Military.com reported yesterday on the controversy surrounding the endorsement by high army officials of a book written by a military chaplain offering spiritual guidance to soldiers. The book is Lt. Col. William McCoy's, Under Orders: A Spiritual Handbook for Military Personnel. Gen. David Petraeus has been quoted as saying that the book "should be in every rucksack for those times when soldiers need spiritual energy." Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling is quoted on the book jacket: "a great book for soldiers to read several times throughout their careers." The endorsement has led the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) to call for Patreas' dismissal and court martial. However now the book's author says that he was mistaken in publishing the endorsements: "[they] were intended for me personally rather than for the general public." The author has requested that distribution of the book be halted until a new book jacket overlay is designed. Mikey Weinstein, head of MRFF, says he will add these endorsements as part of an ongoing lawsuit that alleges "a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense (D.O.D.) and the United States military.' (Full text of complaint.)
Thursday, August 21, 2008
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2 comments:
Lucky thing Mikey Weinstein wasn't at Valley Forge--either he'd suffer a cardiac from Washington's overt religious faith and expression thereof to the troops, and I would not wish a cardiac on anyone. Or if his views prevailed, we likely would not have states, much less the United States. Rabid secularism is not the way of the Consititution. Its Mikey's way, and its the wrong way historically, legally, and pragmatically.
I think there's a substantial and important difference between the cultural mores and acceptable standards of the 18th century and the 21st. Suggesting that something was acceptable during the Revolutionary war seems like a poor reason to accept it as proper today.
I'm more than a little baffled by your assertion that a secularist government could not form a large and successful nation. It seems the northern European experiment is ample data to the contrary.
--MD
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