"Desert Storm & Prison Chaplaincy"
by
Senior Chaplain Michael Mantooth
"What
do you suppose General Schwarzkopf would have told President George Bush
if he was given the order to use unpaid volunteers to fight Desert
Storm? And also he would have to raise his own money to buy
equipment and ammunition. This may sound silly, but the job we
have to do as chaplains is so huge that it is inconceivable that the
state would expect us to do it with the budget and resources allocated
to the chaplaincy. Everybody seems to agree that the chaplaincy is
providing a needed service, but so far no one wants to equip us to do
the kind of job that our mission calls for us to do.... "In order to effectively
fill the chaplaincy ... the agency is going to need to offer
compensation to the demands.... The military has equipped its
chaplaincy in such a fashion. They would have six chaplains, each
with a chaplain assistant, to do the job that two or three chaplains and
one SSI are faced with in the agency. We need to begin the new millennium
with a task force that is fully equipped to meet the challenges of
correctional chaplaincy. You have my full support." ***
Chaplain Mantooth
has a 220 hour Bachelor of Science in animal science, a 90 hour Master
of Divinity from TCU, 2,000 hours of clinical pastoral education, 18
years as a Army Chaplain, 5 years in TDCJ (making the same salary that a
potential 19 year old with a GED & 1 year exp. in
programming).
*** We can hardly add to that, but this: the Army is populated today with of our brightest and healthiest persons. On the other hand, a "Prison" Chaplain faces some of the most needy individuals on earth, some of which are in fact the meanest, nastiest, most violent and troubled on earth, who themselves are not free to access free-world sources, who are in a more controlled and interpersonally hostile and paperwork driven environment. A book could be written here and will be written as this site develops.
See: U.S.
Army Chaplaincy History and
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e-mail us: Parity@PreciousHeart.net
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U.S. Army Chaplaincy Constitutional Defense
under the Chaplain Documents Section