At a time when military chaplains are all but gutted of their religion, when Islam is pushed down into the military chaplaincy, when US military generals and admirals quake at the potential usage of the word “God” in sermons because it may adversely affect their careers, there is one military chaplain with courage and testicles.

From The Blaze.com:

Navy Chaplain Reveals the Touching Thing He Does Every Night Aboard the USS New York to Remember Each of the 343 Firefighters Who Died on 9/11

by Bill Hallowell

A touching tradition has formed aboard the USS New York, a Navy ship that is made, in part, from steel recovered from the World Trade Center following the 9/11 attack.

The chaplain aboard the vessel says a prayer over the loudspeaker around 9:55 every evening — an invocation that recaps the day’s happenings and commemorates an individual firefighter who perished during the terrorist attack.

In a video posted by Stars and Stripes, Lt. Justin Bernard, the chaplain aboard the USS New York, is observed invoking God during one of these public prayers, specifically thanking the Lord for keeping members of the military safe.

This will not, however, play well with the US military’s various chiefs of staff.  If they aren’t promoting Islam or Wicca, military chaplains find themselves predominantly hamstrung.

Some chaplains can no longer mention God or Jesus or any specific deity.  Save that of Mohammad in re Islam.  One cannot do away with Islam in the military.  That would be religionist.

Still and all, apparently Chaplain Lt. Justin Bernard shines through.

Bernard goes through an alphabetical list to find names, taking the time to research each individual in an effort to learn more about life stories — information that he then integrates into the prayers. Read more about that process here.

If history is any predictor, not for long.

God bless this man, working in the ship constructed with actual steel sourced from the fallen World Trade towers.

BZ