'Chaplains Under Fire': 4-6-10

A young man from my church became a military chaplain some years ago, and I've admired the work he has done in Iraq, Germany and elsewhere.

In fact, although I'm a pretty strick church-state separationist, if that's the right term, I see nothing wrong with the military using public funds to pay chaplains. They do extraordinarily important work and improve the readiness of our people in uniform to do their jobs. All I ask is that we have a reliable system to make sure that the various religions are fairly represented among the chaplaincy corps.

I mention all this as a prelude to telling you that there's a new documentary out about U.S. military chaplains that will air for the first time tonight at Lincoln Center in New York.

The documentary is called "Chaplains Under Fire," and although I haven't seen it, I have watched a 10-minute clip from it on the Web site to which I've linked you in the paragraph and I've read an admiring comment about it from a scholar I trust.

The screenings scheduled for this film look quite limited. I hope an effort is made to make it much more widely available and perhaps to get it aired on a TV network.

Military chaplains are special folks who perform important work, even while their job raises questions about church-state matters.

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TERRORIST TROUBLE IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS

Here's something I hadn't thought much about -- the ways in which Russia nurtures radical Islam. This column in the Washington Post describes what's happening, and it's quite disturbing. The good news, if any, is that Russia's leadership is beginning to recognize that something must change.

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P.S.: To sponsor me for this year's AIDS Walk Kansas City, which happens on Saturday, April 24, and benefits AIDS service organizations, click here. And thanks.