I put a small blurb on a Facebook posting I shared from the internet
about the Pentagon’s new listing of religions for the military chaplain’s
service. As I’ve thought about it I decided I should do a larger information
essay with, of course, some of my opinions.
At the moment the big controversy is that while many Christian denominations
were listed under the designation Christian, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints did not have that designation.
So first of all, as a Christian, a Presbyterian for many
years and now a Lutheran (LCMS) I don’t see the LDS as truly Christian from a
faith position. For instance, they don’t believe in the Trinity, nor the
eternality of God. But that really isn’t the point, they see themselves as
Christian and that is part of our freedom as Americans. The Secretary of
Defense, Pete Hegseth has probably had a hand in forming or guiding the list
but I don’t know that for certain. What I do know is this list has many problems.
Whoever made the list did not have a good understanding of religions in
general.
If the LDS was left off because the persons forming the list
thought they were not truly Christian then what about the listing of Christian Scientist
and Jehovah Witnesses as Christians since they are on this list. The JWs do not
believe Jesus is God nor do they believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
The Christian Scientist do not believe evil is real and see all biblical
language as metaphor. Matter is unreal and the blood of Jesus has no meaning.
But as I have written that really isn’t the point, in America we have religious
liberty and all who call themselves Christians are allowed to do so. And while we
as faith people are called to dialogue, to hopefully kindly point out our
differences, government officials must respect the titles each religion give
themselves.
So here is what I see as the real problem: Christianity has
been over emphasized by listing so many different groups under the heading of
Christian while all other religions are simply listed under what I would call generic
names such as Islam or Buddhism. And yet all of these other religions have
separate groups within them. For instance, one of the larger groups within
Buddhism in America is Pure Land Buddhism, but there are others such as Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. So why not simply for
denominations have a listing of just Christianity with service people deciding
for themselves.
Then there is one more problem I want to address. One of the
fastest growing groups in the United States and elsewhere is paganism which
includes Wicca. They have been left off of this list and I don’t feel they
should have been. I have written in several places about Wicca and I don’t
endorse it but I care about the needs of these many women. I am familiar with the
pastor who not too many years ago was Chaplain over all of the prison system in
California. A godly Assembly of God pastor. I still remember seeing a list of
some of the needs he had. One was wood for the wiccan prison members to hold
sage ceremonies. And I laughed! But compassion reaches troubled people faster
than condemnation. The point is when people and their faiths are ignored, they
feel left out, dismissed as unimportant. We are being troubled by Christian
Nationalism whose adherents tend to discriminate against women and those they
consider outsiders. Just recently I listened to part of a video where several
extreme pastors who are Christian Nationalist were discussing how if they could
come to power in the United States, it might be possible to get the government officials
to takeover all churches that are gay centered and/or had women pastors. While
I truly believe that biblically marriage is between one man and one woman, no
church in American should ever be in danger of having a government takeover.
The list should be done over, simplified and fair.
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