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Responding to my post on military chaplains post-DADT, commenter Sandra Brown writes:

First of all you are missing one thing, the clergy takes
an oath before God to uphold God’s message. Religiously speaking this is suppose to be their first commitment. A clergy member is sworn to this or their own salvation is void!  It
has nothing to do with the military only those who take their oaths SERIOUSLY.

In regards to your reference to “render unto
caesar,” in the clergy setting, rendering unto God is first and
foremost!  Stop misquoting the bible. That was
not the intent of the quote by Jesus Christ. Simply it meant to pay taxes, or obey the law, rendering unto
God is to follow God’s guidelines for ministers. Remember, clergy are suppose to be set apart
for God’s work Titus 1:7-16. When
crossed between God and man, the clergy are suppose to choose God!   

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But that’s a catch twenty-two situation because the
military will tell them to preach acceptance not repent!

Let me try once more. The government does not compel clergy to serve in the military, and if a chaplain finds that he or she cannot square God’s teachings (as he or she understands them) with the rules of military chaplaincy, then he or she should not serve. Consider a military chaplain who comes to believe that his oath to God requires him to preach that war is always wrong. The government is entitled to prevent him from doing so, and if he finds this intolerable, he should resign his commission. If there are chaplains who insist that they cannot serve without publicly attacking some other military policy, whether that be denouncing other faiths or condemning gays serving openly, then they should resign their commissions as well.

The military hires chaplains in order to enable other personnel to have access to religious services. And that certainly means providing an authentic version of their faith (whatever it happens to be) to those who seek it. But chaplains do not have the right to turn the armed services into a mission field, simply because they personally believe that God has ordered them (for example) to carry out the Great Commission.