Chaplaincy in the army and government agencies

Do you support your tax dollars being used to pay for armed forces chaplaincy or chaplaincy for a government hospital? Chaplains do provide support for religious soldiers (i.e., comfort in their last moments of a soldier providing him/her with last rites) and spiritual support for those who wish to have a spiritual leader to build a relationship with them and provide spiritual support in the last few days or weeks of their lives.

What is your opinion on the subject?

IF chaplains are used in the role to provide counselling and comfort, and do NOT try to foist their religious beliefs on another, I see no problem with it. As I understand it, a chaplain's duty is to be there to support ALL troops regardless of faith, in the way that will be most comforting to them.

On a side note: a 56 year old National Guard chaplain from MO, I believe, was given small arms training and is now driving a truck in Iraq. So the government has changed the traditional role of chaplain, it seems, and made them more combat support.

But the Supreme Court has said that it is ok since it is in the Department of Defense. The DoD is exempt from several of the basic requirements of the laws and constitution because of the "business" that it is in. I remember when women were exempted from the draft in spite of constitutional concerns. The army said it did not want women so it was not required to give equal treatment to them.

They provide valuable and essential services to military personnel. They are not there to proselytize (though sadly some of the evangelical chaplains do that - usually they get caught and are told to stop it), they are there to provide spiritual help. Chaplains, whether Catholic, protestant, Jewish, muslim, buddhist, etc., are trained in chaplaincy outside of the military first, and are trained to treat all people the same whatever their religion.

The evangelicals, sadly, can get by with not being trained by legitimate outside chaplaincy organizaiton, but get trained by their own, then go into the military as chaplains. The military has been having problems these guys; especially so since the more legitimate religions are not sending as many chaplains as they used to, and so the military has to rely more and more on the Jesus Crispies.

But, even so, I absolutely support the chaplain corps - anything that can help our armed services is something that they should get, whether religious/spiritual counseling, secular counseling, medical care, and so on.

and will hopefully be stopped is the "one-size-fits-all" chaplaincy that is occurring in some federal government-run medical centers where people who are not well trained for the chaplaincy can see anyone for their spiritual need. This is happening at the NIH, for example, where a catholic priest protested the decision to adopt such policy that would make impossible for even the Pope to see a catholic patient.

The complaint was that the NIH was using a one size fits all policy where the protestant chief would impose his ways. They soon found some BS reason to fire the catholic priest. A rabbi chaplain was also targeted after he made a testimony on the priests’ behalf and the NIH found a BS reason to fire him as well as retaliation.

How about the Military Appropriations Bill passed by the worst congress of all time last year where they added the provision on military chaplains? It said each chaplain “shall have the prerogative to pray according to the dictates of the chaplain’s own conscience, except as must be limited by military necessity, with any such limitation being imposed in the least restrictive manner feasible.”

In other words this allow chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus at public military ceremonies, undercutting the Air Force and Navy guidelines on religion since military people are ordered to attend such ceremonies. Jews, Muslims, the non-religious, have to be there and they are not allowed to leave the ceremony at their will. So the Navy and Air Force had guidelines to make the ceremonies ecumenical and this provision undercuts these guidelines.

If soldiers are spiritual, or people in a hospital are spiritual, they should have access to people who can help them with that. What's not cool is when chaplains just CANNOT leave the other people alone. Also, there should be a chaplain for every faith reppresented in the army, if the faith wants one.

When we ask men and women to go into harm's way where they may be killed or kill, a whole other dimension enters into the situation and their spiritual needs should be met. And for those whose faith demands the ritual of last rites, it is, for them, a necessity. I have no problem with tax dollar supporting it, and I do believe there are many, many faiths represented by military chaplains. Not sure if they have gotten to Paganism yet, but I assume someday they will.

Death and faith are passengers in the same car and this is is very unique situation.

From what I have heard they are very well trained in all religions and don't make people that come to them be the religion of chaplin. There is nothing wrong with providing a spiritual outlet for those that want to partake as long as those that don't aren't pressured to as was the case at the Air Force Academy. It is my impression that if an atheist wanted to go and talk to a chaplin just to have a person to talk to, most all chaplins would have no problem with that and would do their best help that person within the confines of their non-belief. No problems whatsoever.

Many bases are located where military personnel don't have access to religious services outside, so having an on base chaplains is a plus.