DONATE NOW
Well chaplains are doing some amazing and creative things with Zoom, FB, Microsoft Teams, ECamm Live, etc. However, I am hearing of some mixed reviews from different audiences. The issues is mostly about the PLACEMENT of these videos for public consumption. I think the wisest thing is for the Chaplain Corps to realize — and for the Chief to put out a policy — that on an official command page there ought NOT to be a chaplain’s section or column (unless it addresses an important command-focused non-specifically-religious topic like suicide prevention and couples retreats and such), and instead have a link to a separate Chaplain’s Page or an Installation Chapel and/or Religious Ministry Teams page and then the chaplains post all they want. (Although they should not be going after other chaplains or religions they find wrong/evil, etc.) The public (taxpayers) are going through installation FB pages and looking for offenses. There are a lot of agnostics, atheists, and no religious preference service-members these days and they are growing weary and impatient with command-sponsored evangelism aimed and even blasted at them. Some of these videos are pretty generic/spiritual. Some are boring (in my opinion). And there is currently one with a really-old looking chaplain and it is clearly designed to promote Jesus and the Christian faith – which is fine in the right setting. My guess is that each Installation Chaplain will need to connect with installation PAOs and get these pages up and running to present a consistent professional presentation to the world.
Additionally, it is important to remember that while it is the Commander’s Religious Program , we need to be savvy enough to keep the Commander out of trouble and out of the negative limelight of the press. Chaplains’ comments and videos should be no problem on the Chapel’s FB or other social media pages.
We need to be wise as serpents, but as innocent as doves…
Dave