Tag Archives: military

Partnered homosexual Anglican priest is head chaplain in Canada’s military

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From here:

In his new job as head chaplain in the military, Brig.-Gen. John Fletcher will be overseeing the religious needs of Canada’s troops, shoring up what the Defence Department calls its chaplaincy’s “inclusive, welcoming culture.”

As an openly gay member of the military and Anglican priest for more than two decades, it’s an environment Fletcher has benefitted from firsthand.

His recent appointment is in sharp contrast to past military policy, which allowed discrimination against gays and lesbians. Fletcher said he came out not long after a landmark court decision struck down the rule in 1992, alleviating his fears about what could happen to his career if he did come out.

Fletcher acknowledges that some may find it odd, or even scandalous, that he is a career military man, a priest and homosexual.

“I equally understand that some people will be excited and encouraged by the openness of my own church, to allow me to exercise this ministry and certainly encouraged that I’m free to work within a Canadian military that simply doesn’t discriminate on (the basis of) these things,” he said.

What strikes me as odd about this article is not the presence of a homosexual Anglican priest – something whose shock value is now rather less than the increasingly rare instance of encountering a heterosexual Anglican priest – but that the Defence Department is busy cultivating a chaplaincy that emphasises an “inclusive, welcoming culture.”

I was labouring under the misapprehension that the job of the military was to train men to kill other men in defence of their country; the chaplain’s job, I thought, was to try and  prepare soldiers for a premature introduction to their Maker by encouraging them to get to know him beforehand.

This brief description of chaplains in action strikes me as more convincing than today’s  warm, mushy, welcoming culture of inclusion version:

I frequently noted in the field, how chaplains – to a man – sought out front line action. And I assume that was because, as one put it, at the time: ‘There is where the fighting man needs God most – and that’s where some of them know him for the first time. – U.S.M.C. Commandant A.A. Vandegrift, 1945

Onward Druid soldiers

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From here:

The face of the military is changing.

What used to be seen as a bastion for evangelical Christianity is now expanding its lists of faiths to include Wiccans and Druids.

At the Air Force Academy in Colorado, a prayer circle and veritable Stonehenge on the Rockies will now serve as a place of worship for the academy’s neo-Pagans.

The Colorado school has long faced criticism for only supporting evangelical Christianity.

Lt Gen Michael Gould, the academy’s superintendent, said before a ribbon cutting ceremony on the site on Tuesday: ‘This outdoor worship space is something we have created to help people of all religions.’

According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, the academy is home to about ten cadets who regularly attend ‘earth-centred’ worship groups which include New Age religion, paganism, Wicca, druids and ancient Norse beliefs……

The Rev David Oringdreff, who heads a Wiccan congregation in Texas, offered prayers at Tuesday’s ceremony and said: ‘Nowhere except for the United States of America would this be possible.’

Rowan Williams has expressed no discomfort whatsoever over this.

Atheist chaplains for the military

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From here:

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — In the military, there are more than 3,000 chaplains who minister to the spiritual and emotional needs of active duty troops, regardless of their faiths. The vast majority are Christians, a few are Jews or Muslims, one is a Buddhist. A Hindu, possibly even a Wiccan may join their ranks soon.

But an atheist?

Strange as it sounds, groups representing atheists and secular humanists are pushing for the appointment of one of their own to the chaplaincy, hoping to give voice to what they say is a large — and largely underground — population of nonbelievers in the military.

The atheist chaplains will, no doubt, console their faithful with the reassurance that if they are killed in battle, a great black nothingness awaits them. Don’t worry about losing a limb because worms will eat your mortal remains anyway, attached or not; and the framers of the just war theory based their ideas on a belief in God, so if they were wrong about God, there is no such thing as a just war and you might as well desert.

A real morale booster.

What should be the military be pre-occupied with while at war?

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Cross dressing, of course.

From here:

As U.S. politicians continue to debate whether to let gays serve openly in the American military, the Canadian Forces have issued a new policy detailing how the organization should accommodate transsexual and transvestite troops specifically. Soldiers, sailors and air force personnel who change their sex or sexual identity have a right to privacy and respect around that decision, but must conform to the dress code of their “target” gender, says the supplementary chapter of a military administration manual.

Homosexuals in the military: Don't ask, don't tell

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From here:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s choice to lead the Marine Corps says he doesn’t think Congress should lift the ban on gay troops who want to serve openly.

Gen. James Amos’ comment came hours before a Senate test vote on a defense policy bill that would repeal the 17-year-old law, known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

It’s probably only a matter of time before the law is repealed, though:

The law is already under siege. A federal judge in California recently ruled the ban on gays was unconstitutional, polls suggest a majority of Americans oppose it and Lady Gaga has challenged it in a YouTube video.

What chance does it have if Lady Gaga – a well known advisor to the US military – is against it? She has a simple solution to opposition:

She suggested a new policy should target straight soldiers who are “uncomfortable” with gay soldiers in their midst.

“Our new law is called ‘If you don’t like it, go home!'” she said.

This  would probably result in the most Marines heaving a sigh of relief and returning home to their families, leaving the US military looking something like this:

We’ll probably wait a long time before General Petraeus complains that an openly gay military would be like a red flag to a bull for the Taliban and will endanger lives.