Saint Martin's Cloak

I gave this invocation at my command's formal holiday (aka Christmas) dinner on December 14, 2012. * * * The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. O Lord, you have indeed brought light into our lives. The joy that we feel tonight as we gather together around these tables is but a taste of the good things you pour into our lives. I thank you at this moment for the gifts of food and friendship, for the work that you enable us to do and for the times of rest that refresh us. We are grateful for the promise that this season holds, and I pray for those in our military family who will find merriment difficult this year. For those who are grieving the loss of loved ones. For those who are separated by deployment away from friends and family. And for those still carrying around the wounds of war, whether visible or invisible. Bless us all, I pray, not with presents and packages wrapped up with bows, but by an...

Praying at military ceremonies and other secular events is the subject of considerable public controversy. Some see it as a form of civil religion, with the state coopting religious faith to lend divine legitimacy the empire. Others see the opposite, with public prayers establishing the dominant religion's cultural and political hegemony. Christianity, of course, is the dominant religion within the United States, so the argument concerns both religion in general and Christianity in particular. One point of view posits that public religious events are evidence of the church's subservience to the state. Others posit that they are evidence of Christianity's dominance of the state. Furthermore, some see Christian dominance as proper, giving God his rightful place in society, while others see it as improper, with every civic expression of religion being oppressive to the minority or distorting the essence of true faith. You will find advocates of each position shouting at each ...