Indiana Guard chief promoted religion. So What?

Indiana Guard chief promoted religion. So What?
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
August 22, 2012

Indiana Guard chief promoted religion? Well that is what the title said anyway. This is a lot more complicated than this simple title suggested. While Mikey Weinstein has been doing a lot of good when it comes to everyone in the military being able to decide their own faith and has been against forcing anyone, he has been wrong on several issues that do not cross the line. He was against The Cross at Camp Pendleton saying that atheists were harmed by it. If they don't believe in anything then how does this actually harm them? It isn't as if they were forced to go and kneel in front of it. Weinstein has never really explained that one. He was right when it came to soldiers being forced to go to a religious concert at Fort Eustis.

I doubt he can explain how Indiana Guard Major General Umbarger's support of a religious group especially when evidence supports the power of spiritual healing when soldiers have PTSD and military suicides have gone up. Umbarger was talking about a group trying to help.

Centurion’s Watch Founder, Doug Hedrick, Speaks Directly to You
Major Doug Hedrick, Founder of Centurion’s Watch, and the Board of Directors of Centruion’s Watch, are passionate and dedicated to strengthening military marriages across America, including yours! Doug would like to personally invite you and your spouse to attend an upcoming “Fortified” Military Marriage Conference, and to ask you to consider partnering with us, your local church, and local businesses to bring a conference to an area near you. We want your marriage to be healthy and strong, and we need your help to reach other military couples who need to discover the principles, tools, support, and encouragement they need to enjoy the marriage relationship that they desire and God intended.

As Florida State Coordinator of Point Man International Ministries we help veterans and their families from all walks and all faiths. I am a Christian but fully acknowledge that all Christian denominations do not agree on doctrine. All of the people I help are helped the same way. With the love and compassion of Christ no matter what they claim their own faith is. I do not hit them over the head with the Bible any more than I try to covert them to my own faith. I am Greek Orthodox for Heaven's sake. Do you really think I could covert anyone? We come from all branches of faith and we like it that way. We aim to heal the soul of veterans and their families, not get butts in the pews.

There are times when I have to worry about crossing the line even when I am talking Christians because their faith preaches something I don't agree with. It isn't up to me to tell them they are wrong in what they believe. It us up to me to use what they believe to help them to heal.

It is the same when I talk to a person with no faith at all. I talk to them as a person spiritually since that part of the of the whole veteran is at the core of PTSD. It is a spiritual wound and requires treatment of the mind, body and spirit.

If no one was forced to support Centurion's Watch, or listen to Umbarger's speech, then there should be no problem with this.

Group: Indiana Guard chief promoted religion
By Chris Sikich and Michael Boren
Indianapolis Star
Posted : Tuesday Aug 21, 2012

The head of the Indiana National Guard says he made a video promoting an evangelical Christian group because it helps soldiers who struggle with their marriages after coming home from war.

But a military watchdog group says Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, the Guard’s adjutant general, violated military rules and the First Amendment by promoting a religious group in the 33-second video while in uniform.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, based in Albuquerque, N.M., sent a letter to the National Guard Bureau on Thursday asking that Umbarger be investigated and punished. Former Air Force attorney Mikey Weinstein founded the group, which seeks to guarantee religious freedom in the military.

The issue, Weinstein said, is that Umbarger’s message promotes one religious group over others. In the military, Weinstein says, such a show of support from a two-star general is intimidating.

“He should be removed immediately,” Weinstein told The Indianapolis Star on Monday, “and, from our perspective, court-martialed.”

Umbarger made the video in September 2011 on behalf of Centurion’s Watch, a Christian group based in Indianapolis that offers marriage counseling to military families. It was posted on the nonprofit’s website.
read more here

Yep, that's all he did. No one was forced to do anything.