Why have military chaplains if they can't mention God?

By Gerry Bowler Wartime chaplains risked capture and death to comfort soldiers, tend the wounded and proclaim faith, Senior Fellow Gerry Bowler reminds us. Their courage exposes the folly of today's DND restrictions: chaplains must remain free to offer the spiritual ministry troops need. Department of National Defence rules restrict what military chaplains can say about God at official ceremonies On Aug. 19, 1942, nearly 5,000 Canadian troops stormed the beaches of a German-held town in France. Among them, landing under heavy fire, was an unarmed Presbyterian chaplain attached to the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. Throughout the disastrous Dieppe raid, John Weir Foote exposed himself to enemy machine guns by administering first aid, collecting the wounded and carrying them to safety. When it came time to withdraw, Foote refused to be evacuated, giving up his place so he could stay behind and minister to those who were going to be taken captive. He spent years in a prisoner-of-war camp, still tending to the spiritual needs of his men. Foote was doing what military chaplains are meant to do: provide spiritual and moral support wherever their troops are sent, including into battle. Yet today, at official military ceremonies where attendance is required, the Department of National Defence (DND) has mandated that chaplains not use religiously specific language, including references to the deity. Forbidding chaplains to speak about God rather defeats the purpose of having chaplains. On Christmas Eve 1942, Kurt Reuter, a German Lutheran pastor, was trapped with the doomed men of the Sixth Army at Stalingrad. In his dugout by candlelight, Reuter drew on the back of a large military map a portrait of Mary holding the Christ Child, surrounded by the words 'Christmas in the Cauldron, Fortress Stalingrad, Light, Life, Love.' He showed it to the starving and freezing men, bringing a moment of hope in their desperate situation. The 'Stalingrad Madonna' was flown out on the last plane to leave and is now a national treasure on display in a Berlin church. Reuter died in a Russian prisoner-of-war camp. Less than two months later, in the icy waters off Greenland, the American military troopship Dorchester was torpedoed by a German submarine. Four chaplains, Lt. George L. Fox (Methodist), Lt. Alexander D. Goode (Jewish), Lt. Clark V. Poling (Dutch Reformed) and Lt. John P. Washington (Catholic), helped evacuate the sinking ship, calming frightened men and handing out life jackets. When the jackets ran out, they took off theirs and gave them to waiting soldiers. Survivors last saw the chaplains linked arm-in-arm on the deck, praying and singing hymns as the ship slipped beneath the waves. The military expects its chaplains not only to provide spiritual and moral direction to service personnel and their families in peacetime but also to stand beside troops sent into battle. Weaponless, they parachute into enemy territory, disembark from helicopters or landing ships under fire, tend to the wounded and dying, serve behind the lines, counsel, encourage, pray and bury the dead. They share the same privations as their flocks, suffer the same post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and risk capture, imprisonment or death. Twenty Canadian chaplains were killed in the Second World War. And it's not only military chaplains who share God in the worst of circumstances. Mychal Judge, a Franciscan priest and chaplain for the New York Fire Department, was at the World Trade Center when terrorists attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. Father Judge carried a card with a prayer he'd say throughout his ministry: 'Lord, take me where you want me to go. Let me meet who you want me to meet. Tell me what you want me to say, and keep me out of your way.' He was killed in the North Tower lobby while giving last rites to a dying firefighter. The photograph of five men carrying his body out has been called an American Pietà, after the image of Mary cradling the dead Christ. Chaplains undertake these responsibilities because, whether Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox, Buddhist or Sikh, they believe they are doing what their God requires. That religious purpose is precisely what the DND policy requires them to put aside at official ceremonies. Of course, because this is Canada where common sense goes to die, native spirituality is not covered by this ban. Chaplains at Remembrance Day services, for example, may not pray but only speak in general terms about virtues lest those hearers who are not religious be offended. This is called inclusion, but it is plainly preferring one side of the faith spectrum to the other, giving a 'heckler's veto' to agnostics and atheists. Immigrants to Canada who came seeking a new home with freedom of religion will discover that what they are entitled to instead is freedom from religion. Talking about God is what chaplains are meant to do. Padre Foote, Pastor Reuter, Father Judge and the four clergymen aboard the Dorchester, standing beside wounded, desperate and dying men, would not have held back from doing so. Neither should their counterparts today. The DND gag order must be lifted. Gerry Bowler is a Canadian historian, the author of several books on culture and European and social history, and a senior fellow of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Email Telegram Print Related