So the thing is that the H.R. department consisted of two people and they just happened to both be U.S. military chaplains in the reserves. From the standpoint of where I was in Russia, preparing to come to the USA to research these articles, the fact that they 1) were in the mission at all was curious enough, but 2) that they comprised the whole H.R. department, which was a very strategic place to be in the organization, it seems to me, was very suspicious, like there was more than just nice Christian work stuff going on, and maybe the government had a say here or there in things, like regarding me because of my father. So I wanted to learn more about the chaplaincy to try to understand them better if I could.
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I'm not sure if I can or not, but we'll give it a try. The first article is:
Vicavi, Paul L. (1990,Winter). Limitations on a chaplains ministry -- a personal reflection. Military Chaplains' Review, 135-139.
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"Withdrawal of their denominational endorsement terminates their military coission. Thus, their primary identification remains with their non-military institution and closely tied to the ecclesiastical gudelines for such things as marriage, baptism anh polity, while the majority of their time and energy is spent within the military establishment. The Chaplain has been described as a person who has one food in heaven and the other in a combat boot." (p. 136)
So this makes it sound like their absorption in the military can't reach the point that might upset their denomination. But for some denominations it might take a lot to make them upset, I think. It'll be interesting to see in future texts how this dilemma plays out.
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"Yet chaplains are the only group of military officers who have to defend themselves at times (often among their civilian peers) of being 'tools of the military establishent'. The tension over which establishment is served if there a difference in priorities is a soul wrenching tension at times that every Chaplain, whether in war or in peace has to struggle with; sometimes the answers don't come easily."(p. 136)
So if I understand it correctly, this writer is saying that not only do military chaplains struggle themselves with the dual service, but others have a problem with it too and it comes back to haunt the chaplains. So far the main thing I've gotten from this is that it's good to know about these things, but I don't know as it helps me too much yet.
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"I jumped with them, slept with them froze [sic] with them, ate C-rations with them until I was sick of them with them, marched with them, got tired with them, and even became a jumpmaster in time and had the joy of inspecting their equipment and 'kicking' them out the door of an airplaine." (p. 136)
I thought that chaplains weren't supposed to fight, so this must have been in peace time. I guess I didn't realize that chaplains got that hands on. So they really have to be okay with war and violence to get that involved like that. It's not just a theoretical thing where they sit behind a desk and they soldiers are out doing their thing.
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"My early years would probably reflect the majority of Army chaplain patterns. By contrast, Air Force Chaplains, [sic] tend to be more traditionally chapel centered and their lives resolve more around parish life that more closely reflects that of their civilian counterparts. Navy Chaplains spend a great deal of their lives apart from their families on board ships ministering to sailors. That has its unique challenges and hardships.
Most of us spend a great deal of time sometime in our careers in administrative jobs apart from a chapel setting as I am doing now... And in these roles we are yoked with clergypersons from other faith traditions, some which are very foreign to our own." (p. 137)
So the point is that they're supposed to be ministering according to their faith (or else their denomination could drop them, right?), but the military could, it appears, toss them around as it saw fit. So they may be primarily serving their church (or synagogue, or whatever), but they're at the whim of the military.
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This is from the conclusion in which he tries to answer the question about whether he's experienced any limitations as a military chaplain:"I can believe and proclaim without censorship the words of Jesus 'I am the way, the truth and the life, and that no on comes to the Father except be me.' But I can not say 'If you are of another faith tradition you are going to hell!'...
I can believe and proclaim 'believer's baptism as my valid expression, yet I cannot say to another, 'your infant baptism is wrong or invalid'." (p. 139)
So basically it sounds like you can not denigrate another faith, or he couldn't as a chaplain. I think this could make it difficult to have a Bible study on the base because these kinds of issues would be bound to come up. So you'd just have to tiptoe around them. Well, I guess they've figured out ways to deal with them. On the other hand, I'm not necessarily advocating being as blunt as these examples, either, though.
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Well, that's just a little warm-up into understanding U.S. military chaplains. That's the end of that first article.