Army Silences Chaplain After Prayer Criticism

The Army, whose soldiers are offering their lives to protect our freedoms are restricting the freedom of the chaplains who minister to those troops.

An evangelical chaplain serving in Iraq has been forbidden to preach at chapel services after his comments about military intolerance toward certain Christian expressions got him into hot water with the Army.

The chaplain criticized one of his supervisors, Lt. Col. Phillip Wright of Fort Drum in New York, by name and gave details about how chaplains of all faiths were being pressured to offer up only nonsectarian prayers.

In the interview in The Times that provoked the Army's wrath, Capt. Stertzbach cited a Dec. 17 memorial service for a soldier at which he was asked to pray.

When he told one chaplain he intended to pray in the name of Jesus Christ, he was stricken from the service program. A senior officer had to intervene to allow Capt. Stertzbach a time in the service to pray as he wished.

Even that prayer had to be prefaced with "in Thy name we pray" before the chaplain could add, "And in Jesus' name, I pray."

Why is it that evangelical Christians must take the back seat to everyone else when it comes to freedom of expression? Christians sent to fight for Moslem freedom must endure their own religious freedoms curtailed at a time when the need of God's assurance is most keen.

The name of Jesus is central to the Christian religion. Believers are taught in scripture that "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12 and again "and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Luke 24:47. For the Army to restrict the ministers of the Christian faith from using the name of Jesus is to try to separate their ministry from the source of its focus.

If there is an example of the state establishing a religion this would come close. The state wishes to define how a minister of the Christian Religion can pray by mandating how he declares the deity he serves. Tip toeing around Islam while trampling Christianity seems an odd way of preserving freedom of religion.

Christian Carnival CVIIII