Rev. Danny Fisher

Newsweek offers a strong report on the “problem of an evangelical military culture that sees spreading Christianity as part of its mission.” Here’s a snippet filled with some good information:

[This culture] is influenced in part by changes in outlook among the various branches’ 2,900 chaplains, who are sworn to serve all soldiers, regardless of religion, with a respectful, religiously pluralistic approach. However, with an estimated two thirds of all current chaplains affiliated with evangelical and Pentecostal denominations, which often prioritize conversion and evangelizing, and a marked decline in chaplains from Catholic and mainstream Protestant churches, this ideal is suffering. Historian Anne C. Loveland attributes the shift to the Vietnam War, when many liberal churches opposed to the war supplied fewer chaplains, creating a vacuum filled by conservative churches. This imbalance was exacerbated by regulation revisions in the 1980s that helped create hundreds of new “endorsing agencies” that brought a flood of evangelical chaplains into the military and by the simple fact that evangelical and Pentecostal churches are the fastest-growing in the U.S.

The chaplains minister to flocks that are, on the whole, slightly less religious than the general population and slightly less evangelical. According to a 2008 Department of Defense survey, 22 percent of active-duty members of the military described themselves as evangelical or Pentecostal (although the actual number of evangelical-minded believers is likely higher when encompassing personnel who follow more evangelical expressions of mainline Protestant denominations, as well as a sizable percentage of the additional 20 percent that describe themselves simply as “Christian”).

Chaplains and other clergy should definitely read the article in full here.

[Image via Newsweek.]

The Associated Press is reporting that the Rev. Tim Vakoc, a Catholic priest from Minnesota who lost an eye and was severely brain damaged by a roadside bomb in Iraq five years ago, has died.

“A man of peace, he chose to endure the horror of war in order to bring the peace of Christ to America’s fighting men and women,” Archbishop John Nienstedt said in a statement. “He has been an inspiration to us all and we will miss him. We ask everyone to remember him in prayer.”

The major was hospitalized for four months at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, and was transferred in a near coma to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis in October 2004.

After many surgeries and infections, he slowly started to recognize friends and family, and began to communicate with squeezes of the hand or slight smiles. In the fall of 2006, he spoke for the first time in 2 1/2 years.

Vakoc, a Robbinsdale native, served as a parish priest before becoming an Army chaplain in 1996, and serving in Germany and Bosnia. He shipped out to Iraq shortly before his 44th birthday.

Goodbye, and thank you for your service, Father.

[Image via CaringBridge.org.]

Here’s some work-related news: UWest‘s enrollment counselor Jason Kosareff, community and media relations guru, recently bought some ad time for the M.Div. program (which I coordinate) on the wonderful and popular podcast Buddhist Geeks. I recommend the show highly to students of our program (it’s one of the reasons I suggested the program as a possible ad venue), and encourage you to listen our ad below or here. (The voice is Buddhist Geek and Numinous Nonsense author Vince Horn.)

“A Thai soldier looks on at the scene of a burned out school near Pattani, Thailand, Monday, April 16, 2007. The elementary school, which served mostly Thai Buddhist students, was burned in retaliation for the killing of several Muslim youths two days earlier. Two successive regimes have failed in the south with more than 40,000 troops and police unable to provide adequate security for Buddhist and moderate Muslim alike.” Photo by David Longstreath for the Associated Press.
The Associated Press reports on the growing number of attacks in southern Thailand that may threaten a larger conflict between Buddhists and Muslims in the region.

Ten Muslim villagers killed by gunmen firing assault rifles into a mosque during evening prayers. A 53-year-old Buddhist rubber tapper shot, decapitated and limbs cut from his torso, his head impaled on a stick.

The circumstances and brutality of those attacks this month have revived fears that a long-running insurgency in Thailand’s south could be evolving into a sectarian conflict pitting Buddhists against Muslims.

Islamic separatists ignited the insurgency in January 2004, sparking a cycle of army repression and rebellion that has left more than 3,500 people dead. Frustrated by their inability to curb the violence, Thai security forces have increasingly been arming civilian self-defense forces — almost all Buddhist — to protect villagers.

The proliferation of guns, many put in the poorly trained hands of parties with scores to settle, makes the situation extremely volatile.

Reuters further reports on a study from the International Crisis Group (ICG) which says that “militants in Thailand’s deep south are using Islamic schools to recruit fighters” for the conflict.

In my interview with my good friend Erick D. White, which was posted to the blog last year, we talked a lot about the history of Buddhist-Muslim relations/tensions in southern Thailand. Take a look.

Here’s the video version of a New York Times report that I blogged about yesterday: