Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on something very dear to my heart. The duty of a military chaplain is to help guide the hearts and minds of the soldiers that he serves with or she serves with, and that comes from a perspective of a background of their own faith, but also the respect of the faiths of others that they serve with, making sure that all feel a responsibility to not only do their job, their mission, but also to themselves, that they are being all that they can be in their own careers, in their own missions. But just again, here we go again, as the old saying goes. Recently, in my district, an Army chaplain gave a suicide awareness and prevention brief as required by the Army and received a letter of concern in his official record. A letter of concern is a means to admonish a soldier's actions. The chaplain did not infringe upon anyone's rights, did not receive any complaints from anyone being briefed that day; but after the chaplain's actions were reviewed, he was considered to have not violated any Army regulation or policy, yet his negative counseling remains, simply because at a time in which our society is dealing with soldiers and airmen who are struggling with depression and struggling with suicide rates, he had the audacity to share his own experience with depression and how his faith helped him. What is a chaplain supposed to do except to share from his own heart in a way that is encouraging to others whether they have faith or no faith?…”