Losing Religious Freedom in Belarus

"Giorgi Viazovski's 10 days in a Belarus jail confirmed something he already knew: 'The freedom of religion we were promised in the 1990s is closed.' Police in the capital city of Minsk arrested the Reformed Baptist pastor for holding church services in his private home without registering with the state under a 2002 law that drastically limits evangelism and distribution of Christian literature and makes some church activities subject to state approval." For more info, read: http://www.worldmag.com/articles/11705

Church & Fellowship in the Military

"The military church appears to be viewed by the military community, both serving and dependants, as an organisation to provide religion and morals for the unit; yet military churches are more than this. They are communities who serve, worship and fellowship because Jesus is Lord," writes British chaplain David Moss. "They are people ‘accountable for the spiritual well-being of the entire community'. This active understanding of church means we become mission focussed. The gap between Christianity and un-churched military people is spanned because God has made us a sign of His presence." For more reading on this topic, see http://www.afcu.org.uk/16_-_Church-and-Fellowship.htm.

"Christians" Protest Military Funerals

Army Spc. David Kaye writes about the so-called "Christians" who have been picketing U.S. military funerals:

"Members of the congregation at Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., protest at funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. It's not your typical anti-war protest...they hold signs that say things like, 'Thank God for dead soldiers.' They claim that these casualties of war are divine retribution for the military and our government toleration of certain issues.

"...They call themselves a church. I'm embarrassed that they associate themselves with the Baptist religion.

"...As a soldier serving in a combat zone, it turns my stomach to think that if something happened to me, my family would have to attend my funeral with these heartless idiots spreading their hate only a few hundred feet away."

Link: http://www.baylor.edu/Lariat/news.php?action=story&story=39959

Atheists 'R Us

Okay, so this isn't related to military personnel, but it's still interesting: Here's a list of the most atheistic nations in our world. Sadly, Scandinavian countries top the chart. http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html

Christians in the Military:
How Should We Then Live?

The Military Christian Fellowship of New Zealand recently quoted from an article which was published in a Bible produced by the Bible Society of Australia for the Australian Defence Force: "There are a number of powerful arguments in favour of pacifism and unilateral disarmament. Yet history records no case where the defencelessness of a nation has protected it from attack. We must live in the world as it is, and not as, in better moments, we would like it to be.”

Additional thoughts from the Bible Society's articles are:

1. A soldier's supreme authority is the Word of God.

2. Throughout the Bible soldiers are referred to in the same positive way as workmen, farmers, athletes, etc.

3. God's intention for humankind is that human governments be responsible for law and order. He clearly approves the use of force when this is necessary, in order to restrain evil for the sake of the society as a whole. (See Romans 13:1-7)

4. Military personnel must live in submission to the ruling authories, as do civilians (I Peter 2:13-14).

5. It is possible to love your enemies, exercising respect and compassion, while at the same time bringing those who have transgressed to justice as duty demands.

Saying Thanks

(and we won't complain that it was a tad bit delayed...)

Opinionjournal.com reports, "The Christian Peacemaker Teams, whose appallingly ungrateful statement about the military rescue of three of their colleagues in Iraq we noted yesterday, last night added a new section called 'Addenda,' which includes this:

'We have been so overwhelmed and overjoyed to have Jim, Harmeet and Norman freed, that we have not adequately thanked the people involved with freeing them, nor remembered those still in captivity. So we offer these paragraphs as the first of several addenda:
We are grateful to the soldiers who risked their lives to free Jim, Norman and Harmeet. As peacemakers who hold firm to our commitment to nonviolence, we are also deeply grateful that they fired no shots to free our colleagues.'

Opinionjournal.com also quotes from an anonymous reader: "The application of this traditional Christian moral viewpoint leads to turning the other cheek in some purely self-regarding situations, and to the use of force in other-regarding situations. To the outsider, Christian 'just war" theory is easily caricatured as an inconsistent waffling between "pacifism" and "bellicism," but in fact it is neither.' "

Link: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110008140

Evangelism Resources:
God Loves Soldiers

Http://www.godlovessoldiers.com/ is a website which gives the plan of salvation, geared specifically toward soldiers, and can link them up with a Christian to help them in their spiritual walk. The site is related to Campus Crusade for Christ's Military Ministry.

Yes, You Freed Us.
No, We're Not Going to Say Thank-You.


U.S. and British forces have freed hostages in Iraq, but they're not getting much thanks for all their efforts. James Taranto of Wall Street Journal's opinionjournal.com writes, " The ex-hostages belong to the Christian Peacemaker Teams, a group that--well, let's let the CPT explain for itself in a statement issued today:

[The ex-hostages] were in Iraq to learn of the struggles facing the people in that country. ..They knew that their only protection was in the power of the love of God and of their Iraqi and international co-workers. ...Today, in the face of this joyful news, our faith compels us to love our enemies even when they have committed acts which caused great hardship to our friends and sorrow to their families. . . .

Taranto continues: "It's not clear whom the CPT statement means by 'our enemies.' But the only enemy they seem to recognize is the U.S. and its allies, whose 'occupation' of Iraq is the 'root cause' of the ex-hostages' captivity, and whose detention of 'thousands of Iraqis' they liken to their own kidnapping and (in one case) murder by terrorists.

"But if the CPT is going to 'love our enemies,' the least it could do is thank them. The statement does not acknowledge that the hostages were rescued by U.S. and British servicemen, or indeed that they were rescued at all; it refers mysteriously to their having been 'released,' as if the kidnappers themselves had decided to let them go.

"This seems to run deeper than a case of simple ingratitude. There is a whole strange worldview at work here--a theology, if you will. We don't claim to understand it fully, but it seems to equate America as the root of all evil and America's adversaries as Edenic creatures--innocents who know not good or evil and thus bear no culpability for their bad actions."

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110008131

Cartooning the War

Cartoonists weigh in with their opinions on the 3-year anniversary of the war in Iraq at http://www.cagle.com/news/Iraq3years/main.asp

The Media's Latest Lie?

Winds of Change believes that the media's story that Iraq is undergoing a civil war is a lie: "What is going on in Iraq today is a losing terrorist campaign hyped by media spin as a civil war because the public no longer believes their prior 'frame' that we were losing to the terrorists."

WOC then compares the Iraq situation to that of Bosnia Herzegovina’s civil war in the 1990s: "If the civil strife in post-liberation Iraq matched that of real civil war in Bosnia ten years ago, there would be 650,000 Iraqi fatalities per year – say 1800 dead Iraqis a day from 'sectarian strife' to match the average death rate of Bosnia Herzegovina’s civil war." Read more at: http://www.windsofchange.net/

War on Terror

Blair's Interventionist Approach "British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday will call for a global, interventionist approach to confront terrorism head on and win a battle over values and ideas," reports Reuters. Link: http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?id=2006032108290002436521&dt=20060321082900&w=RTR&coview=

Bush's Success Story has Sad New Chapter "As President Bush tells the tale, the battle for Tall Afar offers a case study in how U.S. and Iraqi forces working together can root out insurgents and restore stability," reports the Washington Post. "...Reports from the streets of Tall Afar, half a world away, offer a more complex story. U.S. forces last fall did drive out radicals who had brutalized the mid-size city near the Syrian border. But lately, residents say, the city has taken another dark turn." Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001897.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

Battle of the Sexes: Of course, the war of the sexes is an ongoing battle, highlighted here by an asinine op-ed piece that declares too much "manliness" is the problem with the Bush administration's war on terror. Link:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001416_pf.html

Fizzled War Protests

Many war protests were held over the weekend in the U.S. (and around the world), but most had less turnout than expected -- "micro-protests", as MSNBC reports. MSNBC also reports that while many Americans are not happy with the war, "their change of heart has been largely expressed quietly to pollsters rather than in loud public protests."

Fizzled:http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3618103
Quiet Disapproval http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11912671/

Crisis in Congo

"Despite warnings from human rights groups, little is being done by the international community to address the crisis in DR Congo," writes Jason Stearns at Crisis Group. "The eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo may soon be the scene of another modern tragedy. UN peacekeepers and Congolese warlords feature among the actors. And despite a loud chorus of warnings from human rights groups and journalists, little is being done to prevent it."

Link: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4032&f=1

Never Again
The Falling Man from 9-11

The image of a man in NYC falling from his death on 9-11 sticks in many people's minds. Now we may know who that man was -- a person who "just loved life and it was contagious so that when we were around him, you couldn't help smiling and laughing." His life "blessed God because of the fruits of The Holy Spirit." Here is his tribute website: http://www.jonathanbriley.org/

Michelle Malkin writes more about Jonathan: http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004777.htm

Cool Hi-Tech Spying

"The Pentagon is trying to develop 'insect cyborgs' able to sniff out explosives, or 'bug' conversations by lurking unseen in enemy hideouts with micro-transmitters strapped to their bodies." Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/st

Bush's "Strike First" Policy

"President Bush is reaffirming one of his most controversial policies: reserving the right to launch a pre-emptive strike – that is, an attack on another country which has not attacked the U.S. – if it is deemed necessary to halt the spread of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destructione," reports CBS:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/16/politics/main1409079.shtml

Pancakes Delayed WWII End
Truth is Stranger than Fiction!

"On Aug. 14, 1945...a 16-year-old messenger in Washington, D.C., was entrusted to deliver to the White House the cable announcing Japan's surrender to the United States to end World War II.

"Unaware of his cargo's import, the boy, in cavalier teenage fashion, put work on hold to eat pancakes at a diner, hang out with his friends and flirt with waitresses.
Later, he left his pancakes to complete the job only to be pulled over en route to the White House by a police officer, who berated the boy for making an illegal U-turn.
Meanwhile, President Truman and his inner circle waited for the note that would change history."

Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-03-13-pancake-messenger_x.htm?csp=34

Military-Related Sites Worth Visiting


Military Families Voice of Victory gives positive news for military families: http://www.mfvov.org (MFVOV also linked to this site; thanks!).

The MilSpouse website is geared toward U.S. spouses but can be useful to other nations' military spouses as well: http://www.milspouse.org/.

A Soldier and His Wife, Reunited

An army wife, writing after her husband returns from deployment, writes: "Reunion is frightening, and you feel lucky, blessed, cheated, alone, and guilty. You want to hear 'the story' that proves you have every right to feel lucky and blessed, but you don't want to hear it... The tears come....and you try and stop them. All of the worry, gratefulness, sorrow, and love. You cry for him, and his lost brothers, and for the widows that must cry in the shower, so their children can't hear them. You feel guilty for the tears on his chest, and he pulls you to his mouth and tries to kiss your tears away. No one says a word- and you swear you can hear your tears dropping onto his flesh, and you can hear his heart beating..........And it is the best sound in the World right now."

Link: http://armywifetoddlermom.blogspot.com/2005/03/satisfy-my-soul.html

Authority:
Thoughts for Military Christians to Ponder

Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish. -- Anne Bradstreet

Authority is the ability to get others to do what you want because they recognize (through your life and words) that what you ask is legitimate and right. -- Tony Campolo

Being powerful is like being a lady: if you have to tell people you are, you aren't. -- Margaret Thatcher

Where does your authority come from? Your answer to that question makes a difference. What you believe about the source of your authority shapes how you handle your authority. -- Dan Reiland

(Quotes from ACCTS staff member Don Snow; thanks!)

Blair Says God will Judge

Tony Blair said God and history would judge whether he was right to go to war in Iraq, according to the transcript of a television interview to be broadcast later on Saturday. In a rare reference to his Christian religious faith, Blair told broadcaster Michael Parkinson he had struggled with his conscience over the decision," Reuters reports at http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060304/ts_nm/britain_blair_dc

Faith Groups Address Torture

Thoughts from a national conference on torture held at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/14026957.htm

Iraq War Opinions:
Wringing Stability from Chaos


"Whatever else the American occupation of Iraq may be, it serves as a laboratory for ideas about how to wring stability out of chaos—the great foreign-policy challenge of the twenty-first century," writes Robert Kaplan at The Atlantic.

"...Twelve years ago in this magazine, I published an article, "The Coming Anarchy,” about the institutional collapse of Third World countries owing to ethnic and sectarian rivalries, demographic and environmental stresses, and the growing interrelationship between war and crime. Was it possible that Iraq, of all places, might offer some new ideas about how situations of widespread anarchy can be combated? It certainly was the case that, despite a continuing plague of suicide bombings, significant sections of the country were slowly recovering from large-scale violence, as well as from the effects of decades of brutal dictatorship. The very U.S. military that had helped to bring about the anarchy in Iraq was now worth studying as a way to end it, both here and elsewhere in the Third World."

Hat tip: http://www.windsofchange.net/

Link to original article (needs subscription) http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200604/coming-normalcy

U.S. Military Culture Wars

"As evangelicals increase their share of the military chaplain corps, their intent to evangelize more openly is challenging the pluralism promoted in official ceremonies by some other chaplains and military leadership," Christianity Today reports.

"The controversy extends across U.S. military branches. Military leaders say there is no problem when evangelicals worship during sacred ceremonies, but they assert that official ceremonies require prayers that do not exclude other major religions."

Link: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/004/3.23.html

Read for Free!

Christian reading classics such as

- The Confessions of St. Augustine
- The Practice of the Presence of God, and
- The Imitation of Christ

are all free online at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library: http://www.ccel.org/

Holocaust Survivor Meets Soldier

A holocaust survivor gets a special 80th birthday gift -- he mets the soldier who liberated him:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060306-9999-1n6liberate.html

War and the Web

How are blogs changing our understanding of and access to war? The author of "Jarhead" gives his thoughts at http://usaweekend.com/06_issues/060305/060305military_blogs.html.

Torture Exceptions?

The Washington Post reports, "Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison."

A detainee at Guantanamo claims, through his attorney, that " 'extremely painful' new tactics used by the government to force-feed him and end his hunger strike amount to torture." The detainee was held down in a chair with a larger-than-normal nasal tube inserted for force-feeding. He was restrained during this time."

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030202054.html

Korean President Wants Control of Military Troops

The Army Times reports, "South Korea’s president on Friday reiterated his hope that Washington will this year accept an agreement allowing Seoul to have control of its military if a conflict erupts — a role currently held by Washington...".

"A U.N. force led by the United States took over control of South Korean forces in 1950 to help repel the invading North Koreans. Command over the South’s forces remained with an American general after the Korean War ended in a 1953 cease-fire that left the two Koreas technically still in a state of conflict. South Korea was granted peacetime control of its military in 1994, but the U.S. retains wartime command."

Link: http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1574178.php

Why The Media Won't Defeat America

James Taranto writes that "...the [U.S.] media today do not have the power they had during the Vietnam era--the power to lose a war." Read more at: http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007888

Resources for Military Kids

Angela Sportelli-Rehak has written two books which help military kids face the challenges of military living: " 'When Duty Calls' and 'Moving Again Mom' are part of a series called, 'Uncle Sam's Kids' that follows a fictitious [U.S.] military family through the ups and downs of military life. The books are written for children in kindergarten through fourth grade and focus on the stresses of deployments and the disruption of being uprooted during permanent-change-of-station moves," reports the American Force Press Service.

For more info: http://www.dcmilitary.com/navy/seaservices/10_58/features/39937-1.html

Congolese Soldiers Turn Against UN

"Congolese army soldiers fighting alongside U.N. peacekeepers against ethnic militiamen have mutinied, ransacking a U.N. camp in the east and firing on a U.N. helicopter carrying a top commander," reports CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/03/02/congo.un.reut/index.html

Winning in Iraq, Losing at Home?

A military historian ponders why good things are happening in Iraq, yet all Americans hear about is an Iraqi "civil war": http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008030