{"id":11837,"date":"2011-07-15T02:45:03","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T07:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=11837"},"modified":"2011-07-11T01:33:45","modified_gmt":"2011-07-11T06:33:45","slug":"military-chaplains-give-comfort-but-need-it-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/15\/military-chaplains-give-comfort-but-need-it-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Military Chaplains Give Comfort, but Need it, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times <\/em>carries an article on Chaplain (Maj) David Bowlus<\/a>, a former armor officer and current Chaplain with the US Army.\u00a0 Like many of the Soldiers he serves, Chaplain Bowlus has deployed eight times in the past 9 nears.<\/p>\n

In those years, he has held syringes and gauze for a medic while praying the 23rd Psalm with a soldier shot during a raid in Mosul, Iraq. He has administered first aid and God\u2019s word to the fighting men raked by rocket-propelled grenades when the Taliban ambushed their convoy. He has soothed grieving parents and overseen the loading of coffins for the long flight home.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just like every other Soldier, though, the Chaplain experienced the cumulative effects of the weight of war.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u201cI found myself at a crossroads of giving and pouring out and having to find a way to refill my reservoir,\u201d Major Bowlus said in an interview last month, recalling his lowest ebb. He continued a few moments later: \u201cI realized my passion for God and my love for people was waning. I cared, but I didn\u2019t care as much as when I first went in. I was lovingly going through the motions.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article notes a recent dissertation at Kansas State claims 20% of Chaplains showed signs of depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder.\u00a0 While this may be “expected” in the military community, some may not understand the ‘comforters’ — military Chaplains — may experience the same things.<\/p>\n

Bowlus finally began to talk to other Chaplains and fellow officers.<\/p>\n

He found renewed strength in psalms that, as he put it, \u201cconsidered how a warrior like David walked through the difficult times of his life.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He now uses his experiences to train Chaplains at the military Chaplain school at Fort Jackson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times carries an article on Chaplain (Maj) David Bowlus, a former armor officer and current Chaplain with the US Army.\u00a0 Like many of the Soldiers he serves, Chaplain Bowlus has deployed eight times in the past 9 nears. In those years, he has held syringes and gauze for a medic while praying the 23rd Psalm with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[88,38,5284,1915,2,1916,225,10],"class_list":["post-11837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chaplain","tag-army","tag-chapel","tag-chaplain","tag-david-bowlus","tag-military","tag-psalms","tag-ptsd","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}