NYT: Among military chaplains...

[bettys boy]

Troubling, but not surprisiing article from today's NYT.

The proportion of evangelicals among military chaplains is up, mainline Protestant and RC numbers way down. Reasons given are all fallout from the 60's and Vietnam.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/national/12chaplains.html?pagewanted=1&adxnnl=0&adxnnlx=1121380495-OF2NSfznxEF1S07uxVIyPw

[Kerrytravelers]

1. My parents walked from their church when the new AF chaplin

gave the * stump speech during service (this happened last summer.)

They have no intention of ever returning. They went to that church for 22 years.

[bettys boy]

3. If we want this to be different

the onus is on us to find and encourage suitable young clergy to consider military chaplaincy.

"Young" seems to be the sticking point. Many find their way to formally serving God in mid-life, when they are past military recruiting age limits ("too old").

Last year I was fortunate to meet a young Mexican-American soldier, a communications technician, who is entering an RC seminary with plans to return to the Army as a priest in the chaplain corps.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Yes very troubling. I hope that progressive believers feel called to

help the kids in the military.

[RevCheesehead]

4. That's going to be tough, to find liberal military chaplains.

I remember when the military recruiters came to Duke (Div. School) - they were avoided by most of us, and some students even protested their presence in the building.