After 25-years of commissioned service
as an U.S. Army Chaplain now in retired bliss, I witness the Department of Defense considering a
greater oxymoron than ‘military intelligence’ – it is the ‘atheist chaplain.’
My well-respected friend, Ron Crews
(Executive Director of the Chaplain
Alliance for Religious Liberty and retired U.S. Army Chaplain) calls it a
contradiction in terms. Here is his take
on atheist chaplains as posted at townhall.com –
“Amid all the changes that have been
heaped upon the U.S. military since the repeal of the so-called ‘don’t ask,
don’t tell’ policy, a push by a small number of people to have the military’s
chaplaincy broadened to include atheist chaplains has now entered the battlefield.
This push is wrong for our military on
three fronts.
First, it is wrong foundationally
because an atheist cannot fulfill the role of a chaplain. From the time George Washington founded the
chaplain corps on July 29, 1775, until now, the ministry of the chaplaincy has
been ‘bringing God to soldiers and soldiers to God.’ It is both a duty and a ministry, and if you
take away the ministry aspect to let atheists play at fulfilling a chaplain’s
duty, you necessarily undercut a key reason for the chaplaincy’s existence. How would the Army chaplain’s motto, ‘For God and
Country,’ need to be changed to accommodate atheist chaplains in the ranks? Would ‘For [nothing beyond this world] and
Country’ work? Or would the motto simply
become, ‘For Country’? Clearly, the
elimination of God renders the motto meaningless.
Secondly, adding atheists to the
chaplaincy is pragmatically wrong because atheists constitute such a small
number of service personnel to begin with. In 2011, only 9,400 of the 1.4 million service
members identified themselves as atheist. That means atheists constituted less than 1
percent of our fighting forces at that time (about .67 percent). Why should a chaplain corps founded in 1775
and continued to this day be turned upon its head (and ultimately destroyed) to
please less than 1 percent of our fighting forces who already have easy access
to counseling options through a number of channels? And though this may come as a surprise to
some, one of those options is the chaplaincy in its existing form.
Chaplains today provide resources to
any who ask for help. No chaplain will
try to force an atheist to believe. Chaplains
will serve with grace all that come to them for help. If a chaplain cannot personally meet a need,
they are taught to work with a person to find the resources that will meet the
need. Chaplains have been doing this
from the beginning.
Earlier this year, Rep. Andrew Roberts
(D-N.J.) proposed an amendment to the 2014 defense bill that would add
atheists, humanists and ‘ethical culturalists’ to the corps of chaplains. Fortunately, this proposal was defeated by a
vote of 43-18, but those who supported it are not giving up. With all the talk of ‘change,’ ‘equality,’ and
‘inclusivity’ marking political conversation in the 21st century, I fear we
tend to see change just for the sake of change as being a good thing. Moreover, I am afraid we are losing our
ability to recognize the genuine differences that exist between certain
things—like a belief in God and a rejection of God’s existence—and instead we
are made to feel dirty or outdated for declining to agree that all convictions
are equal.
The chaplain corps exists for a
purpose that is outside of politics; it exists for the souls of those who
constitute our fighting forces. And for
those souls, our purpose remains singular: We bring God to soldiers and soldiers
to God.”
Amen, Ron! Amen!
Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
No comments:
Post a Comment