Chaplain's Corner

Recently I read an article titled, “Can Evangelical Chaplains Serve God and Country? The Crisis Arrives” written by Albert Mohler, the President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The gist of the article is that with ever increasing cultural changes happening in our society, there is growing pressure on Southern Baptist Chaplains in the armed forces to resign because of their “incompatible” convictions.

These developments in the United States have led to a challenge related to whether or not evangelical Christians can serve in interfaith contexts, because of the conflict between their doctrine and the ever growing diversity and the ever loosening moral climate in American culture. At the very foundation of this crisis is a more fundamental question:  Is respect not enough or do those working in spiritual care positions in interfaith contexts now need to be theological universalists, holding the belief that there is no one true faith but all faiths are true and equally valid.

I have wondered at times if that is where things are moving here in Canada. When I first entered the realm of interfaith ministry, during my first unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at the Victoria Hospital in Winnipeg, I wasn’t sure there was any room for an evangelical in interfaith chaplaincy. I received courage to move forward into this career change when a Chaplain from Thunder Bay addressed our group and defined an interfaith chaplain as one who was firmly rooted in and committed to his/her own spiritual tradition while at the same time able to respect those who hold to other spiritual traditions.

I can do that and have done that during my 14 years as a chaplain. Respect does not require that I concur with the conclusions of another. Respect simply means that I give the other the God given right to chose what s/he will believe and with that choice the consequences that accompany holding those beliefs. However, developments in the United States and more subtly, but present in, Canada seem to be demanding that respect is not enough.

Interestingly, it seems that pressure is happening particularly in the realm of spirituality. In most other human endeavor, there is right way and a wrong way of perceiving reality. Logic demands that not every opinion no matter how diverse and oppositional can be true. In fact, when we press the point to insist that in the spiritual realm everything is equally true the concept of truth evaporates. Two oppositional opinions can not be true. For example pantheism and monotheism can not both be true nor can the belief in life after death and the belief of annihilationist both be true. Yet this is where we are being pushed.

Respect demands that I honor your right to chose what to believe. It means that I not take advantage of relational power differentials to seek to “convert” you to the position I hold. It demands that if my convictions do not allow me to provide the spiritual services you need that I find someone who is capable and qualified to do so. However, respect does not demand that we agree. Respect allows for open, honest dialogue when both parties are agreeable and there is no untoward pressure  being exerted. Respect demands that I treat another with dignity, regardless of the differences we may hold but it doesn’t demand that one of us must concede our convictions.

Respect means that we can agree to disagree and remain amiable and work together. Respect means that as a chaplain if you need a religious/spiritual leader to support you in a health crisis or traumatic event and I am not able to do so because of differences in our convictions that I will do everything within my power to facilitate your needs and seek to get your religious/spiritual leader to come and provide the care that is specific to your spiritual or religious convictions.

But to respect another does not require that I suspend, amend, or capitulate my own beliefs so as to make another more comfortable or to make providing spiritual support possible. But this seems to be where things are moving and what the cultural drift taking us in North America.

As Albert Mohler suggested in the article I mentioned, this will not stop with evangelical chaplains and it won’t stop with the Armed Forces. Can a chaplain from an Islamic tradition or a Jewish tradition who truly embrace their own faith not find themselves in conflict with this new standard? Surely they will and surely the same demands will be made of them as are presently being made of Southern Baptist Chaplains in the US Armed Forces.

So what? It is one thing to identify a problem but what are you and I to do. Well one thing for sure is that you and I can not change the drift of our culture. We are reaping the whirlwind of decades of spiritual and cultural accommodations. Even the denomination that Albert Mohler’s  serves, the Southern Baptist Church, with nearly 16 million members in the United States alone may be unable to turn the tide of this drift. But this does not mean we are helpless.

We need to resist this drift first of all in our own hearts. Yes, the pressure is on and many of us without even being aware have made cultural accommodations that are not congruent with our faith. The debate about Bill 18 here in Manitoba may have provided occasion for some of us to conclude, “This isn’t a big deal, after all I don’t want gay kids to experience bullying at school, why shouldn’t I support this?” Maybe it is the encroaching ideas being presented in your denominational publications, hints that the view of the Bible is being slowly eroded or thoughts about God that are unworthy of the God who reveals himself in the Bible?

Drifting happens a little tiny bit at a time. Most of us don’t want to make a big deal of a little thing, but maybe saying nothing and making a big deal are not the only options. When we sense in our churches or in our community that things are adrift, write letters, talk with others, be proactive for if we sit back and wait for the drift to become a tidal wave, it will be far too late to do anything but get tossed and turned in the waves of change.

For me, as an interfaith chaplain in the health care system, I hold firm to what I believe with all my heart and those who read my column have some sense as to what I believe. Then I work hard at respecting those who believe differently. I don’t do this hypocritically but in all sincerity I ask others about their beliefs, I invite them to share their beliefs with me, to help me understand their beliefs. When needed I facilitate care for these others who I am not able to provide spiritual care for because of the difference in our convictions. We don’t have to be afraid of those who believe differently, nor do we have to be oppositional. It is in understanding, it is insensitive curiosity, it is in extending the same respect to the other as we desire for ourselves that opportunities arise to share with others what we believe and why we believe.

And the other thing we can do is know why we believe what we believe. Far too many of us hold beliefs but don’t know why we believe these things except it is what we were taught. That’s not good enough! We need to be fully convinced not only of what we believe but why we believe it. That is each of our responsibility and I would urge you in a world where there is so much diversity and so much change to embrace this responsibility wholeheartedly. God bless!