Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Jesus can cure shell shock?

Below is a link to an article I found on Truth Out about an Army Chaplain who believes that faith in Christ can heal post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI):

http://www.truth-out.org/can-jesus-cure-shell-shock61984

The article takes a negative attitude towards Command Chaplain Col. Donald W. Holdridge's remedy, which he posted in an essay on the official Army Reserve Website, which could be found here:

http://www.usar.army.mil/arweb/organization/commandstructure/USARC/OPS/200MP/UMT/PTSD/Pages/SpiritualResiliency.aspx

The author of the Truth Out article sees the Chaplain's article as "unapologetically evangelical" and that it "dangerously merges church and state." Some of the Chaplain's offenses are advising bible reading (particularly select psalms from King David) as a remedy for PTSD and linking soldiers to evangelical organizations that seek to proselytize them.

I had a mixed reaction to this article. On one hand, I can see Truthout's point. I have reservations about saying stuff on an official U.S. government Website like "If the military member knows Christ as savior, they can be assured that Jesus is with them until the end of the age (Mt.28:20)" What about those soldiers who haven't excepted Christ as savior? What about soldiers who are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Wiccan or nothing at all? As the Army Reserve's top Chaplain, Holdridge has a special duty to serve soldiers from all religious and spiritual backgrounds, yet Holdridge limits his spiritual advice to the Bible.

Chaplains are not the same as local pastors or groups like our own, who have every right to promote their particular brand of spirituality to their practicioners through various modes of communication (personal counseling, sermons, worship services, fellowship meetings, statements on church or group-owned Websites, etc.). This is not to say that Chaplains can't limit their advice to their own tradition at tradition-specific worship services. For instance, I had the choice of Roman Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical or Episcopal services when I was stationed at Fort Meade (to my knowledge there were no Jewish or Muslim services available, but that could be because there were not enough Muslims or Jews stationed there). Either way, a military Chaplain needs to provide spiritual services to soldiers from many different backgrounds, and Holdridge failed to do this in his post published on an official government Website, and that's the thing: his Bible-specific comments were published on an official government Website, and this would seem to violate the separation of church and state (I'm no lawyer or expert on Army Regulations, so my opinion on this is limited). 

I also have problems with Holdridge using an official government Website to promote Evangelical groups like Cadence International. Though I take issue with some aspects of their theology (which can be found here: http://www.cadence.org/home/doctrinal-statement), I believe groups like Cadence have every right to reach out to servicemembers and veterans just as I believe our group has the same right. The issue is having the Army Reserve's top Chaplain promote this group on a Website that is intended for every soldier.

That being said, Holdridge provided insights on PTSD and TBI on which everyone can agree. For instance, he acknowledges several common symptons of these ailments. He also provides examples of these symptons from the life of King David, who certainly was no stranger to the stresses and psychological/spiritual consequences of combat. Here he is merely describing the life of King David, not making any spiritual prescriptions based on it. He also provides common sense yet deeply spiritual remedies like limiting intake of traumatic information, setting up a regular sleep plan, getting regular physical exercise and the like.

He wanders back into inappropriate territory, however, when he provides his prescriptions to PTSD/TBI with his ten R's - Receive the word of God. Reach out to God. Rely on God. Relegate the wicked to God. Refrain from wickedness before God. Repent of wickedness to God. Reflect on the person of God. Review the deeds of God. Rejoice in God. Record personal thoughts to God. He supports these ten R's with a list of Bible verses from the Psalms attributed to David. A Jew, Christian or Muslim may agree with these prescriptions (or not) but what about a Wiccan? A Buddhist? An agnostic who has no idea what to believe yet feels the need for spirituality?

In short, Holdridge's error is in publishing his evangelical prescriptions on an official government Website. His actions give me food for thought, though: how can Episcopal Veterans Fellowship effectively present the gospel to veterans that respects the diversity of everyone's beliefs yet remains faithful to Christ and his church? This is a distinctely Anglican question. Any thoughts?

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