A tribute to the American military chaplain

By Stephen Mansfield

America's military chaplains occupy what must surely be among the most unique positions in the world. Theirs is a universe of contradictions. They are a holdover from an earlier age of faith, much like congressional chaplains or the words "In God We Trust" on American coins or religious inscriptions on the official buildings in the nation's capitol.

Clearly, the modern understanding of the First Amendment would never have given them birth. Yet the religious nature of their nation's enemy, the moral crises of America's soldiers, and the spiritual passions of the new generation at war may make them more essential to America's military efforts today than ever before.

The inconsistencies do not stop there. They wear a uniform but cannot carry a weapon. They receive a check from the state to do the work of the church in a society deathly afraid of the mixture of church and state. They can preach God's will for the individual soul but may not preach God's will for the war. They are ordained by a single religious denomination to preach its truth but as chaplains must tend every possible religious persuasion.

The religious nature of their calling often works against them. If a chaplain is deployed with his National Guard unit, every man he serves is guaranteed a job to come home to. Yet if that chaplain was a pastor in a church when he was sent off to war, he is not guaranteed he can return to his job. The government he serves cannot pressure a church to employ that chaplain again. It is a violation of the separation of church and state.

He is supposed to tend to the needs of soldiers at war. Yet he is not supposed to get too close to the fighting. The military is concerned that if a chaplain accompanies soldiers into battle, the soldiers will be distracted from their mission out of concern for the safety of the chaplain, whom they often love and who is required to be unarmed. Yet the biggest complaint about chaplains from soldiers in the field is that they "don't cross the wire with us, and so they don't know how we feel."

In fact, many of these chaplains are models of toughness. Colonel Gene Fowler was the head chaplain in Iraq through 2003, serving in the 3rd Corps. Refusing to let the challenge go unanswered and hating the thought that, once again, a clergyman should be viewed as a wimp, Chaplain Fowler went to Ranger school and became an honored member of the Airborne fraternity. Now he wears the Ranger tab and Airborne wings on his uniform, yet when he jumps from a plane, he does so without a weapon. He is there to fight battles of the spirit.

Chaplain Fowler and the hundreds of other chaplains who serve with him today stand in an honored tradition that reaches back through the centuries. The literature of the ancient world is filled with stories of priests leading the way in battle. It was a time when war was understood as a contest of gods. Sometimes the actual fighting would have to wait until each tribe's priest had adequately insulted the other tribe's god, for only then was it proper to attack.

Today, the chaplain's role is defined only in terms of the personal, the spiritual and the ceremonial. "I want to talk about how to fight like men and women of God," one chaplain stationed in Iraq said, "but I feel like I can only pray at ceremonies, lead chapel services and counsel soldiers about their problems. Our nation is in a fight for its life, but I can't stand as the priests did in the Bible and speak to the fight. It's like I can only pray "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayers, when I want to pray, "Lord rise up against Your enemies' prayers."

Today, the American chaplains' corps is as fine as the nation has ever put in the field. Each chaplain has joined the military voluntarily. Each is well educated. Most are deeply devoted to those they serve and now see their ministry in a post-9/11 world as a vital service to their nation and their God.

Stephen Mansfield is the best-selling author of The Faith of George W. Bush, as well as a former pastor and the director of a research and publishing firm, the Mansfield Group (www.mansfieldgroup.com). This article was adapted from Mansfield's book, The Faith of the American Soldier.''