ACLU Upset at Marines

[lcpd24]

Hey all-- Got this from my sister this morning, thought you all might be interested in what the ACLU has on there stupid little minds know. Sorry the picture didn't come thru, showed about 150 Marines with there heads bowed. have a great day-- sounds like you guys had a great weekend-Dennis








ACLU Upset At Marines

If you look closely at the picture above, you will note that all the Marines pictured are bowing their heads. That's because they're praying.

This incident took place at a recent ceremony honoring the birthday of the corps, and it has the ACLU up in arms. "These are federal employees," says Lucius Traveler, a spokesman for the ACLU, "on federal property and on federal time. For them to pray is clearly an establishment of religion, and we must nip this in the bud immediately."

When asked about the ACLU's charges, Colonel Jack Fessender, speaking for the Commandant of the Corps said (cleaned up a bit), "Screw the ACLU." GOD Bless Our Warriors, Send the ACLU to France.

[b3196]

The ACLU is a meaningless, worthless orginization that is only good for 1 thing and that is stirring $hit.....Hell we could have used them for $hit burning detail!!!
Bob K

[lcpd24]

b3196-- i agree, I burned my share of $hitters while there, there was never any wind when I had the job, so it always went right up the nose, smelt it all damn nite---

[darrels joy]

Summary of the eRumor
The eRumor is accompanied by a picture with a group of Marines bowed in prayer.
It quotes an ACLU spokesperson named Lucius Traveler as saying that they are government employees who are on government property and that such prayer needs to be stopped.


The Truth
This is false.
The ACLU says it has not issued any opposition to military personnel praying and that there is no one named Lucius Traveler in their ranks.

We have not been able to find a "Colonel Jack Fessender" who is quoted in the eRumor as responding to the ACLU.

Last updated 12/24/03

[darrels joy]

Walking wet in the desert

By Lance Kittleson



back to military families Today a young female soldier came to be baptized at the large tent that serves as a chapel at Camp Virginia in Kuwait. On one side of the chapel a briefing occurs. On the other the soldier and I stand by the altar?two cobbled wooden shipping crates with no paraments. I quietly read Ephesians 2:8-9 to the her. She had spoken to me days earlier about her fears, her background and her many sorrows, including the sorrow when the pastor from her home church told her she wasn?t worthy to be baptized in Jesus? name.

Now on the eve of war, this young trooper wanted to know Jesus was for her, not against her. She wanted to be part of Jesus? family. I told her baptism is a gift of God and none of us can ever be good enough for it.

Looking into her eyes, I said, ?This is God?s gift to you because he has always loved you. He will never love you more or less than he already does.?

Then followed the most unique baptism I?ve ever done. We had no font and the only congregation was the commanders and staff officers who quizzically looked on. I poured the promise of God in Christ out on the soldier?s head from a liter of bottled water. Three times the water of grace flowed off her head and down her cheeks, where it mixed with her tears. I wiped her head with my red farmer?s bandana and said, ?You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.?

As I don my helmet with desert camouflage and a cross sewed on the front, snap on the web gear and grab my chemical equipment pack which goes with the gas mask that never leaves a modern-day soldier?s side, I think how?like that gas mask?God?s Spirit will go with that young soldier everywhere.

As I waddle along with my 25 pounds of equipment, I carry a liter of water, taking a good gulp every few hundred meters. Soon I realize I?m drinking from the same bottle of water that just baptized a new child of God. Maybe that parallels the believer?s life in Christ too. Baptism is a one-time event, but it is also a daily gulping of the gift of God?s love as we trudge through our own deserts of life. For in taking those gulps of daily grace, we can be assured that no matter what our battlers may be, God will never forget us or forsake his children of grace through faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Excerpted from a letter Kittleson wrote to his wife in March while he was deployed in Kuwait as an Army chaplain. They are members of Zion Lutheran Church, LaGrande, Ore.
http://www.thelutheran.org/war/baptism.html

[darrels joy]

Baptisms on the battlefield
Marine from Spring among four who took part in Iraq
By TONY PERRY
Los Angeles Times
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- On Monday, Echo Company battled insurgents for two hours. One Marine was killed, 15 were wounded and many others were injured in the latest and bloodiest of numerous skirmishes.

Then four Marines -- from battle-hardened Echo Company of the 2nd battalion, 1st regiment of the 1st Marine Division -- asked a Protestant chaplain to arrange a battlefield baptism. The four included a serviceman from Spring.

"I've been talking to God a lot during the last two firefights," said Lance Cpl. Chris Hankins, 19, of Kansas City, Mo. "I decided to start my life over and make it better."

To give the occasion even greater significance, the Marines chose to have Wednesday's baptism in the courtyard of the bullet-ridden school they used in their fight with insurgents.

Two Marines died and several were injured in the same courtyard when a mortar round landed amid their group on April 12. A small memorial has been erected in the courtyard to the two: Lance Cpl. Robert Zurheide, 20, of Tucson, Ariz., and Lance Cpl. Brad Shuder, 21, of El Dorado, Calif.

After Monday's battle, a memorial was placed in the courtyard for the Marine killed in that fight: Lance Cpl. Aaron Cole Austin, 21, of Amarillo.

Battlefield baptisms are not unusual among frontline troops, said Navy Lt. Scott Radetski, the battalion's Protestant chaplain. So many baptism requests are made by military personnel during deployments that the military even has a two-page sheet on how to create a battlefield baptism font: Field Immersion Baptismal Liner Instructions.

Radetski said he did one ceremony in Kuwait when Marines were waiting to move into Iraq. Three Marines at another encampment in Fallujah also have requested baptism.

"When chaos shows its head," Radetski said, "we need an anchor for our faith. You need that rock that God promises to be. I consider it an honor to fulfill their request."

For Wednesday's ceremony, Radetski had cardboard boxes containing Meals Ready to Eat arranged to simulate a smallish bathtub. A large piece of plastic was placed inside, and water from 14 5-gallon Marine Corps water cans was poured.

Sgt. Andrew Jones, 25, of Sullivan, Ind., said he had been considering becoming baptized before he left for Iraq. His combat experiences convinced him that the time was right.

"With everything that has happened here, all the good friends I've lost, I thought it was a good place to be reborn," Jones said.

The fight on Monday, in which insurgents hurled grenades and fired rockets and machine guns at the Marines, left many of the young men of Echo Company shaken and emotionally drained.

Protestant and Catholic church services in the Marine encampment hours after the battle were heavily attended. Wednesday, little of the initial pain was evident.

The four Marines -- Hankins; Jones; Lance Cpl. Kenneth Hayes, 22, of Redding, Calif.; and Lance Cpl. Michael Fuller, 20, of Spring -- stripped to their skivvies and removed their combat boots before being dunked individually by Radetski.

Fuller attends Champion Forest Baptist Church, according to the church's Web site.

Two dozen Marines stood quietly. Radetski, honoring the four Marines' request, said the baptism also was being performed to show respect for the fallen and wounded Marines.

The school, once used by elementary schoolchildren, shows the ravages of three weeks of fighting.

Insurgents are holed up in deserted houses just a few hundred yards away, their weapons aimed at the school, hoping to kill Marines with a well-timed shot.

Still, the four Marines thought the courtyard was the ideal spot to make a public profession of their religious belief.

"What better place to do this than here, in the middle of hell," Fuller said.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2542636

[darrels joy]

Via Chicago Tribune: A religious rite of passage on the battlefield - Marine Sgt. Andrew Jones, 25, of Sullivan, Ind., is baptized Wednesday in Fallujah, Iraq, by Lt. Scott Radetski, a Navy chaplain, in an improvised pool of cardboard boxes containing Meals Ready to Eat. Jones and three others asked for the rite after three comrades died, including two in the courtyard--"the middle of hell," as one of the GIs called it--where the ceremony took place. (Los Angeles Times photo by Rick Loomis)