Paul Finkelman wrote:
Sounds very much like someone tooting his own horn? Is excessive pride also a sin?
Interestingly enough, it sounded like somebody who was accused of selfishness attempting to place his actions in context in order to defend the impugning of his character.
One can only wonder how G-d will respond to someone who brags about his work to make outcasts of gay members of the human family. Perhaps the Chaplain should try marching a mile or two in the boot of a gay sailor or soldier.
Again, where was the bragging? If somebody calls the chaplain selfish, isn't he allowed to say, "No, I don't believe I was being selfish. Here's why."
Also, I didn't see a thing about trying to make anybody outcasts. Are you suggesting that a person who believes that Scripture teaches that sexual intimacy is reserved for monogamous heterosexual marriage should simply keep their views to themselves? Or is freedom of religion reserved for those who believe that God simply says, "Be nice people and otherwise do whatever you want"?
I am no expert on the chaplain's faith, but have spent a great deal of my life studying religion and this is the first time I have ever heard a Christian assert that praying fomr the Book of Psalms compromised a Christian's faith.
Praying from the Book of Psalms is not, in and of itself, compromising a person's faith. Being required to pray ONLY from the Book of Psalms to the exclusion of every other prayer in the Bible, however, is another matter.
It sounds to me very much like the Navy has, in essence, said that a person can only be a chaplain if they act as if they don't actually believe anything. That doesn't sound like what 200+ years worth of American fighting men and women were willing to die to defend.
Brad Pardee
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