Preaching behind closed doors

General Patton orders his chaplain to pray for fine weather before an attack; a chaplain blessing the F111 prays "that they will quickly overcome aggression"; and before the Fallujah onslaught the battalion chaplain prays, "Lord there are some bad guys out there, just help us kill 'em".

It’s not difficult then to understand why Lord Montgomery said he "would sooner go into battle without my artillery than without my chaplain". But at a time, of "the re-emergence of the martial spirit", the “crusade”, “clash of civilisations”, and complexity in the Australian cultural soul - what of the modern day army chaplain?

Struggling with the moral ambiguity of the conflict, "they help troubled soldiers to justify the killing, comfort the injured, minister to the dying, and bless the dead" (Independent October 2, 2005).

One dimension of that ambiguity is that the accreditation of chaplains is done by both the military and the church. The Memorandum of Understanding between the Australian defence Forces (ADF) and the Religious Advisory Committee to the Services (RACS) is a classified document.

Requests for further information to the brigadier chaplain (Army) are referred to "Army HQ staff" on the extraordinary grounds of "the current levels of security threat".

While chaplains promote their pastoral role, little is known about the role they play in character guidance and instruction. Do same sex couples turn up to the chaplain's relationship development courses. Do archbishops know and approve of the provision of advice to commanders on religious, spiritual, moral, ethical, cultural and welfare matters?

The changing nature of war appears to have raised no questions for churches and their chaplains. The hegemony of the US military-industrial complex, the terrifying destruction of new weapons, the development of biological and chemical warfare, the systematic failures of military justice systems and the politicisation of faith, appears to be going unnoticed by chaplains.

They write no documents, maintain bland websites, while edited reports are made to church authorities and carefully crafted "inspirational pieces" are circulated to church members.

The Iraq war was built on lies and deception. But only one Australian chaplain, of the more than 200 chaplains warned, "that a unilateral pre-emptive assault ... without UN mandate has not been justified". He went on to condemn the "US weapons of mass destruction … and the moral scandal of the spending of billions of dollars to fund the conflict". That’s one chaplain who will not make it to brigadier.

Chaplains are an exclusive unit within the ADF. All hold officer rank with the associated prestige, privileges and benefits. While all protest that such rank is no barrier to the relationships with the rank and file, no priest has ever opted for a private’s position, salary or conditions.

They’re overwhelmingly male: of the 65 army chaplains only 3 are female officers, with Navy only recently commissioning its first female chaplain.

No Rabbi or Imam will make it to brigadier chaplain. Questioned in a recent Senate Inquiry into the military justice system about responsibility for Muslim Australian troops, the Brigadier Chaplain admitted there had been discussions over the years but “no forward direction has been taken for someone to proceed to be recruited”. Don Watson take note.

While Pentecostal, Assemblies of God and the Hillsong churches are making their impact in the community, the mainline churches and the ADF effectively ensure that none of their ministers will make chaplain. Such an arrangement is convenient for both parties.

Chaplaincy in the United States armed forces is currently in turmoil. Allegations of aggressive evangelism have seen Congress petitions, hunger strikes and the Air Force compelled to write and re-write their chaplaincy guidelines. Muslim chaplains are under threat. Keeping out the Imam and the evangelical pastor seems to be the answer in Australia.

Chaplains down through the ages have provided heroic pastoral care. One chaplain on the Western front in 1915 saw 1,300 casualties in one 24-hour period and buried another 900 bodies in the next 3 months. But there’s another side to their role as officer and priest.

Chaplains in Vietnam were aware of the massacre at My Lai, they knew of American troops tossing out Vietcong suspects from helicopters, and that female suspects were being literally raped to death, yet did nothing.

The chaplain at the Abu Ghraib torture centre was told to keep out of the way, and she did. The Muslim chaplain who protested the harassment, ill-treatment and torture in Guantanamo Bay was himself, arrested, held in solitary confinement and charged with treason.

A female Australian Navy officer, harassed and abused, “talked with a chaplain and was told she would get an apology if she took no further action”.

Over the past decade eight Australian government funded inquiries have “found glaring inadequacies in the way the ADF administers internal discipline, treats the injured, coordinates their transition to civilian life and compensates them for the scars inflicted” (Bulletin August 23, 2005).

It seems no chaplain advised their church of such injustice and denial of rights. No reports were made to church authorities. And the church made little effort to find out what was happening. Chaplains airbrush the reality and brutality of war.