Christianity In The Military

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
This seemingly straightforward pronouncement by the Founding Fathers in the First Amendment may not be as straightforward in 2018 as the authors intended in 1791, when the Bill of Rights were ratified in Philadelphia . Despite an increasing and persistent intensity of the practice and belief in Christianity within the United States, Christians in the U.S. Military are increasingly under attack. These attacks attempt to deny Christians the Free Exercise and Speech clauses

Military) and the increasingly virulent and frequent attacks on Christians and Christian artifacts such as the Chaplaincy in the military. What can this enmity be attributed to and what can we do about it as leaders in the Army? As the intensity of Christianity in the United States increases, so too do the secular attacks against Christian service members freedom to exercise their faith through speech, actions and worship. The founding Fathers clearly intended to take care of the spiritual well-being of its Soldiers. This intention was manifested in the creation of the Chaplain Corps. The Continental Congress established chaplains as an integral part of the Army of the United States on 29 July 1775. Since then, the Chaplain Corps has been an example of the “nation’s commitment to religious freedom and its recognition that religion plays an integral role in the lives of many of its Soldiers. Chaplains have contributed to Soldiers’ religious freedom, moral development, and spiritual well-being throughout the history of the Army. Army chaplains represent many religious traditions present within the pluralistic religious culture of the United States.” The necessity of the Chaplain Corps to minister to the spiritual needs of service members and to support their freedoms under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment has been codified in 10 USC 3073, 10 USC 3547 and 10 USC 3581. The chaplaincy and the laws governing them have survived legal challenges, most notably in the case Katcoff v. Marsh. In the 1986 case, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit became the only federal appellate court to address directly the constitutionality the Army Chaplaincy. In doing so, the Court determined that the chaplaincy did not offend the