Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[CNN]

Rob Skinner did not expect to find a chaplain in the office when he started his sales job at Piedmont Air Conditioning in Raleigh, North Carolina. “I was a little worried because I didn’t want God shoved down my throat,” says Skinner, 38, a self-described liberal Christian.

Turns out Dwayne Reece, from the nonprofit, nondenominational Corporate Chaplains of America — which provides Christian chaplains for companies that request them — offered encouraging words instead.

Piedmont had hired him after the death of an employee, and it worked out so well, he’s been visiting for nine years.

“Having him there really makes you feel that the company cares,” Skinner says.

Religion, like sex and politics, once was considered inappropriate watercooler talk. Not anymore. Prayer sessions, religious diversity groups and chaplains like Reece, along with rabbis and imams, have become more common across corporate America in the past decade.

Fifty percent of those questioned in a 2002 Gallup poll said religious expression should be tolerated in the work place while another 28 percent thought it should be encouraged. That’s compared to 21percent who didn’t see a place for religious expression on the job.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Now this is a topic I can speak of from personal experience.  I worked as a Corporate Chaplain for Marketplace Chaplains for 5 years.  Marketplace and Corporate Chaplains of America are good organizations.  I loved my time working at Marketplace and would have continued had there been a “full-time” option but there was not.  CCA hires only full-time and MC hires part-time people.

We never shoved God down anyone’s throat.  I would enter a workplace and just be there for the employees if they needed someone to talk to.  If not I would move on.  I never mentioned God’s name unless they wanted to talk.  I called on a large apartment leasing company, a large home builder and a oil change company.   I never had an employee tell me to get lost.  Sometimes I knew they were busy and I would just move on.   Most of the time they would talk.  I did have several opportunities to share my faith but only after they gave me permission.  I even led a man to Jesus one day.  We were available to the employees 24 hours a day.  I had to keep a pager on me at all times even when I preached!

I don’t know why anyone would have a beef with this but I’m sure some will.   It is a service and it is voluntary.  It is also being used by God.

What do you think?

[These are my thoughts and not those of Campus Crusade or my parents]

 Here are the facts about religion and chaplains in the military:

1. In the military, there are Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, Islamic  etc chaplains.
2. Each chaplain is free to share his faith beliefs all he wants within the military guidelines given him. They are not muzzled.
3. Each chaplain is responsible for providing for the spiritual needs of all the soldiers under him or her. Therefore they provide and announce:

• On Sundays, on many bases, there are different services available for Roman Catholic and Islamic and for any chaplain who chose to provide his.
• Buses pick up some to go off post to Synagogues, Mormon temples, Greek Orthodox etc.
• Even Wiccans can meet as a group as long as the meeting is open to anyone.
• No one is compelled to attend any meeting but can attend any if they choose.

4. Any chaplain can use volunteers to teach classes on Sunday morning as long as that volunteer teaches under his or her supervision.

• Chaplains can recruit their volunteers from the community.

5. All belief groups want to share their beliefs to the world. In the America, they are free to do this as long as they do it by the rules.

For some reason those who are not followers of Jesus have problems with Christian groups ministering to the military.  Here is what I want to know:

• I want to know if there are Pagan, Wiccan,  Buddhists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jewish and other groups who send missionaries to the military who raise their own financial support?
• Are their atheist groups who raise their own financial support to assist the military in their emotional and educational needs?
• Show me where the Military Ministry of Campus Crusade has violated the Constitution?   The Separation of Church and State was to protect the Church from the State not the other way around.
• What harm is being done to our military?
• Do those who have a beef really care about the military personnel or are they trying to make a political statement?

These are questions I want answered.  I’m tired of being called a “right-winged bigot” and a “fundamentalist” and every form of profanity in the book.  Personally I’m ready for the US to leave Iraq but I support or military and our leaders.  I’m a follower of Jesus who wants to fulfill the calling God has given me.  I follow the laws and I’m tolerant of other’s beliefs.  It’s time the “other” beliefs showed a little tolerance of Christ followers too.

What do you think?

[From Christian Post]

More than 100 faculty members at Iowa State University have signed a petition opposing the football coach’s plan to make a chaplain an official member of the team staff.

Coach Gene Chizik, hired last November, wants to hire a chaplain who would be paid by private donations. ISU athletic director Jamie Pollard supports the plan because he contends student-athletes are under a lot of pressure and need access to spiritual guidance.

“Are you going to have counseling for Jewish students? Muslim students? There’s no such thing as one religion or one version of Christianity,” said Dr. Hector Avalos, a professor of religious studies at ISU.

Read about it here.

[From me]

As much as I hate to agree with the professors, they make a valid point.  What if the coach was a Muslim and brought in a Muslim Chaplain?  I wouldn’t want that either.  My brother-in-law, David was on staff with Athletes in Action (part of Campus Crusade for Christ) for many years in Columbia, SC.  Lou Holtz made David his chaplain for the Gamecocks his first year there but he wasn’t paid by USC.  David raised his own support though Athletes in Action.

I don’t think we can have it both ways.  I’m trying my best to be consistent.   I think it is great that Coach Chizik is open to a Godly influence on his team, I just don’t think it should be a state sponsored position.

What do you think?