Chaplains Must Steer Clear of Christianity

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from Regina Reader Post, November 16, 2001, with a headline: “Christianity not to be mentioned,” dateline, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.In an unprecedented move, Canadian military is directing its chaplains to avoid all specific references to Christianity during public services.The policy change which came down from the Chaplain General in Ottawa on July 24^th has left Canadian Forces chaplains in the unusual position where they are being asked not to refer to certain fundamental aspects of their faith.Some of those references include: the Lord’s Prayer, as well as certain traditional Christian phrases like Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, an integral part of the Roman Catholic Church service.The new policy asks that chaplains be sensitive to other religions and cautions them to avoid language that might offend groups such as Muslims or Jews.Colonel Ron Bourque, the chief Roman Catholic chaplain to the Canadian Forces said that there are no Muslim clerics, nor is there an opening for one, although the military is advertising for chaplains in religious publications.At present all the militaries chaplains are Christians.Captain Swavek Gorniak, a Roman Catholic chaplain at RoyalMilitaryCollege, said it is important not to include certain groups during public ceremonies, but acknowledges that it is difficult to please everyone.“I serve the military college community regardless of their faith, so I have to be knowledgeable about other faiths to be able to accommodate everybody and during services where there maybe people of other faiths present, he said, he tries to use language that would reflect our common ground.”

Tom:

“Common ground,” Dave do you have a chapter or verse for common ground?

Dave:

Common ground—well, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”I would say—

Tom:

There’s common ground!

Dave:

That’s common ground and I think that—

Tom:

What about the solution to that?

Dave:

Well Romans 2 tells us that God has written his law on every human conscience, so that’s common ground.I would say that all human beings know that God exists, we talked about that—the amazing universe around us that leaves no doubt of that.So we would have common ground.I think that all human beings would recognize you can’t make up for breaking the law in the past, by keeping it in the future.We’ve talked about that, but that’s common sense.And some how if we are going to get right with God we can’t buy him off; he is wealthier than we are.He doesn’t need us; he created the universe out of nothing, so how are you going to buy God off?I would say that’s common ground and I think that common ground would be that everybody would recognize in his conscience that unless God is gracious to us, unless God has a solution of some kind, there’s no hope.But that of course is not what he’s talking about.What he means by common ground is well we all believe in God, some god out there.

Tom:

Yes, but is there common ground with regard to salvation?That’s where we have problems.

Dave:

Oh no, many of them don’t even believe in salvation.Get saved from what?What’s threatening you?They don’t recognize the righteousness of God.They’ve got all kinds of gods and they will say any god will do.So this common ground—well we all believe in love.I remember Norman Vincent Peale saying that.“I talk about what all religions believe.That’s love.”Well but what do you mean by love?And can you really love God?A Muslim can’t love God and of the 99 characteristics of God, his 99 sacred names in the Qur’an not one of them is love.You can’t know God.I remember Robert Schuller saying, “Well the thing that separates me from those fundamentalists who are trying to get people to believe like they believe is we recognize all the things the great religions agree upon and that’s what we concentrate upon.And I do it without compromising my Christian commitment.”Wow, and you just said they don’t agree on God, they don’t agree on salvation.They certainly don’t all agree on who Jesus Christ is.What is this common ground?Tom, I’m sorry, it’s a delusion because we don’t want to say anyone is wrong.So, well you believe in some higher power, well that’s okay, that’s our common ground.But that will not work when we stand before God.There is a God, THE Creator of the universe and he will not share his glory with anyone and he doesn’t like to be called just by any old name. They have the saying, “Oh, God is one, but he goes by many names.”Not the God of the Bible, not the God of creation and he has his standards.We better find out what they are.

Tom:

Yes, well again, we have another attempt at accommodating everybody with regard to religion.I am sure there are some practical aspects.They can’t find a priest, a cleric, a religious person to accommodate every different belief that they have in, so we’re just going to mix them all together.Now Dave, there’s a part of that Gary left off which is fine, but let me read it: “Bourque said that the new policy is just a suggestion for military chaplains and is not an order for them.”Now you were in the military.Were you given suggestions that you could just decide whether you were going to implement them or not?

Dave:

Well you could do that.

Tom:

Would it affect your status at all?

Dave:

You could be broadminded about it, but I’ll say this Tom.God didn’t give us Ten Suggestions from Mount Sinai and one day we will all give an account to him and he has the final word.We better find out what it is and HE has said there is no salvation apart from the penalty having been paid and only God himself, in fact, all through the Old Testament, Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob says I am the only Savior and Isaiah:9:6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
See All... says that child that was born in Bethlehem was the mighty God, the everlasting Father, that God himself had to become a man to be one of us, to represent us, to pay the penalty for our sins and only because he paid that penalty can God forgive anyone.Tom, it’s logical, it make sense, we recognize it and in every area of life we recognize you can’t just say anything goes.But in this area, they don’t want to offend anybody. I’m a doctor, you come to me Tom.I know you have a ruptured appendix, if you’re not on the operating table in 30 seconds you’re dead.I wouldn’t want to offend you, so I say Tom, take an aspirin, that’ll help relieve the pain.That’s not love Tom.

Tom:

Dave, I know there are some chaplains who are in the Armed Services and they really know the Lord.

Dave:

There are some.

Tom:

—And they are under tremendous pressure this way.All they want to do is offer the gift of salvation, not their way—God’s way.