Asking Your Opinion: The Chaplain Ideal
From: (name withheld)
Date: Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 4:03 PM
Subject: Asking Your Opinion: The Chaplain Ideal
To: <[email protected]>
Dear Mikey and all at MRFF,
While I am a civilian, I nonetheless greatly appreciate what you all do in maintaining the non-partisan nature of our nation’s military. No government institution, least of all one exclusively intended for violence, should ever favor any faith, save for faith in our country’s ideals.
That being said, I’m curious to know what you all think on the nature of chaplains, both at present and what purpose you think they may still hold, especially in the modern day where we must hold ourselves more strongly than our founders to the fairest nature of their ideals.
Would the ideal chaplaincy be a representative from each faith represented in a company, up to including civilian volunteers, if needed? (A friend jokingly suggested that in this deal, athiests should just get $25 gift cards). Or would chaplains serve more akin to the (ideal, not actual) commissar, fostering loyalty to the values of the military and branch, and promoting unit cohesion and esprit de corps? (I’d have suggested that perhaps they could serve a role in ensuring that members of different faiths can work together, but if you can’t play well with others, this probably isn’t the best career path for you.)
Curious to hear your thoughts, and grateful for what you do,
(name withheld)
Response from MRFF Grants & Database Administrator Andy Kasehagen
From: Andy Kasehagen
Subject: Asking Your Opinion: The Chaplain Ideal
Date: December 14, 2023 at 6:15:27 PM MST
To: (name and e mail address withheld)
Cc: Mikey Weinstein <[email protected]>
(name withheld),
Thank you for contacting Mikey Weinstein and MRFF and creating this opportunity to describe an ideal military chaplain in my opinion as a civilian working with Mikey/MRFF for over 13 years now. While I am a life-long civilian, I have many military members in my family (Navy & Marine Corps primarily) as well as a few Christian/Episcopal ministers (…though no chaplains). While my grandfather was not a chaplain, he ministered for many years in rural areas of Texas and Wyoming. Towards the end of World War II, he served both U.S. Military members and German POWs at the Camp Douglas (Wyoming) internment camp. Both my grandfather and one of his daughters (my aunt was also an Episcopal minister) helped my mom raise me to believe in the strength of my Christian faith while being proudly patriotic without feeling threatened by either non-Episcopalians or non-Christians. While I was taught to have a strong conviction in my Christian/Episcopalian faith and traditions, I was also instructed that ABSOLUTELY NO-ONE can possibly have all the answers or speak unerringly on behalf of any ‘higher power’. Anyone proclaiming to do so is committing the greatest of all hypocritical blasphemies…. Regardless of Faith! In essence, I was taught that we seek answers but can never rationally obtain absolute knowledge in matters of personal faith. I have often expressed what I was taught as “Fear No Faith and Stand Against the Inherent Hypocrisy of Fundamentalism (one-true literal ‘holy word’) in All Faiths”.
With that background in mind along with tremendous experience/education provided to me by Mikey, MRFF and our amazingly and increasingly brave clients; here’s my best attempt at expressing what an ideal military chaplain would be at all levels of the U.S. Military structure.Military Chaplains should:
-be a true Theologian and life-long student/teacher of denominations and faiths (always seeking to learn as much as to educate in matters of Faith).
–never seek to proselytize or convert but provide guidance and understanding.
-serve without official authoritative military rank as essentially DoD civilian advisors (…minimize the impact of potentially career destroying proselytizing within the unique military environment).
-truly understand the meaning of the constitutional imperatives of ‘No Religious Tests’ and ‘Church/State Separation’ and our profound Patriotic duty to uphold these imperatives that make us unique! (…and for those religiously myopic minds focusing only on the Constitutional church/state separation language clearly implied in the 1st Amendment… hammer them relentlessly with the explicit language of Article VI, Clause 3 “…but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”)
In closing, it has always been my opinion that the infestation of fundamentalist braying that the U.S. was founded as a “Christian Nation” are also very clearly and un-Patriotically braying that our Founders were fools and idiots since they couldn’t ‘cut-to-the-chase’ and proclaim the U.S. a Christian nation. They knew well what they were doing (and why) in establishing a Secular Democratic Republic. In my opinion, no-one expressed our exceptionally unique nature better than Benjamin Franklin:
James McHenry (1753-1816) was a Maryland delegate to the Constitutional Convention. McHenry records the events of the last day of the convention, September 18, 1787, he wrote: “A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy – A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.” —The journal is at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.
“When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obligated to call for help of the civil power, it’s a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.”–Benjamin Franklin, letter to Richard Price, October 9, 1780
I hope this adequately responds to your inquiry and I thank you once again for this opportunity to ‘organize my thoughts’ on this increasingly crucial topic.
Sincerely,
Andy Kasehagen,
Grants & Database Administrator
Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF)
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Not sure the letter writer will see this – hope they do.
In my opinion the ideal military chaplain is one who can officiate basic services for any of the 200+ registered religions and expressions of non faith in the military. They themselves by the nature of their position must remain neutral.
Sometimes all a person has is their faith. While I don’t want them pushing it on others I won’t deny a human that which they believe to their core makes them human.
I know I don’t get the respect back from the Christian nationalist crowd but that is not the point. Never was.
The ideal military Chaplain? For one-on-one counsel, an atheist, of course!
Completely unbiased, owes no allegiance to any particular religion, objective in problem solving, devoted to the military member, non-denominational, and able to get at the root of a problem in a way that actually helps the service member and his/her career.
Able to deliver comforting words to the living and the dying without lying, and without reliance on the supernatural. Able to communicate with all religious beliefs to provide guidance and counsel.
Able to provide encouragement to the service member based on real abilities rather than supernatural powers that a religious Chaplain might feel inclined to lay claim to!
Chaplains serve in the Armed Forces to ensure the free exercise of a service member’s religious faith is guaranteed — this is our PRIMARY reason for serving. In fact it is the first sentence in our fitness reports. (I am a retired Army chaplain endorsed by the Episcopal Church).
I order to serve a chaplain must hold a Master of Divinity degree, be ordained and endorsed by a recognized faith community. This is in addition to meeting the requirements for commissioning. Our primary duty is to represent our ordaining body. Concurrent with that we are to provide, support and facilitate for other faith communities — I’ve even had a Wiccan congregation at one of my duty stations
The Pentagon officially recognizes a multitude of religious belief systems, including Wicca, Pagans, Humanists, Buddhists, and many more. They issued a document that lists them all. However, these various belief systems are not treated equally.
For example, the Navy approved of a chaplaincy for a well-qualified Humanist, but Vice President Mike Pence and many Republican members of the House and Senate pressured the Navy to rescind that appointment after a group of religious extremists met with Pence at his White House office without disclosing the meeting on the public calendar as required. They argued that chaplains must only represent belief systems based on theism – even though non-theistic belief systems are officially recognized by the Pentagon. And there are Buddhist chaplains. The Navy reversed its decision and still has no humanist chaplain.
George Houston claims chaplains have two primary reasons for serving. One is the free exercise of faith but then goes on to say representation of his ordaining body. In his case, Episcopalian. So which is it?
I think that’s the problem in the chaplaincy, the inherent bias baked in to a chaplain’s preferred religious flavor of proselytization!
I propose an alternative reason for the chaplaincy. It’s to keep you “in the fight!”
A war time message from a chaplain is to keep you fighting, when you have doubts, or are scared, or have questions about your own survival.
With record numbers of non-affiliated joining the ranks of our military, it’s time for a humanist billet in the chaplaincy.
Christianity, by its own admission, is waning, at 63% of the general population currently, down 30% from just three decades ago, projected to be 49% by mid-century and 35% by 2070. Not fast enough imo.
While reliance on the supernatural might keep a military member in the fight, the reliance on the military member’s own self-reliance might be more affective in saving lives.
All religious leadership roles seek to first, preserve the brand, support the franchise, and eliminate the competition. It’s human nature to be supportive of your own team. After all, you’ve bought into it. You’re not going to work to prove you’ve joined the wrong team, that the advertising you fell for led you astray, that you were wrong.
Much of any advertising is just as focused on reaffirmation of your choice as it is on selling the product. No “buyer’s remorse” the goal.
A humanist leadership role, like Servant Leadership, supports the well being and self-reliance of the individual, leading, imo, to a more productive life and greater well being – for all.
It’s time the military recognizes that Humanist Chaplains are a force multiplier, especially considering the rise of the “Nones” in our military ranks.
Work to be the best version of yourself in this life rather than worry about what awaits you in the next! You’ll be happier, lead a more productive life, and everyone around you will benefit!