Religion and the military: Source of comfort, point of controversy

Posted on October 29th, 2008

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religion-and-militaryThe first decade of the 21st century has been a period of great challenges for the U.S. military, with forces engaged in first Afghanistan and then Iraq for most of that time. Religion is proving to be a source of both comfort and controversy for the troops as they grapple with these demands.

Comfort has taken the shape of chaplains, who work to feed the spiritual hungers of service members both on and off the battlefield. Today’s chaplains face their own daunting tasks, though: They must meet increasingly diverse religious needs, as well as provide an engaged and compassionate response to the physical and spiritual trauma caused by troops’ repeated, protracted deployments.

Religion emerges as a point of controversy in the armed forces in the realms of expression and accommodation, both in day-to-day military life and in the service academies that train America’s military officers. Allegations of proselytizing at the Air Force Academy, for example, spawned an investigation in 2005 and led to recommendations dealing with religious boundaries and insensitivities. Similar situations have emerged more recently concerning religious pressure at the other service academies.

Individual cases within the military are also coming to the fore. While each is different, the cases raise the common question of how best to accommodate the expression of minority belief systems, from nonliturgical Christians to Wiccans to the nonreligious, a group that is growing in society and the military.

Efforts to address these needs and conflicts present a rich vein of story possibilities. ReligionLink guides reporters to the background and sources for tackling the subject.

Why it matters

The military is an important social institution that reflects societal changes. As religious diversity increases in the country, the need to balance free religious expression with accommodation of differences will grow more pressing inside as well as outside the military. Moreover, whatever happens in the military also has consequences for the rest of society; when soldiers come home, they bring their experiences, for better and for worse, back with them.

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Angles for reporters

Stories about the military are easy to localize but hard to report. Many of these stories are under the radar, because media access to the military is limited. You’ll likely be routed through public affairs for clearance to speak to anyone on active duty. On the other hand, military and veterans facilities are numerous and widespread. Here are some angles:

  • What kind of spiritual support is available in your community for military members and their families?
  • If your community is religiously diverse, is that reflected and accommodated at any local veterans or military facilities?
  • How are congregations responding to local veterans?
  • Talk to active-duty military families about the spiritual resources they are using while their loved ones are away.
  • If you have a veterans medical facility, what are chaplains seeing among the veterans they work with?
  • If you have local residents attending the service academies, what has been their experience of the religious climate there?
  • Some congregations include clergy who are members of the armed forces reserves. Reliance on reserves during the protracted conflicts in the Middle East has taken away some clergy for periods of time. These clergy have a unique perspective on issues of war and peace.
  • Check with local non-Christian religious groups. Are there families among them with members in the military? What has been the experience of those service members?
Regional sources
Northwest Northeast Northwest West Southwest Midwest South Southeast East





National sources

U.S. Military

SERVICE ACADEMIES

  • The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., trains officers for the Air Force. The academy had been involved in controversy over charges of proselytizing by evangelical Christians, prompting an investigation in 2005. The director of communications is Johnny Whitaker; the director of public affairs is Maj. Brett Ashworth. Contact 719-333-1110.
  • The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., trains officers for the Army. Contact public affairs, 845-938-2006.
  • The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., trains officers for the Navy. Contact media relations, 410-293-2292.

Note: Because military sources generally don’t talk to the media without prior clearance, call the Department of Defense public affairs office, 703-697-5135.

CHAPLAINCY OFFICES

  • The Armed Forces Chaplains Board makes recommendations to the secretary of defense and the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness on religious, ethical and moral matters for the military services and on policy matters, including protection of the free exercise of religion. Contact 703-697-9015.
  • The Air Force Chief of Chaplains is Maj. Gen. Cecil Richardson. Read an Aug. 8, 2008, Air Force Times interview with him. Contact the U.S. Air Force Chaplain Service, 202-767-4577.
  • The Army Chief of Chaplains Office is headed by Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Douglas L. Carver. Contact 703-695-1133.
  • The Navy Chaplain Corps maintains a list of Navy chaplain offices. Marine Corps chaplains are administered within the Navy chaplaincy. Contact the Navy Chief of Chaplains, 703-614-4043.
  • The Army Chaplain Center and School at Fort Jackson, S.C., trains and supports Army chaplains and chaplain assistants. Training for chaplains in all branches of the armed services will be located in this facility by 2010. Contact Chaplain (Col.) Samuel J.T. Boone, 803-751-8900.
  • The Army National Guard has had a shortage of chaplains but has managed to cut the shortfall in half through aggressive recruiting. Contact through public affairs at the National Guard Bureau, which also includes the U.S. Air Guard, in Arlington, Va., 703-607-2584.
  • Also contact chaplains on a state-by-state basis.

CHAPLAINCY-RELATED ORGANIZATIONS / PROGRAMS

OTHER SUPPORT GROUPS

RIGHTS GROUPS

LEGAL EXPERTS

OTHERS

  • Stefani E. Barner is the author of Faith and Magick in the Armed Forces: A Handbook for Pagans in the Military. She has been a practicing witch for 15 years and a military wife for 10. Contact her in the Detroit area, hipmomma3913@aol.com.
  • Andrew Carroll is the editor of Grace Under Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War, a collection of letters written during wartime culled from the Legacy Project, an effort to preserve correspondence during wars from American armed forces members. Contact Carroll through his publisher Random House, 212-782-9798.
  • Martin L. Cook is a philosophy professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. He has written and spoken extensively on the subject of military ethics. Read his address “Religion and the US Military,” delivered Jan. 25, 2007, at the International Symposium on Military Ethics in Springfield, Va. Contact 719-333-8664.
  • Jocelyn Green is the author of the 2009 book Faith Deployed: Daily Encouragement for Military Wives. Her husband is a member of the U.S. Coast Guard. Contact Jocelyn@jocelyngreen.com.
  • Kristin Henderson is an author, Quaker and wife of a Navy chaplain. She wrote While They’re at War: The True Stories of American Families on the Homefront. She currently lives in Japan; contact kh@kristinhenderson.com.
  • Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff is a consultant on interfaith values and interreligious affairs, a retired Navy chaplain and officer, former special assistant for values and vision to the secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force, and a former national director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee. He was part of the team that helped revise programs and policies of religious support at the Air Force Academy and draft religious guidelines for all Air Force personnel. His writings include “Prayers That Hurt: Public Prayer in Interfaith Settings,” which is used in training for military and civilian groups. Contact resnicoff@aol.com.
  • David R. Segal is a sociology professor and director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland. Mady Wechsler Segal, also a sociology professor, is associate director of the center. They authored a 2004 report (see Page 25) that includes religious preferences in the military. Contact David Segal, 301-405-6439, dsegal@socy.umd.edu; contact Mady Segal, 301-405-6433, msegal@socy.umd.edu.

Background

For additional sources, see ReligionLink’s guide to church-state experts and organizations.

DOCUMENTS, REPORTS

ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS

Regional sources

Check a list of veterans’ facilities chaplains for local contacts.

IN THE NORTHEAST

  • Greg Epstein is a humanist chaplain at Harvard University. Read his July 25, 2008, essay (posted by the Newsweek/Washington Post site On Faith) about the need for more military chaplains for humanist and atheists. Contact 617-495-5986.
  • Jonathan Shay is a Boston psychiatrist who specializes in combat trauma and is the author of Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming. He won a 2007 MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” for his work. Contact him through publisher Scribner, 212-632-4915.

IN THE EAST

  • Carol Barner-Barry is a professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She wrote Contemporary Paganism: Minority Religions in a Majoritarian America and can talk about the First Amendment’s freedom of religion clause and how it affects minority religions. Contact 410-455-2064, cbbarry@umbc.edu.
  • Christopher J. Eberle is an assistant professor of philosophy at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. He has written and spoken extensively on religion and culture, and can speak to issues of religious expression and diversity within the military. Contact 410-293-6018.
  • The nondenominational organization Guideposts in Pawling, N.Y., which publishes Guideposts magazine, is expanding its military outreach. Chaplain (retired Maj.Gen.) G.T. Gunhus is advising the organization on its new program. Contact through John Baroody at DJG Marketing, 212-370-9700 ext. 118.

IN THE SOUTHEAST

  • James M. Dunn is Resident Professor of Christianity and Public Policy at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs for 19 years and is frequently quoted on church-state issues. Contact 336-758-5121 (department), dunnj@wfu.edu.
  • Grace Kao is assistant professor of religious studies at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg. A specialist in ethics, she has written about prayer in the military. Contact 540-231-5805, gkao@vt.edu.

IN THE SOUTH

  • Wilfred McClay is a history professor and holds the SunTrust Bank Chair of Excellence in Humanities at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He is also a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Contact 423-425-5202.
  • Thomas R. McCoy is a professor emeritus of law at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., who specializes in the freedom of speech and religion provisions of the First Amendment. Contact 615-322-2711.

IN THE MIDWEST

  • Doris Bergen is an associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and editor of The Sword of the Lord: Military Chaplains From the First to the Twenty-First Century. Contact 574-631-7189, Bergen.4@nd.edu.
  • Dale R. Herspring is a political science professor at Kansas State University in Manhattan. He is an expert on the military and society. Contact 785-532-6839, falka@ksu.edu.
  • The Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society has its headquarters at Loyola University in Chicago. Member scholars in the social and behavioral sciences specialize in the study of the relationship between armed forces and civil society. John Allen Williams is chair and president. Contact 773-508-2930.
  • The Rev. Henry T. “Tim” Vakoc, a Catholic priest of the archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul, suffered a severe brain injury when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in Iraq on May 29, 2004. He continues his recovery. Contact through his family, padretim92@msn.com.

IN THE SOUTHWEST

  • Derek H. Davis is dean of the college of humanities and of the graduate school of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas. He was formerly director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University and is an expert on church-state relations and religious freedoms. Contact 254-295-4143, ddavis@umhb.edu.
  • David E. Fitzkee teaches law at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., and has written and spoken about spiritual diversity and the law. Contact 719-333-3680 (department).
  • D. Michael Lindsay, an assistant professor of sociology at Rice University, wrote about evangelicals and the American military in the winter 2007 Journal of Political and Military Sociology. Contact 713-348-5511, mlindsay@rice.edu.
  • John C. Loving of Raleigh, N.C., is a Vietnam veteran who was belatedly awarded the Silver Star in 2007 for his service there. He is the author of A Soldier’s Faith: Spiritual Lessons From the Battlefield. Contact 918-844-1969, jcloving@nc.rr.com.
  • Charles W. Sasser is a former Green Beret and combat correspondent and author of the 2008 book God in the Foxhole, a collection of storiesof members of the military who used their faith to persevere in combat. He lives in Chouteau, Okla. Contact him through publisher Simon & Schuster, 212-698-2812, or charles@charlessasser.com.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST

  • Alan E. Brownstein holds the Boochever and Bird Endowed Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality at the University of California, Davis, law school. He specializes in constitutional law. He edited The Establishment of Religion Clause: Its Constitutional History and the Contemporary Debate. Contact 530-752-2586.
  • Jesse H. Choper is the Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at the University of California, Berkeley. A constitutional law specialist, he wrote Securing Religious Liberty: Principles for Judicial Interpretation of the Religion Clauses. Contact 510-642-0339.
  • Mark David Hall is the Herbert Hoover Distinguished Professor of Political Science at George Fox University in Newberg, Ore., and an expert on church-state issues. Contact 503-554-2674.

McCormick Foundation These seminars are made possible by a generous grant from the McCormick Foundation.

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