TheAgitator.com
Baptizing Chaplain Update
Friday, April 11th, 2003My friend who has connections to the big cheese Army chaplains writes with an update on the Army chaplain who boasted about withholding water from troops until they accepted Jesus:
So I spoke with the chaplain who I go to church with. He was the one who was initially saying that the man was going down.Their investigation is far from complete, but he told me that it appears to be a case of a young, stupid chaplain not following the first rule of chaplain/journalist relations: Journalists either willfully or unknowingly don’t understand religious humour.
Apparently the guy was making a deliberate joke and was completely in jest. Already, all the typical suspects — People for the American Way, ACLU, Separation of Church and State folks, etc. — are threatening litigation.
It makes me want to hurt this idiot chaplain.
Just thought I’d let you know . . .
Good news, I guess. Though I don’t really think you can fault the ACLU, etc. for getting involved. If the guy really was doing what he said he was doing, they have every reason to be concerned. If it turns out he was joking, he needs to crack jokes around people who aren’t journalists, and who have a better sense of humor.
It did seem too obsurd to be true. Not only should he consider his audience when telling a joke, but also his environment. Although I think anti-Christian attitudes could have lead to the reaction. And yes I can fault the ACLU for jumping to conclusions and threatening litigation without examining the facts. Then again why let facts get in the way of suing people. I take back what I said earlier. I disagree that “he needs to crack jokes around people who aren’t journalists, and who have a better sense of humor.” Maybe these journalists need to lighten up and notice an obvious joke when they see it. Why should he have to lose his sense of humor because those around him don’t have one? A good journalist would find out if this chaplain was joking, if he/she couldn’t tell already, before writing the story. He may have broke some chaplain’s code but he is not solely responsible for the misunderstanding.
This whole situation proves that the media is out to get Christianity and yet at the same time they are tolerate of Islam. Hhm, doesn’t seem very objective to me.
The problem is, so many of the things that by rights ought to be jokes aren’t (eg, Robertson’s and Falwells remarks about gays causing 9/11). The far right religious loonballs have conditioned the media to have no sense of humor on these issues.
Given no foreknowledge, and told “chaplain refuses water to nonbelievers” and “major religious leaders blame 9/11 on gays and feminsts”, which would you believe was a joke? Both? Neither?
I guess we should all be censored in what we say because someone might take it in a way that it wasn’t intended. F!*@ ‘em if they can’t take a joke. The role of the media is to report fact not drum up controversy that doesn’t exist. If it has come to the point where you can’t tell a joke simply because of your religious affiliation then we are in bad shape. He is not a discredit, maybe just naive about how predatory the media can be. I can’t even believe this is such a big issue, especially on this site. What happened to liberty? Remember he wasn’t actually depriving people of water. A pesky little detail that a responsible journalist would have discovered.
One more and then I’ll shut up. It is not fair to use Robertson and Falwell as examples for Christianity. They are obviously goofballs not representative of mainstream Christians. In case you were wondering, no I’m not Christian. Just sympathetic to those being judged unfairly.
This story really makes me upset. I just can’t believe, after revisiting it several times, that he wasn’t actually withholding water to non-Christians.
Honestly when I read the story it sounded like a joke to me and almost commented as much here. Denying soldiers water in a war zone because they haven’t been baptized? Not in our Army; not in our Marine Corps. The Chaplain was indeed joking with the goofball reporter. I place responsibility with the journalist.
Umm, I’m sending a team of fish-wielding monkey butlers into Iraq to explain to this reporter what is a joke.
Dan wrote: “Denying soldiers water in a war zone because they haven’t been baptized?”
My understanding was that it was not water for drinking – ie, life-supporting water, but rather water for washing up and getting the grime off. Nobody was going to die of thirst on his account, but they might really want to get a week’s worth of dirt off themselves.
On the one hand, it does seem a little odd to think of soldiers being allowed to essentially bathe in a quantity of water used for religious purposes. Baptism in bathwater would be a bit icky. Then again, the Ganges is used for religious ceremonies too.
Part of the problem in peoples’ response might have been due to difficulty picturing the quantity of water mentioned in the story – 500 gallons, perhaps making it seem like a larger volume than it actually is.
Bobby wrote: “not fair to use Robertson and Falwell as examples for Christianity”
How about Franklin Graham?
And, how about Secretary of Education Rod Paige, saying that he’d prefer if all students were taught Christian values in school.
Oh, another thought.
I think people have been sort of extra-vigilant about this sort of thing lately because of the concern over whether some evangelical Christians would see Iraq as a big proselytizing opportunity, like Franklin Graham.
(Or rather, seeing Iraq as a flock just waiting to be fleeced.)
You could list 100 Christian extremists and you wouldn’t convince me that they are representative of Christians. I’m am suprised nobody listed Ashcroft. And pay attention, this was a JOKE. He didn’t really withhold water from anyone for any purpose. That is the point here. To say that he shouldn’t joke because some idiots who have extreme viewpoints and happen to be affiliated with the same religion as him is ridiculous. It is real easy for us to criticize him from thousands of miles away on our computers, but he is in the desert doing a service for our troops. And once again he didn’t withhold the water.
So anytime something is misconstrued it’s the fault of the speaker? If it was a joke then the reporter should have asked more questions before writing the story.
You are invited to check out some information dedicated to online casino online casino http://www.favorite-casino.com/online-casino.html http://www.favorite-casino.com/online-casino.html gambling gambling http://www.favorite-casino.com/gambling.html http://www.favorite-casino.com/gambling.html – Tons of interesdting stuff!!!
http://www.la-ringtones.com/mp3/ ringtones site. ringtones site free, ringtones site, Free nokia ringtones here. from website .
http://www.ringtones-rate.com/mp3/ ringtones site. ringtones site, Free nokia ringtones here, Download ringtones FREE. from website .