Church Event Set for Base Stirs Concern

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Church Event Set for Base Stirs Concern

April 6, 2003
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN




 

The Army major general who commands Fort Bragg's training
center for special operations forces has invited a group of
predominantly Southern Baptist pastors to the base this
month to participate in a military-themed motivational
program for Christian evangelists.

The unusual collaboration is the result of a friendship
between Maj. Gen. William G. Boykin, commanding general of
the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at
Fort Bragg, and the Rev. Bobby H. Welch, a Southern Baptist
minister in Daytona Beach, Fla., who has started an
evangelistic campaign called FAITH Force Multipliers.

Hundreds of ministers received an invitation last month
from Mr. Welch saying that participants would observe
weapons demonstrations, sleep overnight on the base and "go
with General Boykin and Green Beret instructors to places
where no civilians and few soldiers ever go!"

But the marriage of military and ministry offended one
Baptist pastor invited to attend. That minister, who said
he did not want to be identified for fear of his
colleagues' ire, informed Americans United for Separation
of Church and State, an advocacy group in Washington.

Lawyers with the group faxed a letter to General Boykin and
the secretary of the Army on Friday warning that the event,
planned for April 22 and 23, is unconstitutional because it
amounts to government promotion of a religious event.

"It's completely inappropriate to have the Army put on a
revival meeting at a military base, and that is the bottom
line of this event," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive
director of Americans United.

"This is a particularly bad time to have the Army appear to
be promoting Christianity," he continued, "in the middle of
a war with a Muslim country."

The American military does not ban religion on bases. It
offers chaplains, chapels and services for people of all
faiths. 

The difference here, said Americans United, is government
sponsorship of religion. In 1996, Navy chaplains in
Norfolk, Va., dropped their sponsorship of an event by the
men's evangelical group Promise Keepers after similar
complaints. 

With Fort Bragg on war footing, the problem landed in
special operations headquarters like a stray grenade. Maj.
Gary Kolb, spokesman for Army Special Operations at the
base, said that civic groups sometimes visited the base for
tours, but that this event sounded out of the ordinary.

After checking with General Boykin, he said that the
general might not be in town for the event, and that if he
were in town he would only greet the ministers. (The
invitation had promised a speech by the general and
"informal time" with him.)

Major Kolb said the group would not be allowed to spend the
night on the base. He said some of the attractions that the
invitation promised to the ministers - like the
demonstration of hand-to-hand combat, and trips to the
"Shoot House" and "Snake Room" - might have to be canceled
because the special forces personnel are too busy.

And Major Kolb said that the military lawyers on the base
were reviewing the plans for the event "just to make sure
that it's within the guidelines prescribed by all the
military regulations."

Reached at his church in Florida, Mr. Welch, the minister
who runs the FAITH Force program, said he was a Vietnam
veteran, who trained at Fort Bragg and sought to apply
military principles to evangelism.

At first, he spoke openly about the coming session at Fort
Bragg. Then he asked not to have it made public because
"I'll get in trouble."

"I don't want to do anything that sounds as if we're
connected to the military," he said. "That would be an
error." He said the Fort Bragg event, which had drawn
applications from 50 to 70 ministers, was no different from
one he conducted at a race track in Daytona Beach.

He also volunteered that a previous FAITH Force session of
70 pastors was held at Fort Bragg last year, at General
Boykin's invitation.

Pastor Welch has spoken at graduations at the special
operations school the general commands, Major Kolb said.
And General Boykin gave a speech in the pastor's church in
Florida in April last year.

"Bin Laden is not the enemy," General Boykin told the
packed sanctuary, according to an account on the church's
Web site. "No mortal is the enemy. It's the enemy you can't
see. It's a war against the forces of darkness. The battle
won't be won with guns. It will be won on our knees."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/06/national/06GENE.html?ex=1050703147&ei=1&en
=acdabb404f5e8652



HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters
or other creative advertising opportunities with The
New York Times on the Web, please contact
onlinesales () nytimes com or visit our online media
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
help () nytimes com.  

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company


------ End of Forwarded Message

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/