Women Chaplains?

Mikey…

Reading your Nov. newsletter, I followed up and checked out the Cadence group. Since they reject women’s ministry, as an office of leadership, what do they do about women Chaplains? If they do not accept women Chaplains, how can they function at any institution where there are women Chaplains assigned? It seems to me that their attitudes regarding women would make them unsuitable to partner with military religious groups..this sort of attitude is a large part of why these groups are problematical. They are not an assistance to the military chaplain Corps, but they are a preemption of it. I see this as ultimately what is happening with the SPIRE situation at the USAFA. There was one sentence about we have chaplains, why do we have all these other groups coming on campus? That is very telling. At the Academies, as long as cadets/midshipmen have access to worship as required by their faith community (Ie, HIgh Holy Days and Holy Week/Easter, etc, as well as weekly worship) the primary purpose of the four years spent at the Academies is to make the students outstanding military officers, prepared to lead troops effectively in completing the military missions assigned, not to prepare students for ministry. That’s not the job of the Academies; that is the job of Churches either before and after, as lay people, or in seminaries to professional ministerial leadership.

I think, until we get back to the requirement that military Chaplains MUST have an MDiv, or its equivalent from a resident, accredited Seminary of at least three years, post BA and preferably with a year of additional internship as part of this training, and with endorsement from a denomination having ordained clergy and an appropriate oversight structure, and with three years post Seminary, ordained experience in parish ministry, we will have major problems.

When we had Seminaries preparing men (and lately, women) for military Chaplaincy, as a specialized form of agency ministry, with residential theological study, as distinct from online and diploma mill training, we did not have a major problem with chaplains who had no understanding of collegial ministry that could work with others. When we also had a Chaplaincy reflective of the population of the US, we also had a diversity of points of view in all ranks, instead of 1/4 to 1/3 of the chaplain corps being these idiots who think they are on a holy war against everyone who isn’t like them. Yes, we had tensions among chaplains of different denominations, but when our Chief was a Roman Catholic who accepted, supported and encouraged all his chaplains, Catholic, Protestant — of dozens of different expressions — and Jewish — of different forms, as well, now, as Muslim and whatever other groups may ask to be included and had a sufficient national participation in the religious life of the country, we had very few problems like we currently have.

I don’t know how, but we must make this case to the national military and political leadership that this is critical to the well-being of our military. A house divided against itself cannot stand, and we are seeing that right now in the military. What can I do to help?

(name withheld)