Army Chaplain Recruiting Poster
A friend sent me last Sunday an article about The Christian Military Chaplaincy. If you read it under Featured Articles and know me a little bit you will know why. I am driven by a force, greater than I, to speak out against violence of human beings on human beings, be it in the streets or at war. The ethical and moral teachings behind this article on military chaplaincy are the same as the ones that drive our Marquette University Peace Action (MUPA) movement to have Marquette Be Faithful to the Gospel and No Longer Host Military Training on Campus, which violates Christian moral values and principles on war and violence.
When looking for a picture for this post I find a military recruiting poster for chaplains on an another article by Father McCarthy on this subject: Pentagon Mammon Molds Christianity. He points out in this article, as in the other one, that in conformity with Pentagon authorized policy, U.S. Military Chaplains do not teach the theology and norms of their Church’s Christian Just War tradition or Gospel Nonviolence to recruits and military personnel. With the military dictating what Christian values can be taught or not taught by chaplains to soldiers, the picture takes on a whole new meaning that is repulsive to Christians who seek to stop violence of humans on humans.
Tomorrow morning a group of us will stand in the cold for a prayer vigil of three recent homicide victims in Milwaukee. How many more men,woman and children must die in the USA, Iraq, or Afghanistan before we stop teaching and preaching violence and war? Military Chaplains, like the rest of us, must break the silence and say “enough!”
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