Is it wrong to be ambivalent about the U.S. military, or at least about the ways that Americans manipulate empathy for soldiers to produce a faux patriotism? A couple of recent incidents rekindled this question (which given its length may need a lot of kindling).
During halftime at the Crisler Center at the University of Michigan, the athletic department decided to honor one veteran recently home from the Middle East. The announcer asked for standing applause on the basis of what this young man had done to keep the United States free. The crowd responded positively, even the university students who one might have thought were more interested in the legacy of pacifists like the Big Lebowski than in the foreign policy of two different White House administrations.
Since I was grading papers and didn’t want to drop my pen again below the seats (occupied) in the row ahead, I remained seated and clapped my hands in a way that an Edwardsian would have charged as simply going through the motions. But as I looked around I wondered if the security guards at the arena would receive a similar standing ovation for making possible a peaceful space to root on our team. Or what about the police of Ann Arbor or Hillsdale who do put their lives on the line everyday also to make the United States a free society (though not everyone sees the police of America that way)? I certainly respect the courage and sacrifice that U.S. soldiers make and it is a calling that is conceivably more dangerous than monitoring fans at a basketball game (though I’m not entirely sure that all soldiers face the same dangers that police do). And while I admire the service that soldiers give to their country, what if I don’t think the United States should have military bases all around the world where the nation puts at risk the lives of her military? I certainly support wars of national defense when foes truly threaten our homeland. But can we really say that regime change in Iraq is protecting national security? It may be indirectly, though which citizen is privy to the intelligence reports that allow the government to make that case? But do I really need to think it my patriotic duty to support soldiers who are functioning in some way as global cops, that is, trying to bring order to other places in the world but not really protecting the security of Michigan’s residents?
When it comes to the military, the churches — my second incident — are not much more discerning about the U.S. military. For Veterans Day, Joe Carter posted 9 things we should know about military chaplains (doesn’t Carter know 7 is the perfect number?). One thing he did not mention, that we really should know, those of us who want ministers to be free and uncompromised in their ministry of word and sacrament, is that OPC or PCA chaplains minister alongside not merely Roman Catholics or United Methodists but also Muslims, Jews, and Wiccans. According to Carter:
The denominations with the largest representation (more than 100, both active and reserve) are: Southern Baptist Convention (787), Roman Catholic Church (350), United Methodist Church (274), Evangelical Church Alliance (174), General Council of Assemblies of God (153), Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (149), and Evangelical Lutheran Church In America (128)
The spread sheet that comes linked to Carter’s post also indicates that the PCA has 1194 active chaplains compared to 2392 Wiccans.
I can appreciate the Defense Department’s reasons for employing military chaplains:
The purpose of chaplaincies. . . is to “accommodate religious needs, to provide religious and pastoral care, and to advise commanders on the complexities of religion with regard to its personnel and mission, as appropriate. As military members, chaplains are uniquely positioned to assist Service members, their families, and other authorized personnel with the challenges of military service as advocates of religious, moral, and spiritual well being and resiliency.”
Since Reformed Protestants (unlike Anabaptists) have no inherent objection to Christians serving in the military (in just wars, anyway), I certainly support provision for the spiritual well-being of soldiers. But if an Orthodox Presbyterian Army private is in a unit in Afghanistan where his only options are an American Baptist, a Rabbi, or a Mormon, I guess I encourage him to go to the Baptist’s services. But is the Department of Defense really providing for the religious needs of soldiers if they don’t have a chaplain for each soldier’s religious tradition or communion? One way around this is to have denominationally or religiously specific units — a unit of Wiccans with their own Chaplain and a unit of conservative Presbyterians with theirs. Another might be to fight exclusively wars of territorial defense — that way soldiers scattered across the United States might worship and receive spiritual counsel at local churches.
But why is it that confessional Protestants are generally so bullish on military chaplaincy? (Hint, the manipulative patriotism that goes with uncritical support of the military.) And why is it synods and assemblies allow men under their oversight to minister in contexts that are far worse spiritually (e. g., doctrinal indifference, religious syncretism) than those liberal Protestant communions (or their ecumenical agencies) that those Presbyterian and Reformed pastors and elders left behind?
Old Life 
Good, as usual, Dr. Hart.
I can only assume your presence at U of M is because MSU would put you too close to a TGC council member.
As AB might say, “Sparty on, yo.”
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They’ve been doing this at all games for a decade now.
I’ve stood hundreds of times at NFL/MLB/NBA/NHL/NCAA games, it’s done during TV commercials
It’s part of a game, just like standing for the dual US/Canada anthems (why???) at most games I attend
stick around long enough and you’ll see key demographics refuse to stand and acknowledge the honoured, so be it…
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Grading papers at a game. I thought only my wife did stuff like that.
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I resented having to say The Pledge when I was in high school. Since I thought I was some sort of liberal/progressive/socialist back then I registered my protest by inserting the phrase “white people” after “with liberty and justice for all.” I’ve grown up a bit but I still don’t like saying The Pledge.
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That’s right, haters, I was DOWN WITH THE STRUGGLE.
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JAS, Ann Arbor has Traitor Joes.
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“One way around this is to have denominationally or religiously specific units — a unit of Wiccans with their own Chaplain and a unit of conservative Presbyterians with theirs.”
This may be why you’re not a general.
“Another might be to fight exclusively wars of territorial defense — that way soldiers scattered across the United States might worship and receive spiritual counsel at local churches.”
This may be why you’re not a national security adviser. So we just say “good luck” to our allies when they get pressed and decommission all our foreign bases so we have no presence?
Secondly, were proxy wars during Cold War justified or not in your view?
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CW,
Metal band Exodus may have my new favorite lyric: “I’m not a patriot, just a hate-riot.”
DG,
The San Diego (Hillcrest) location was always a good time, if not insanely congested.
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It’s encouraging when some vets are as skeptical as us non-vets.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-nfls-feel-good-jingoism/
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And then you have those Reformed seminaries that allow Muslims into their chaplain programs….. (coughErskinecough)
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I worshiped in military chapels in Germany for almost 20 years since my wife’s German wasn’t sufficient to worship in our local community. My family’s religious desires as Reformed believers were by and large not met by the chaplain corps–our worship was relegated to “General Protestant” services dominated by Baptists or Assembly of God types who had an allergy to Reformed theology and who were into the latest fad, whether Rick Warren or Osteen. Our family’s other worship option usually was a Lutheran military service in some cases overseen by a female ELCA chaplain. The chaplain corps is broken for Reformed people.
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One argument for Erskine’s practice is that it allows Muslim, Mormon, etc., Chaplains better able to minister to Reformed Presbyterian soldiers. How’s that for a solution?
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Louis,
Insane. And just what “god” are we all supposed to be praying to? I vividly recalled attending a “General Protestant” worship service presided over by a Presbyterian female chaplain, a recent grad of Princeton, who began the service with (I kid you not)–“Let’s all pray to whatever god you believe in.”
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I wonder what opinion Curt has about the Pledge of Allegiance. One Christian socialist was proud of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellamy_salute
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This, this is the best.
“Another might be to fight exclusively wars of territorial defense — that way soldiers scattered across the United States might worship and receive spiritual counsel at local churches.”
So beautiful, Daryll I would take this as an evidence of grace that you are not in fact an eeeeee-vangelical. Since while they love to question the Federal government on all things domestic (as they should) the military is the golden calf of the evangelical right and is beyond questioning.
And I’m pretty sure the only time my evangelical free church ever did church discipline growing up was when someone said anything slightly negative about the state of Israel.
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D.G.,
We might have some agreement on what was written in your post here. I have, for a long time, felt that all too often the valor of our troops are used as a moral shield to protect the policies that sent them into action. By focusing on their valor and the assumption that they are always defending our freedoms whenever they are in harm’s way, we are assuming a certain credibility of the policies that sent our troops packing. We need to admit that when our troops are on missions that are for the sake of special interests, then they are not defending our freedoms while on those missions.
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liked it (devotee that I am). Maybe just the picture was enuff..adios
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D.G. ,
I add an amen, to that. Sad that sports have become a propaganda arm of the State. A bunch of kids can’t play a soccer game without some pathetic rendition of the anthem, where everyone reverences a flag. I love my land and people, but state/flag worship is not that.
And why do we have to have two songs interrupting baseball? Soon it will be every inning…
HBO had a Veterans Day Special in DC and I saw that Springsteen sang, Favorite Son and Born in the USA, and people were upset. Others acted like those songs were patriotic, which I would argue they are. Plus, what do you expect asking rockers to a military fest? Springsteen moved up a notch for me.
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^^^+1^^^
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JASitek,
I didn’t have you pegged as the type to be knocking around in Hillcrest. Hopefully you still believe in firm handshakes.
— For those not aware of San Diego geography, Hillcrest is home to some of San Diego’s best restaurants, art galleries, and general cultural interests, which also makes it a well known center for the gay community.
My favorite Hillcrest story comes from one of my days working for my dad’s plumbing company. We were re-modelling the Rite-Aid pharmacy in Hillcrest, and I had forgotten to pack a lunch that particular day. So, I asked my grizzly old foreman if he knew of a good deli that I could go to get some lunch. As a (very naive) 19 year old kid from Escondido, I didn’t know my way around the urbane Hillcrest. I should have been tipped off by how nice he was when he answered so nicely and without his customary stream of explicatives while his Copenhagen was dribbling down his chin. He said, “you know The Brass Rail makes some great sandwiches, you should go there Hombre.” So I head across the street to the Brass Rail, only to find out that it is a gay bar. I am pretty positive that when they saw a 19 year old kid in fairly good shape strolling in wearing a tool-belt and carrying a hard hat that I was trying to convince them I was a back-up singer for the Village People. Needless to say I high-tailed it out of there, and let my foreman have it with both barrels. The next day I think I threw some dirt in his can of Cope.
But, to the topic of the post… I wonder how seriously the average Marine grunt takes a Wiccan chaplain. Why aren’t there any Rastafarian chaplains?
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I affirm Daryl’s main point about how we take every opportunity to “honor” veterans. I am a vet who feels no need to be honored for my service during (not in) Vietnam. There is no reason to honor the military as we do. As for chaplains, the original role of chaplains in the US military was to increase morale among the troops and convince them to stay on duty and not leave.
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Curt, do you have a question?
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Jed, so how was the sandwich?
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DGH,
FABULOUSSS!
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The most morally defensible kind of war is a war of defense; the least defensible kind are wars to advance the aims of empire, be it the British Empire in days of yore, or the American one today.
And anyone who leaves their country’s native soil, to go off to some far off land to kill foreigners who aren’t actually directly threatening one’s country (never mind some nebulous vague B.S. rhetoric about ‘national interests’), is a fool.
We should not be discouraging our people from enlisting in anything other than defensive militias, such as state militias, and therefore, there is no need for chaplaincies to minister to the spiritual needs of people we ought to be discouraging from going over there in the first place, if we would in fact do so.
Then the problem would resolve itself.
BTW, a nation with a large army and nukes isn’t going to get directly invaded by anyone, or even a small nation with nukes for that matter will be left alone (like North Korea is); we ought to consider returning to the centuries-old, now neglected practice of NOT maintaining a standing military, other than technicians to man the nukes, chemical and biological weaponry; and only calling up men if and when there is a direct territorial threat – which there shouldn’t be, any more, thanks to nukes, chemical and biological weapons, etc.
If we leave foreigners alone, even madmen like ISIS, they will leave us alone.
But in the unlikely event they still don’t leave us alone (I don’t buy the rhetoric placing them on a par with the Nazis; that’s just neocon chickenhawk agitprop), we still don’t have to engage them with ground troops; we can deploy nukes, chemical and/or biological warfare, the latter two using the same kind of missiles used to deliver nuclear bombs, so even an airforce isn’t necessary.
All that is necessary for actual peace, is for great powers to stop mucking about in others’ internal affairs.
Oil in the ground of foreign nations belongs to those nations, not to some multinational foreign companies that have ostensibly bought the ‘rights’ to it; the nations whose governments allow such transactions are truly selling what they have no right to sell, their people’s rightful national inheritances. They should sell only the oil itself, not the land and sea areas with the right to drill for it; they could be drilling for it themselves; at the most, only temporary leases of such land / sea areas should be sold, not in perpetuity.
Therefore, there exists no rightful ‘national interest’ in other nation’s resources, for which corporations can legitimately pressure governments to go to war to ‘preserve’, on their behalf.
Militaries must stop allowing themselves to act on behalf of corporations.
With a little imagination, and a true commitment to the old-fashioned principles expressed in the Treaty of Westphalia, along with a commitment to ‘Just War Theory’ the way it would have been understood by those like Aquinas who formulated it, we could realize peace, at least in the First World, not having our people going off to war in Third World hellholes. (The Third World can go hang; they’re not our business, we’re not their keepers.)
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And so no, there’s nothing wrong with Christians being ambivalent about militarist imperialism; in fact, we ought to oppose it, outright, categorically, and discourage our fellow believers from going abroad and killing foreigners.
And we would do well to consider finding political candidates who are not leftists who truly are for peace, and not warmongering. Even running for office to promote such ends ourselves, for that matter.
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No relief in the forseeable future
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D.G.,
No, just pointing out an area of possible agreement. Does that scare you?
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I was a “high-speed” Army chaplain until I read some dude’s biography of Machen while living in a tent in Afghanistan.
Now I’m a lawyer and no one claps for me at sporting events. Thanks for nothing.
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Curt, I don’t answer questions. You know that.
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Sean the b. what’s the sound of one hand clapping?
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Answer: a more generous response than one usually receives when telling people that you’re a lawyer OR when admitting on this website to being a Baptist.
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JED: JASitek,
I didn’t have you pegged as the type to be knocking around in Hillcrest. Hopefully you still believe in firm handshakes.
– For those not aware of San Diego geography, Hillcrest is home to some of San Diego’s best restaurants, art galleries, and general cultural interests, which also makes it a well known center for the gay community.
JAS: Hashtag “all about me”:
If the wife, covenant spawn, and I ever had to move back to *shudder* city life, Hillcrest/South Park/Mission Hills would be high atop our desired locations. We got very lucky and had a great landlord in HC (a very Hillcrest version of The Dude) right on University and Florida.
I also have a rather unsavory story about a proposition made to me by a man who had just come out of Pecs, a bar where all the men look like they could beat up your dad but would rather cuddle with him. The language he used does not bear repeating in such a high brow place as this.
I was an occasional drifter into the Alibi dive bar, which boasted the best juke box in town if you’re into Rollins Band and Slayer.
Our cross dressing neighbor treated us to Indian food one night.
No longer all about me.
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D.G.,
You have to forgive my old man memory.
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“Since I was grading papers and didn’t want to drop my pen again below the seats (occupied) in the row ahead, I remained seated and clapped my hands in a way that an Edwardsian would have charged as simply going through the motions.”
Now that’s dedication.
The problem with our overseas adventures into these various hellholes is that after several years and billions of dollars they quickly revert to hellholes after we leave. It’s just what Islam does when there is not a relatively benevolent (i.e. greedy) royal family or dictator in place to keep radicals who want to kill us all under control.
The more we can occupy radicals overseas, though, the more distracted they are from coming here and killing us on our own soil.
In short, it’s a predicament with no good answers. All options expensive and involve the use of force, at least until Islamic Radicalism chills out (which it tends to do from time-to-time when you look at history).
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Old Life: Where Reformed Theology and Gay Aesthetics meet.
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ec, aesthetics or athletics.
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