By Peter J. Smith
CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo, May 28, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – There are three wooden crosses by the right side of Peacekeeper’s Chapel, but where they will end up after the US Army removes them from a Kosovo base, Heaven only knows.
According to a report by WorldNetDaily, high-ranking US Army personnel have secretly discussed and approved plans to remove, and possibly destroy, the three crosses standing on the exterior grounds of Peacekeeper’s Chapel, which serves US soldiers stationed at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. The crosses will be removed within the next few weeks, and there were no indications of plans to notify soldiers of the decision at the time of the WND report.
Lt. Col William Jenkins, 35th Infantry Division’s Kosovo Force 9 command chaplain, told WND that the removal of the crosses will put the chapel into conformity with long-standing US Army regulations and policies. One such regulation reads, “Distinctive religious symbols, such as crosses, crucifixes, the Star of David, menorah, and other religious symbols, will not be affixed or displayed permanently on the chapel exterior or grounds.” (Army Reg. 165-1, 13-3.d)
To further justify the Army’s actions, WND reported that Jenkins also cited the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right of every American to the free exercise of religion.
However, the Army officers voted that taking the crosses down in the name of the “free exercise of religion” might go better with the troops if it were billed instead as a “relandscaping” project.
The officers plan to replace the crosses with a stone monument engraved with the chapel’s name and the crest of US Army Chaplain Corps. The Army also intends to complement their “relandscaping” project with a redecorating project that will remove from the chapel a memorial plaque dedicated to fallen US Chaplain Gordon Oglesby, who perished serving in Kosovo, because it violates a policy against naming a chapel after a soldier.
Billing the plan to remove, and possibly destroy, the crosses as “relandscaping” may not go as well with US soldiers at Camp Bondsteel as US army officers may hope. In fact, the sudden implementation of their clandestine plans may strike US soldiers stationed there as a completely disingenuous move.
One soldier told WND he was disturbed by what he perceived as a double standard, since the US military ejected a US sniper from Iraq for desecrating a Quran in target practice, but was entirely willing to discard symbols sacred to Christians.
“It is very discouraging as a Christian soldier to see our Army punish him for destroying a Quran, but then it pays a private company to destroy some crosses,” the soldier said. “I feel it is a slap in the face to me, my Lord and my freedom.”