We are pleased to present this guest editorial from U.S. Army Chaplain Don Zapsic (ret.)
The Christmas holiday season presents a litany of challenges compounded by military service to remote areas of the world. I did not come fully to this realization until deployed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a military chaplain. The year was 2000 and the kingdom happens to be one of the most formidable places on earth when it comes to exercising freedom of religion with the exception of Islam. To complicate matters even more, there is not a single legally recognized church throughout the entire country.
So what is a forward-deployed Christian at Christmas time to do some 7,000 miles away from home when there is not an accessible church nearby? This problem is not unique to our present –day military. Enter in General George Washington, 1775. The Continental Army was not isolated from churches geographically. The difficulty lied in restricted church access imposed by the harsh conditions of war. Washington had to find a way to promote the free exercise of religion for his soldiers while meeting the demands of military necessity.
General Washington faced at least two difficulties. First, he needed to provide religious support to his troops without sacrificing strategic or tactical advantage. Secondly, after restructuring the Continental Army to provide consistent religious support for those who faced death on a daily basis, Washington needed to find a way to sustain it. On the first order of business, the commanding general successfully petitioned the Continental Congress to provide a dedicated chaplain corps to accommodate the spiritual needs of his soldiers. Easy enough.
The second task was not as simple since military leaders do not universally appreciate the value of fostering faith through religious observance. Then, as in now, not all commanders are on board when it comes to providing for the spiritual needs of those they lead. The word “commander” is used here because they are the ones that ensure that adequate time and resources are available for chaplains to minister within the command setting. Some have no use for religion and care little about the needs of those that do believing that another staff officer would better serve the command than clergy.
General Washington astutely recognized that a commander’s personal beliefs or lack thereof, could impede the religious freedom of his soldiers. It is one thing to ask a man to risk his life in service to his country and quite another to expect him to neglect his faith in the process. To do so would be to play God. Washington ordered his regimental commanders to promote and protect the fledgling chaplaincy by appointing chaplains of good character and standing to promote religious observance within their ranks (P. Thompson, The United States Army Chaplaincy (1978).
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Times have changed, but many things should never change. Just as sure as there is Christmas, there should always be chaplains as long as America exists as a free nation. Who can face death better than those who know that death is not the end, but just the beginning of eternal life in Christ? The prospect of facing death followed by nothingness in a six-foot hole does would not inspire me to readily lay down my life. And of the commanders that I had the privilege of serving with for over 24 years as a chaplain? I never met one who was not in need of the prayers and support of God’s people. Merry Christmas, one-and-all.
Illustration: “Washington kneeling in the Snow” by Arnold Friberg