Ready … or Not?: Equipping the U.S. Military Chaplain for Inter-Religious Liaison
Chris Seiple Wednesday, 16 December 2009
In August of 2000, I had the opportunity to speak at a U.S. Army Civil Affairs conference at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. My topic was the military, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and religious freedom. Being in Rhode Island, I could not resist using the state's founding as an illustration. I recounted how Roger Williams fled the theocracy of Massachusetts to establish a state where religious freedom was protected and promoted as a function of its inherent relationship to security. As the Rhode Island charter elegantly acknowledges, when people are free to practice their faith, their society tends to flourish and they become more loyal to the state and less likely to rebel.
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