Unfinished Business

From the Census Bureau:

The Census Bureau counts students where they attend college or university through a variety of methods.

• Students residing in group quarters, such as a dormitory, residence hall, sorority or fraternity house, will receive census forms between April 1 and May 21, 2010. Each student should complete and return a form. Residence Life and Housing Staff work with Census Bureau employees to distribute and collect these forms.
• In March 2010, census forms will be delivered or mailed by street name and house or apartment to students living off campus. All students living at a particular off-campus address are considered part of one household, so only one form should be completed. It should include information about all the people living at that address. The form should be returned in the U.S. mail envelope provided.
• Students who commute to school and reside full-time at their parents’ or guardians’ household address should be counted on their parents’ or guardians’ household form.

The Army Chaplaincy has an official journal, which last year addressed a topic that came up in class:

The most publicly unpalatable aspect of chaplain ministry is its fairly recent support of fringe spiritual or religious groups which stand well apart from the mainstream religious life of America. One group is Wicca (i.e. witches). Despite the congressional grand-standing associated with the Army chaplains’ support of Wiccan soldier worship at Fort Hood, Texas in 1999, this author has no reason to believe that the Army Chaplaincy will not have at least one Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan, or Satanist in its future ranks. The Constitution’s protection of religious freedom and simultaneous proscription of “an establishment of religion” certainly places a legal and moral obligation upon the Government to provide for the free exercise of all religious beliefs, not just those acceptable to certain elected officials. This is the central rationale for installation chaplains’ accommodation and support of Wiccan and other groups on military bases. In the case of all four groups mentioned above, the traditional monotheism of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is absent from their belief systems. They may choose to serve Patria, but certainly not Deo.