Military Religious Services

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Singalphile
Posts: 903
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:46 pm

Military Religious Services

Post by Singalphile » Wed Sep 28, 2016 9:22 pm

Hello, all.

You might find this interesting, as I do. That link (which I'm not affiliated with) shows the front side of a piece of paper that is given to U.S. military trainees (Air Force, anyway), and it lists available religious services/classes that are held on base.

Among the Christian groups, these services and religious education (RE) classes are available:

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Contemporary Protestant Services
Liturgical Protestant Services
Protestant RE
Catholic Mass
Catholic RE
Orthodox Christian Services/RE
Pentecostal RE
7th-Day Adventist
[on Saturday]
Church of Christ
Church of Jesus Christ of LDS
Lutheran Missouri Synod
[not shown at that link, but new as of August]
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On the back of the print-out that I have, there are short description of the groups. I don't know if the descriptions are written by the military chaplains or if the groups submit their own descriptions, but here they are exactly as printed (except for my typos):

Liturgical Christian: Weekly communion, biblical preaching, hymns and contemporary music, lectionary readings, follow church year, seasons, and colors, evangelical, charismatic, and catholic.

Christian Science: Founded by Mary Bakker Eddy in 1866; Based on healing through prayer; NOT SCIENTOLOGY

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka Mormon or LDS): Happiness is achieved through living the teachings of Christ

Seventh-Day Adventist: Saturday is observed as the Sabbath; writings of Ellen White are authoritative.

Church of Christ: Restorationist movement. Reject the idea of denominations. Believe that Jesus founded only one church, and the only basis to restore Christian unity is the Bible. Anti-creedal.

Jewish: Orthodox Judaism

Islamic/Muslim: Submission to God alone; testifying that there is no deity but God and Muhammad is a Messenger of God

Orthodox Christian: Original Christian Church founded by Christ to lead all persons to God. Compiled Holy Bible, worship is liturgical.

Lutheran Church Missouri Synod: The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod proclaims the unchanging Gospel of salvation by Grace Alone through Faith alone in Jesus Christ in accord with God's Holy Word and the Lutheran Confessions.

Buddhist: Based on the writings of Nichiren Daishonin; world peace through happiness.

Wicca: Earth-centered spirituality; largest of Neo-pagan religions

Baha'i: The harmony of Science and Religion; one God and the unity of religions

Eckankar: Soul is on a journey of Self- and God-Realization

Hindu: Reincarnation; Determined Karma and Dharma; Polytheists

Sikh: Monotheists; stresses doing good rather than just rituals

Roman Catholic: The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with more than 1.25 billion members worldwide. One of the oldest religious institutions in the world, it has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilization and is headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope.

Contemporary Protestant (Baptist, non-Denominational Christian, many other denominations): Live band; relevant, biblical preaching, monthly communion, monthly adult immersion baptism

Enjoy! Discuss!
... that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. John 5:23

dwilkins
Posts: 647
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2012 2:54 pm

Re: Military Religious Services

Post by dwilkins » Thu Sep 29, 2016 6:15 pm

That sounds pretty Air Force. In the Marines, we were ordered to go to the single Protestant service unless we were were going to go to the RCC service. At the Protestant service we sang a few song. ( learned later that some guys preferred that one because their family could sneak in pretending to do the final week visitation. This allowed the guys to sit next to their girlfriends. One guy even had his mom sneak in a carne asada burrito!

Not much spiritual maturity was accomplished.

Doug

Singalphile
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Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:46 pm

Re: Military Religious Services

Post by Singalphile » Thu Sep 29, 2016 7:46 pm

How could people be "ordered" to go to any particular service? Was that in basic training? (I'm pretty ignorant about military things.)

I have never attended the service or RE classes myself.

It's 1,000s of young-ish people every weekend, who have practically zero contact with the outside world for (except for the sneaking in of family and girlfriends, I guess!), I think, 8 weeks, many of whom actually know very little about Christianity. They have literally 100s of attendees who mark the "Received Christ" checkbox on the little cards every weekend, for what that's worth.

Since I guess every last AF trainee in the U.S. goes through BMT at Lackland AF Base, and a pretty sizable chunk attends the Protestant RE classes, I suppose it's possible that the teachers who teach for more than a year or so (nearly all of whom are volunteers organized by Cru) are among the most widely heard Bible teachers in the country. Prayers for them would not be bad.
... that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. John 5:23

dwilkins
Posts: 647
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2012 2:54 pm

Re: Military Religious Services

Post by dwilkins » Thu Sep 29, 2016 10:39 pm

In boot camp the choice is whether to go sit in a big room where people say things you don't care about, or get screamed at while doing push-ups until you can't move. Compliance is 100%. I'm sure the Air Force is less intense, but the expectation is similar. After boot camp I'm sure it's even less intense. You might also notice that a handful of people are tasked with performing the service. Therefore, the performance of the minister is purely performance art as opposed to a spiritual function.

Singalphile
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Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:46 pm

Re: Military Religious Services

Post by Singalphile » Thu Sep 29, 2016 10:52 pm

dwilkins wrote:In boot camp the choice is whether to go sit in a big room where people say things you don't care about, or get screamed at while doing push-ups until you can't move. Compliance is 100%. I'm sure the Air Force is less intense, but the expectation is similar. After boot camp I'm sure it's even less intense. You might also notice that a handful of people are tasked with performing the service. Therefore, the performance of the minister is purely performance art as opposed to a spiritual function.
Interesting. But there are Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan, etc. classes that folks can attend also, if they want. (I'm told there's some sort of secular/humanist option, but I don't know anything else about it, and it's not on the hand-out).

Anyway, I don't doubt your characterization at all. I do know, though, that the air force BMT RE (religious education) classes (not the service) is taught by dozens of non-military volunteers. I suppose that the "church service" itself features a military chaplain.
... that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. John 5:23

Singalphile
Posts: 903
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:46 pm

Re: Military Religious Services

Post by Singalphile » Sat Jul 01, 2017 10:20 am

For your information or perhaps your prayers ...

I'm told that some U.S. Air Force officers at the basic training base have made a big push for the secularist/humanist RE (religious education) option. That is, they have promoted it heavily and directly to the trainees. As a result, the Christian RE classes/services (at least the Protestant ones) have lost a pretty large chunk (1/4 or so) of attendees, and some of the smaller religions' RE classes are pretty much unattended now. I'm told that the Protestant Christian class leaders are considering adding some apologetics to their classes.

Again, these are the religious education options that are available to every U.S. Air Force trainee in the country.
... that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. John 5:23

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