guarantee two thousand dollars. The recital was held but only sixteen hundred dollars was raised. Following the performance, the two young men went to Paderewski, offered him the $1600 and added a promissory note...