Post Tenebras Lux

As a commissioned officer in the US Army and one who is training to be an Army chaplain, here’s something that I’m submitting for your feedback. You may or may not know that the US Air Force (USAF) has recently changed its religious policy, which has huge implications for military chaplains in all of the branches of the military. Basically, the USAF has placed much more binding restrictions on chaplains in the ways that they can discuss and practice their faith with other members of the AF. To read the Air Force’s statement, click here. This means that they are not allowed to initiate any type of religious conversation with anyone, even if their express intent is not to “convert them.” It also places even more stringent boundaries on chaplains’ prayers, particulary mentioning the name of Christ (”in Jesus name…”) in any prayer outside of the weekly Sunday chapel service. The board that controls the military chaplains for my denomination (the Presbyterian Church in America, aka the PCA) has submitted a response as requested by the USAF. Here’s a brief paragraph that captures well the PCA’s concerns about these new guidelines:

Insofar as the proposed Guidelines would apply to Air Force chaplains, a long term effect will likely be the incremental transformation of the Chaplain Corps from a good example of corporate moral strength, theological discernment, ethical leadership and prophetic rebuke to a corps of anemic social workers and psychological counselors with a politically correct veneer of religious busy-ness and exuding timidity could only try to please everybody and offend nobody.

I recognize that we do not live in Christendom (everybody is a Christian). It’s important to note that when Christianity has dominated the culture throughout church history, the message of Christ has tended to be anemic and actually had less of an effect on the culture and individuals for real life change. I am not arguing that the US was founded with an exclusively Christian identity. I am not a theonomist. This is exactly why I am so concerned about these new guidelines from the USAF. By purposely seeking to curtail any type of theological dialogue, they are creating a de facto Church of the Air Force, in which USAF core values are held up as sacred and the airmen’s truth for living. This is, ironically, an establishment of state-endorsed religion that not only tramples on the belief and practice of Christianity, but all religions. Everybody loses, except perhaps those service members who are radically secular. In my judgment, it is simply not a wise decision.