United States
In the United States, military chaplains have a military officer's rank based on their years of service and promotion selection from among their peers. Chaplains serving in the US Armed Forces wear the uniform of their respective branch of service, and normally only wear clerical attire during the performance of a religious service. The position of rank and chaplain faith group insignia varies in each military department and may vary significantly from one type of uniform to the another within a military department. Military chaplains must be endorsed by a religious organization in order to serve on active duty.
U.S. military chaplains, both individuals and in groups, have been engaged in a number of controversies. Complaints have been made against chaplains for mandatory prayers, coercion, and using government money to promote Evangelical Christianity. Groups representing atheists have pushed for the appointment of someone representing their viewpoint to the chaplaincy. Some have criticized what they feel is an effort upon the part of the United States military to put pressure upon chaplains to promote universalism. Individual cases include that of Air Force Lt. Col. Garland Robertson, discharged in 1993 after expressing political opinions in a letter to the Abilene Reporter-News and Navy Chaplain Lt. Gordon Klingenschmitt, who protested in uniform against military policies he believed restricted the free exercise of his religion.
The constitutionality of the U.S. chaplaincy has been the subject of legal challenges and scholarly dispute. One appellate case, Katcoff v. Marsh (1986) upheld the system as a permissible attempt to support service members in the "free exercise" of their religious beliefs, though others have described the details of the chaplaincy system as violations of the legal principles that the federal government maintain neutrality and avoid becoming entangled in religious affairs.
More than 400 chaplains have died while serving in the U.S. military.
Read more about this topic: Military Chaplain, Military Chaplains By Country
Famous quotes related to united states:
“In the United States there is more space where nobody is is than where anybody is.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition. In America, this system is carried to the point where a man who can knock a small white ball into a series of holes in the ground with more efficiency than anyone else thereby gains social access to the President of the United States.”
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“United States! the ages plead,—
Present and Past in under-song,—
Go put your creed into your deed,—
Nor speak with double tongue.”
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)