Faith

War is often thought of as a time to find God, as in the ‘foxhole’ theory.  I cannot speak for those outside the wire every single day/night, but Bagram is more akin to a garrison environment at times and as such people are more prone to forget about God than to make time to attend a service or a study.  Thankfully there are many options available through the week for those who want to attend.  In addition to seven different Sunday services, I’ve attended a Monday night Love & Respect study and a Friday night men’s Bible study off and on through the year. The general attitude here is that there is no true day off, thus the concept of a Sabbath escapes most senior leaders. Church is treated as a luxury, important insomuch as it does not conflict with your daily duties.

The main chapel is called “Enduring Faith”, a clever play on Enduring Freedom. I used to play mandolin at the Sunday night service there, but more recently have been filling in on guitar at the smaller (and closer) Aviation chapel. I hadn’t planned on playing much this year but somehow God provided a guitar and the Chaplain asked me to help out. As you can see I also have help on keyboard and vocals from two other talented Soldiers. Most weeks we are lucky to get 30 minutes to practice beforehand then do our best for the service. With only about 20-30 people on average, the tent is still nearly full and the sound travels pretty well.  The Chaplain is a friend of mine so we usually go to the Dining Facility for omelets afterwards. Earlier this week he hosted a morning prayer breakfast, which was not very well attended but was a refreshing way to start the day. You can read more about it here. 

Last deployment, our Chaplain left the unit under suspicious circumstances about half-way through the 15 months and the impact on morale and spiritual welfare was dramatic. One of the First Sergeants, whose father was a retired Baptist minister, did his best to fill in at the pulpit after I played a few songs. The chapel was used daily for military briefings and classes, yet almost empty on Sundays. Now, as a Commander, I appreciate the role of a quality Chaplain more than ever. Military policy bars proselytizing, both towards fellow soldiers and also the locals, to avoid any undue influence due to power or position. So, sometimes I can’t outright say what I think one of my soldiers needs to hear, which is where the Chaplain is ever so useful. He does not carry a weapon, does not come from a strictly military background, and is respected enough that he can say almost anything to comfort a Soldier.

Military chaplains can be a conundrum if they attempt to cater to any and all religions. However, each Chaplain is sponsored by a denomination of their choice and is also constrained to those convictions. If a situation arises wherein a Wiccan Soldier requests help, the Chaplain can easily refer them somewhere else. While there are Jewish and Muslim Chaplains there are no Mormon and the majority are Christian (with more Protestants than Catholics). Hope this helps you to understand the military religious culture.

Keep sending your questions and I’ll do my best to answer them in my next post. Godspeed, Mark