Humanist Chaplain Journey

Jeffery Voigt and Unofficial Best Beard Class of 1987 30th Reunion Photo courtesy of Jeffery Voigt The month of September was a busy time for me so I was not able to post. I wanted to share what happened.  I found most of the documentation I needed to request my discharge be upgraded. I scanned in all of the documentation and sent it off to the Outserve/SLDN (Servicemembers Legal Defense Network) in hopes that they could help me. Included were the letters of recommendations from the Brigade Commander, Deputy Brigade Commander and Division Commander of the unit that I was attached too during the Persian Gulf War. It was after the fighting over that my discharge was initiated.   I contacted the former Deputy Brigade Commander and asked him if he would be willing to update his recommendation from General to Honorable Discharge . He is now a retired 4-star General and it is my hope is that his recommendation would carry some weight with the review board. Gratefully h...

Photo: David J. Phillip, AP Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images Photo: Harris County Sherrif's Office Photo: Courtesy Muslim Youth USA Take a look at these photos or type in Hurricane Harvey Rescue into Google images and ask yourself what do you see? Do you see Caucasians, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Asian-Americans, Christians, Jews, Muslims , Atheists, Sikhs, Buddhists, Illegal Immigrants, Native born Americans or do you just see Human Beings responding to a horrific natural event? What I see is Human beings regardless of race, religion, legal status and or creed pulling together to rescue and comfort other human beings. This morning I was looking at this story ( Storm Images Shows America at It's Best  ) in USA Today on my iPad sparked a feeling in me that could only be described as spiritual. Not spiritual in any religious sense or new age sense, but spiritual in a Humanist sense. What is Humanism? The American Humanist Associat...

Persian Gulf War Driving a tractor during potato harvest after discharge This post and the previous post have been the most difficult as I had to retype two documents. Both documents were originally written over twenty-five years ago. They are poorly written and by the pdf link for this post  End of a Dream.pdf  you can see that they were written on a  Macintosh Plus  and printed on an  Apple ImageWriter II dot matrix printer. You will also notice that they are written in the third person as I thought that would help me detach and better understand what I was writing. You will see that this is an especially different view point from the story told in Ask and Tell book from the  Turning Point . These were written at the time I was a fully committed Christian and reflect my thinking a the time. I have tried to keep the bad grammar and spelling in so that it accurately reflects document as first written. This second post was written during...

Promotion to 1LT This post and the next post have been the most difficult as I had to retype two documents. Both documents were originally written over twenty-five years ago. They are poorly written and by the pdf link for this post Age 24 1989.pdf  you can see that they were written on a  Macintosh Plus  and printed on an  Apple ImageWriter II dot matrix printer. You will also notice that they are written in the third person as I thought that would help me detach and better understand what I was writing. You will see that they are a different view point from the story told in Turning Point . These were written at the time I was a fully committed Christian and reflect my thinking a the time. I have tried to keep the bad grammar and spelling in so that it accurately reflects document as first written. This first post was written two years before the first Persian Gulf War. All of the familiar words and feelings came back to Mark again, he done the one th...

I want to acknowledge that this journey that I am trying to document will potentially be a long journey. Last week I had a reminder while I was listening to one of my favorite podcast 'Humanize Me' by Bart Campolo who interviewed Jason Callahan. Jason is the first person recognized as a Humanist Chaplain.  Humanize Me Episode 218 As noted on The Humanist Society  website Endorsement by the Humanist Society does not entitle a humanist chaplain to a paid chaplain position at an institution.  Any given institute may require volunteers or paid staff to have professional certifications, whether related to chaplaincy, counseling or other credentials. The society endorsement affirms 1) the individual can authentically represent humanism and 2) the individual is ready to serve according to professional standards within and outside the humanist community. Board of Chaplaincy Certification Inc. Standards for Board and Associate Certified Humanist Chaplain: B...

The turning point where I started to really question my faith and Christianity began while station in Germany but came to a head while I was serving in the Persian Gulf war. Mark Landes and a captured Russian T72 tank I am not going to type my story, as I relayed my story to Steve Estes as part of a collection of LGBTQ Veteran stories he was gathering for a book he was writing called Ask & Tell . The link takes you to a pdf copy of my story from that book. The transcript of the interview and a digital recording of the conversation is now part of the Veterans History Project digital collection at the Library of Congress. If you feel like torturing yourself here is the link to the digital collection:  Veterans History Project Digital collection . Besides, the impact that my homosexuality had on my life and if you read the transcripts or listen to the interview, you will notice another issue I face on a daily basis, and that is my memory. I have one of the most abysmal ...

My life goals prior to my Junior Year of High School changed when I was nominated to go to the American Legion Boy's State the summer between my Junior and Senior year. I was reminded that attending Boy's State counted towards possible admission to a Service Academy. Short story long, I ended up being accepted and attending the United States Military Academy at West Point. So attending ORU and going into the ministry was swapped for attending West Point and starting a military career. That did not dampen my Christian faith.  Both my roommate's comments describing me as well as my activities listed above my picture, you can see that I was deeply involved in Christian activities. Besides the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) the remainder of my activities were Christian based. The UN Council was supposed to be the VN or Vida Nueva Council which was a retreat held twice a school year. I attended it all four years and my Junior and Senior year I was ...