(Barneveld, Wis) The Army Chaplain handbook has listed ways to accommodate Wiccans since 1978.

…People are attracted to the Wiccan religion for its devotion to nature and incorporation of both male and female deities.

Bauer, Scott. Wiccan lawsuit’s goal: Acceptance
December 21, 2006. Associated Press

Comment: Another reason why a pastor from our denomination could not serve as a government military chaplain. They would be required to minister to Wiccans, according to the Wiccan faith. How could a Christian pastor in good conscience do so, when Christ says he alone is the way to the Father.

Though it is costly to our church, we provide our own private chaplains. And the military does a great job at accommodating them, without making us compromise our faith.

NEW TOPIC

NEWS
Baugham [Executive Director of the International Conference of Evangelical Chaplain Endorsers (ICECE)] feels the Air Force’s written policy banning prayers in Jesus’ name is a direct attack on a specific faith community. Those behind this policy “have targeted the Evangelicals in this to marginalize them,” he asserts, “and if they’re not marginalized, if they don’t carry out these guidelines, they will be punished according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”

Groening, Chad. Former Army Chaplain Calls for Executive Order
to End USAF’s Religious Persecution
January 6, 2006. Agape Press

Since this press release, changes took place:

The Air Force has released new guidelines that “respect the rights of chaplains to adhere to the tenets” of their religion. Some chaplains had complained that they were being prohibited from praying in Jesus’ name. Associated Press reports that the revised guidelines state that chaplains will not be required to lead public prayer in a way that is “inconsistent with their faiths.”

The guidelines also omit a statement in the earlier version that chaplains “should respect the rights of others to their own religious beliefs, including the right to hold no beliefs.” The revision also allows “voluntary discussions of religion” among all members of the Air Force as long as they’re “personal, not official” and do not appear to be coercive.

Brown, Jody. Sekulow: New Air Force Guidelines for Chaplains ‘Appropriate and Constitutional’
February 10, 2006. AgapePress

Comment: To avoid having the government deciding what we can and cannot say, our church body has always had independent chaplains, which works quite well.

QUOTE

Is the Fifth Commandment a categorical rejection of capital punishment? Consider what God inspired Moses to write in the very next chapter: “Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 21:12).

…It’s fascinating again to note what Paul writes just after urging us to “leave room for God’s wrath.” He immediately moves on to God exercising his just wrath through government! While personal vengeance is always sin, God’s own vengeance working through government isn’t.

Gurgel, Prof. Richard. In the Cross Hairs: Capital Punishment. p. 9
May 2004. Forward in Christ - Questions & Answers, Vol. 91, No. 5

Comment: Capital punishment is not rejected by Scripture... not even in the New Testament. Christians are simply called on to temper punishment with mercy.

NEW TOPIC

NEWS / OPINION

(Cebu, Philippines) In his encyclical, “Evangelium Vitae,” the Pope claims that societies “ought not to go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity; in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society.” In his Papal Mass at the Trans World Dome in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States on January 27, 1999, the Pope preached that “The dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil.” In this same homily, the Pope declared that the death penalty must be ended because it is “cruel and unnecessary.”

…[T]here’s no doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church against the death penalty. Despite his strong belief and declarations against the death penalty, the Pope has never said it “ex cathedra,” meaning by his authority on faith and morals in which both the clerical members and the laity are bound to obey and respect it as doctrine of the Church under the penalty of excommunication.

…[T]he Catechism of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) expressly stipulates that, “The just use of this power, far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this (Fifth) Commandment which prohibits murder.”

Donpua, Dr. Jose Lucero Jr. Is there a “death penalty doctrine”
in the Roman Church?
September 12, 2004. The Freeman – Opinion

Comment: This is simply part of an article concerning the Catholic teaching on the Death Penalty. It is not an expression of this blogger's personal opinion.

LUTHER QUOTE

The sun shines in exactly the same way on all: the peasant and the king, the thorn and the rose, the pig in the alley and the lovely girl. They all receive alike of the sun’s light and warmth. But the works and actions which such diverse creatures carry on in the sunlight are widely different, and must be so. Likewise, all people are alike before Christ, who, like the sun, gives himself alike to all. All receive the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper; all hear the same Gospel.

As for the reality which makes us Christians, there is not the slightest difference between man and woman, young and old, learned and unlearned, great saint and frail character. The differences among persons all lie in ... a capacity or a work, and these activities are directed ‘downward’ to the service of others. Before God in heaven there are no differences; all are simply human beings and sinners to whom Christ is given, just like the sun that sheds its light on all without discrimination.

Luther, Martin
cited by: Gustaf Wingren. Luther on Vocation, p 174
cited in: Luther on Vocation, p 3
July/August 2006. Preach the Word, Vol. 9, No. 6