Enlisting Faith

Enlisting Faith PDF Author: Ronit Y. Stahl
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674981316
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
A century ago, as the United States prepared to enter World War I, the military chaplaincy included only mainline Protestants and Catholics. Today it counts Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Christian Scientists, Buddhists, Seventh-day Adventists, Hindus, and evangelicals among its ranks. Enlisting Faith traces the uneven processes through which the military struggled with, encouraged, and regulated religious pluralism over the twentieth century. Moving from the battlefields of Europe to the jungles of Vietnam and between the forests of Civilian Conservation Corps camps and meetings in government offices, Ronit Y. Stahl reveals how the military borrowed from and battled religion. Just as the state relied on religion to sanction war and sanctify death, so too did religious groups seek recognition as American faiths. At times the state used religion to advance imperial goals. But religious citizens pushed back, challenging the state to uphold constitutional promises and moral standards. Despite the constitutional separation of church and state, the federal government authorized and managed religion in the military. The chaplaincy demonstrates how state leaders scrambled to handle the nation’s deep religious, racial, and political complexities. While officials debated which clergy could serve, what insignia they would wear, and what religions appeared on dog tags, chaplains led worship for a range of faiths, navigated questions of conscience, struggled with discrimination, and confronted untimely death. Enlisting Faith is a vivid portrayal of religious encounters, state regulation, and the trials of faith—in God and country—experienced by the millions of Americans who fought in and with the armed forces.

Enlisting Faith

Enlisting Faith PDF Author: Ronit Y. Stahl
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674981316
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Get Book Here

Book Description
A century ago, as the United States prepared to enter World War I, the military chaplaincy included only mainline Protestants and Catholics. Today it counts Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Christian Scientists, Buddhists, Seventh-day Adventists, Hindus, and evangelicals among its ranks. Enlisting Faith traces the uneven processes through which the military struggled with, encouraged, and regulated religious pluralism over the twentieth century. Moving from the battlefields of Europe to the jungles of Vietnam and between the forests of Civilian Conservation Corps camps and meetings in government offices, Ronit Y. Stahl reveals how the military borrowed from and battled religion. Just as the state relied on religion to sanction war and sanctify death, so too did religious groups seek recognition as American faiths. At times the state used religion to advance imperial goals. But religious citizens pushed back, challenging the state to uphold constitutional promises and moral standards. Despite the constitutional separation of church and state, the federal government authorized and managed religion in the military. The chaplaincy demonstrates how state leaders scrambled to handle the nation’s deep religious, racial, and political complexities. While officials debated which clergy could serve, what insignia they would wear, and what religions appeared on dog tags, chaplains led worship for a range of faiths, navigated questions of conscience, struggled with discrimination, and confronted untimely death. Enlisting Faith is a vivid portrayal of religious encounters, state regulation, and the trials of faith—in God and country—experienced by the millions of Americans who fought in and with the armed forces.

A Brief History of the United States Army Chaplain Corps

A Brief History of the United States Army Chaplain Corps PDF Author: United States. Department of the Army
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description


Faith in the Fight

Faith in the Fight PDF Author: John Wesley Brinsfield
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 9780811700177
Category : Chaplains, Military
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
For both the Union and Confederate soldiers, religion was the greatest sustainer of morale in the Civil War, and faith was a refuge in times of need. Guarding and guiding the spiritual well-being of the fighters, the army chaplain was a voice of hope and reason in an otherwise chaotic military existence. The clerics' duties did not end after Sunday prayers; rather, many ministers could be found performing daily regimental duties, and some even found their way onto fields of battle.

Serving God and Country

Serving God and Country PDF Author: Lyle W. Dorsett
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101610697
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
In World War II, over 12,000 Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, and Jewish rabbis left the safety of home to join the Chaplain Corps, following the armed forces into battle across Europe, Asia, North Africa, and the high seas. They were officers who displayed uncommon courage and sacrifice. They were men of faith under fire. And they would charge straight into Hell to save the soul of a single soldier… Representing America’s three major religious traditions, thousands of volunteers from across the country enlisted as non-combatant commissioned officers to provide spiritual strength and guidance for those fighting men who never knew if they were going to survive to see another day. Armed only with Bibles, Torahs, and the tools of their holy trade, these men of God went wherever the troops went—from the bloody beaches of the Normandy Invasion to the hellish jungles of Guadalcanal and Okinawa in the Pacific. They prayed over men about to march into combat on land, sailors facing Kamikaze attacks at sea, and bomber crews who could neither retreat nor surrender in the air. And, most important and difficult of all, they guided fallen fighting men of every faith as they breathed their last, and gave up their lives in the fight against tyranny. These are the personal stories of some of the bravest and most selfless men who served with the armed forces. Many lost their lives or suffered debilitating wounds while serving as pastors to the troops. All of them battled the pain of separation from their own loved ones as they gave some of the best years of their lives to keep the military personnel spiritually awake, morally fit—and prepared to make the journey from this world to the next without fear or despair, and with the trust of the Almighty in their hearts.

Military Chaplains and Religious Diversity

Military Chaplains and Religious Diversity PDF Author: Kim Philip Hansen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137025166
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Based on extensive in-depth interviews with more than thirty active duty chaplains regarding their successes, failures and conflicts, the book is about the way military chaplains handle religious diversity among the enlisted they serve and within their own corps.

Chaplains of the United States Army

Chaplains of the United States Army PDF Author: Roy John Honeywell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description


Mission at Nuremberg

Mission at Nuremberg PDF Author: Tim Townsend
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062300199
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
Mission at Nuremberg is Tim Townsend’s gripping story of the American Army chaplain sent to save the souls of the Nazis incarcerated at Nuremberg, a compelling and thought-provoking tale that raises questions of faith, guilt, morality, vengeance, forgiveness, salvation, and the essence of humanity. Lutheran minister Henry Gerecke was fifty years old when he enlisted as am Army chaplain during World War II. As two of his three sons faced danger and death on the battlefield, Gerecke tended to the battered bodies and souls of wounded and dying GIs outside London. At the war’s end, when other soldiers were coming home, Gerecke was recruited for the most difficult engagement of his life: ministering to the twenty-one Nazis leaders awaiting trial at Nuremburg. Based on scrupulous research and first-hand accounts, including interviews with still-living participants and featuring sixteen pages of black-and-white photos, Mission at Nuremberg takes us inside the Nuremburg Palace of Justice, into the cells of the accused and the courtroom where they faced their crimes. As the drama leading to the court’s final judgments unfolds, Tim Townsend brings to life the developing relationship between Gerecke and Hermann Georing, Albert Speer, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and other imprisoned Nazis as they awaited trial. Powerful and harrowing, Mission at Nuremberg offers a fresh look at one most horrifying times in human history, probing difficult spiritual and ethical issues that continue to hold meaning, forcing us to confront the ultimate moral question: Are some men so evil they are beyond redemption?

Faith Under Fire

Faith Under Fire PDF Author: Roger Benimoff
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307408825
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
“Running away from God doesn’t work. I had tried.” —Roger Benimoff As he left for his second tour of duty as an Army chaplain in Iraq, Roger Benimoff noted in his journal: I am excited and I am scared. I am on fire for God...He is my hope, strength, and focus. But not long after returning to Iraq, the burdens of his job–the memorial services for soldiers killed in action, the therapy sessions after contact with the enemy, the perilous excursions “outside the wire” while under enemy fire–began to overwhelm him. Amid the dust, heat, and blood of Iraq, Benimoff felt the pillar of strength he’d always relied on to hold him up–his faith in God–begin to crumble. Unable to make sense of the senseless, Benimoff turned to his journal. What did it mean to believe in a God who would allow the utter horror and injustice of war? Did He want these brave young men and women to die? In his darkest moment, Benimoff wrote: Why am I so angry? I do not want anything to do with God. I am sick of religion. It is a crutch for the weak. Benimoff’s spiritual crisis heightened upon his return home to Fort Carson, Colorado. He withdrew emotionally from wife and sons, creating tensions that threatened to shatter the family. He was assigned to work at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he counseled returning soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder–until he was diagnosed himself with PTSD. Finding himself in the role of patient rather than caregiver, connecting as an equal with his fellow sufferers, and revisiting scriptural readings that once again rang with meaning and truth, he began his most decisive battle: for the love of his family and for the chance to once again open his heart to the healing grace of God. Intimate and powerful, drawing on Benimoff’s and his wife’s journals, Faith Under Fire chronicles a spiritual struggle through war, loss, and the hard process of learning to believe again.

Reliable and Religious

Reliable and Religious PDF Author: Kenneth E. Lawson
Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Chapter numbers in the Table of Contents do not match page numbers due to a printing error.

Jesus Was an Airborne Ranger

Jesus Was an Airborne Ranger PDF Author: John McDougall
Publisher: Multnomah
ISBN: 1601426925
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
The Raid that Rescued Us. The Mission that Defines Our Lives. You are trapped behind enemy lines. You feel it every day. Powerful forces want to destroy you and those you love. Completely surrounded, you see no means to escape. Sadly, the Jesus we often picture is too timid to help—more like a daytime talk show host than a dangerous Rescuer. Who would follow—much less risk everything—for such a leader? Get ready to see Jesus like you’ve never seen him before—a battle-scarred Combatant who stared death in the face and won. This is no Sunday-school Jesus, meek and mild. This is the Warrior Christ who has descended from the heavens, defeated the Enemy, and rescued humanity. Now, he calls us to continue his mission and fight for others—our families, our communities, and the world. In Jesus Was an Airborne Ranger, Army Chaplain John McDougall offers an alternative to the soft, gentle caricature of Jesus. Only the Warrior Christ can impact our broken world. And only in following him can you find the life of purpose you’ve always wanted. SUIT UP. It’s time to enter the fight with the first and greatest Airborne Ranger. The views expressed in this book are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense or the U.S. government.