I think it’s a very, VERY loud minority. Considering there are more Orthodox and Buddhists in the Army and (last I got a report) ZERO of either on active duty (in the US anyway), it’s trouble-making. Chaplains can help with any issue that a humanist has outside of religion. And I’m assuming that’s “athiest-humanist”, by the way.
You must remember that the faith is largely dead in Europe. This is especially true of Holland, I’m not sure about Belgium. I disagree heartily with the last paragraph, I don’t want any atiest any where near giving any kind of advice to my troops, except to give directions to the nearest head.
They will soon. Within 20 years.
You know, it’s really disrespectful to the people who volunteer for the military and knowingly risk their lives to call them “subversive”. They take the same oaths as everyone else, face the same dangers, and some even die. They show their “fundamental loyalty” every day. Show some respect, even if they don’t share your religious beliefs.
I am from Belgium and I would not say that faith is largely dead there, but there are lots of secular humanists in Belgium. Whether they are a minority or a majority depends on whether cradle Christians are counted as Christians. In any case, no Catholic chaplain I know of will ever complain about the situation in the Belgian army, where there are humanist ‘chaplains’ (BTW they are not called ‘chaplains’ but ‘consultants’ or something) working alongside Catholic chaplains, and , where possible, also chaplains of other Chrsitian denominations, and of Islam.
Except that… this isn’t what chaplains do. It isn’t like there are chaplains of every stripe assigned to each unit – when they’re lucky enough to get a chaplain (that’s “a” as in “one”), they have to take what they can get. And so, each chaplain is bound to tend to the spiritual needs of the personnel to whom s/he’s been assigned.
I am not sure that the military is looking for a morale that says, “you’ve suffered much here, pall, but you are going to suffer even more for eternity because you happen to not believe in my God”Except that… this isn’t what chaplains do. It isn’t like there are chaplains of every stripe assigned to each unit – when they’re lucky enough to get a chaplain (that’s “a” as in “one”), they have to take what they can get. And so, each chaplain is bound to tend to the spiritual needs of the personnel to whom s/he’s been assigned.
So, for the vast majority of atheists in the military, they won’t have access to an atheist ‘chaplain’; and, for the vast majority of theists in the military, an atheist ‘chaplain’ would be useless.
Looking at it from a very pragmatic (Machiavellian (?)) perspective, one of the main reasons that the military even have chaplains is for the sake of morale. So, tell me: how good for morale will it be for deployed soldiers to be told, “yeah, I believe that when you die, that’s all she wrote – you’re done for, and there’s nothing after that…” ? I can’t imagine that this is the kind of “morale” that the military’s looking for…
It seems to me to just be a way for a special interest group to lobby for a ‘right’ …
Umm… “Santa wearing a hat with a cross on it”?
That’d be St Nicholas wearing his miter, thank you very much.Yes and no. On deployment you pretty much take what you can get. However on most bases there is usually access to Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, etc chaplains. They hold social events to bring like minded troops together, specifically the young ones who are away from home for the first time and don’t really know anyone yet. They lead community service projects. They provide premarital and marriage counseling. They perform weddings. Most have an “open door policy” for anyone who needs an ear or advice. There is nothing wrong with nonbelievers getting the same support from someone who feels the way that they do. It’s the exact same reason that Christians wouldn’t feel as comfortable going to a Muslim, and a Muslim wouldn’t feel as comfortable going to a Buddhist.Except that… this isn’t what chaplains do. It isn’t like there are chaplains of every stripe assigned to each unit – when they’re lucky enough to get a chaplain (that’s “a” as in “one”), they have to take what they can get. And so, each chaplain is bound to tend to the spiritual needs of the personnel to whom s/he’s been assigned.
So, for the vast majority of atheists in the military, they won’t have access to an atheist ‘chaplain’; and, for the vast majority of theists in the military, an atheist ‘chaplain’ would be useless.
Looking at it from a very pragmatic (Machiavellian (?)) perspective, one of the main reasons that the military even have chaplains is for the sake of morale. So, tell me: how good for morale will it be for deployed soldiers to be told, “yeah, I believe that when you die, that’s all she wrote – you’re done for, and there’s nothing after that…” ? I can’t imagine that this is the kind of “morale” that the military’s looking for…
It seems to me to just be a way for a special interest group to lobby for a ‘right’ …
ETA: oh, btw … one of the functions of chaplains is to lead (non-denominational) prayer services. How would a humanist chaplain maintain their integrity while praying to anything?!?
No, you misunderstand. I’m not trying to be patronizing or disrespectful. I’m not talking about your morale, as an atheist – I’m talking about the morale of your theist fellows-in-arms!
Are you a member of a religious organization? Do you have a system of belief? Does your world view include a faith component?
You are, at best, misinformed:
You’ll have to excuse me, most of my information comes from working with chaplains on an air force base (premarital counseling and teaming up with the chaplains office for community service projects.) So I don’t know how the military works as a whole in that area. But upon looking up the specific base that I was on you’re correct. All of the chaplains at that particular base were protestant. However, those chaplains do a lot of community outreach and find other religious leaders in the area that are willing to have troops referred to them when they are in a time of crisis or need advice/an ear. They also make every effort to have Rabbis, Immams, Priests, etc come to base once a week to have services. This all seems perfectly fair to me. It would be hard to make sure to have a chaplain of every religion, but they do make every effort to make sure that they have specific resources for other religions.
I expect our military to act as adults. That means acknowledging that others have different beliefs and that that’s ok. I would say that the troop who loses morale because the guy next to him is being advised by a fellow atheist has some pretty serious issues.
Thank you for shedding some light on the subject. It is always possible for stories to get blown out of proportion or the writer hasn’t done the proper investigation.
