Dr Paul Allen

Twenty years after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, a Navy chaplain who ministered to hundreds of grieving families at ground zero has shared the incredible ways God showed up amid tragedy and provided comfort to those suffering.  Jim Jenkins, who was a Navy chaplain serving with the Coast Guard as part of the Chaplains’ Emergency Response Team, traveled to ground zero mere days after al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists hijacked four commercial jetliners and flew them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.  What Jenkins saw when he arrived at the wreckage of the towers will forever be engrained in his memory.  “The only way I could describe it is, I saw footage of Berlin after the bombing. It looked like that as far as your eye could see. The TV couldn't give you a sense of the scope of the massive debris field,” he told The Christian Post. “It was so intense, so sobering.” “The Lord had the appoi

Harvard University was founded as Harvard College in 1636. Its stated purpose was: “To train a literate clergy.” Among its mottos were, “Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae” (truth for Christ and Church) and “In Christam Gloriam” (to the glory of Christ). John Harvard donated his library to kick start the theological college. Now, Harvard has hired an atheist as its chief chaplain. And no, this is not a poor joke. As reported by the New York Post, “This spiritual leader doesn’t need a higher power. “Harvard University’s organization of chaplains is getting a new president to coordinate the campus’ Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and assorted other religious communities. Only the new president, 44-year-old Greg Epstein, does not identify with any of those traditional religions himself. “He is an atheist.” But how can an atheist be a university chaplain? Epstein explained to the New York Times, “There is a rising group of people who no longer identify with any religious tradition but still e

Want to become a Chaplain? from Hope Church Australia on Vimeo .

Stained glass window, U. S. Pentagon, honoring the Four Chaplains, USAT Dorchester, 1943 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) A colleague forwarded me a  news article  awhile back written by James Dao of  The New York Times . My friend kept his own comments brief. "This is not a parody," he wrote. I was intrigued. After all, this was the Times , not the  Onion , why would he need to qualify it in that manner? The piece was titled, "Atheists Seek Chaplain Role in the Military." I quickly understood the context of my friend's note. "Strange as it sounds," Dao wrote, "groups representing atheists and secular humanists are pushing for the appointment of one of their own to the chaplaincy , hoping to give voice to what they say is a large—and largely underground—population of nonbelievers in the military." Existing chaplains are generally opposed to the idea, for obvious reasons. If atheism is the absence of religious belief , why would they want som