Dr. Michael Milton

The senior chaplain came to me for counseling, struggling with how he would face the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT). I put my hand on his shoulder and looked him square in the eyes, "Chaplain, this nation needs you to stand strong for your convictions now more than ever. It is not time to retreat, but to minister as the pastor to our military that God has called you to be."

While budget battles rage in DC, radiation leaks in Japan, and the Middle East rumbles with uncertainty, the U.S. military has quietly but dutifully began following orders to train for the probable repeal of DADT, the policy which disallows military service to avowed homosexuals.

The repeal of DADT (which cannot be initiated until 60 days after the President, Defense Secretary and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs certify that lifting the ban won't hurt the military's ability to fight) remains a decisive story. But the 24-hour news cycle on this one is up. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and guardsmen are on their own. Yet this story is not over. At the center of the story are now chaplains.

Chaplains are the unheralded heroes of the military. They are, to use Army language, "force multipliers." Providing religious services is only one important task they do. Chaplains are there to counsel all military members, guide the commander about world religions, and ensure that all have the opportunity to follow their religion, even when it is different from their own.

Tax time is upon us. Opinions concerning taxation range from Coolidge's estimation that "Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery;" to FDR's remark that "Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society."

Will Rogers said, "The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has." ??Yale historian, Dr. Harry S. Stout, wrote that the American system of government was enormously influenced by biblical sermons on political thought, including taxes. Stout wrote in The New England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial New England:

The public disintegration of a television and film celebrity like Charlie Sheen is not only tragic and sad, but tragic and sad because it reflects the core sickness of an entertainment-saturated, celebrity-worshipping culture.

Sheen is as much or more a news item for his public rantings as he is for his acting. "But then again we all love a really good show."

This is what the late Neil Postman wrote about in his landmark work on communication, Amusing Ourselves to Death. Charlie Sheen has become a symbol of the title of that book and, tragically, a living lesson of what can happen to anyone who lives life without the God-ordained values that give meaning to life: faith, family, and self sacrifice.

Irene Dunne, perhaps "the greatest actress never to win an academy award" was the exact opposite of Charlie Sheen and thus the precise answer that we need to look to in entertainment today. Though few, except old movie buffs, know her name today this enormously gifted actress was as exceptional in a romantic comedy with Cary Grant in The Awful Truth as she was playing a Norwegian immigrant mother in the heart tugging I Remember Mama. She made the patriotic films like, The White Cliffs of Dover and moving dramatic portrayals of heroism like her film with Spencer Tracey, A Guy Named Joe. She gave an unforgettable performance in Penny Serenade, which is remembered as one of the greatest films ever made by George Stevens.