{"id":257,"date":"2008-11-26T00:14:31","date_gmt":"2008-11-26T07:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=257"},"modified":"2008-12-04T23:40:59","modified_gmt":"2008-12-05T06:40:59","slug":"generals-combat-stress-chaplains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/26\/generals-combat-stress-chaplains\/","title":{"rendered":"Generals, Combat Stress, and Chaplains"},"content":{"rendered":"

USA Today has published an article<\/a> that discreetly (or perhaps inadvertently) highlighted the value of Chaplains in today’s military.\u00a0 General Carter Ham, one of\u00a012 four-star generals in the Army, made news with his admission that he sought counseling from a Chaplain to deal with combat stress.<\/p>\n

Talks with a chaplain he trusted<\/em> helped Ham understand that his mood swings and trouble sleeping were normal responses to the stress…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Talking to a Chaplain is by no means required.\u00a0 In the same article, Brigadier General Gary Patton had “an ‘in-depth’ talk with a counselor” to deal with his combat stress.\u00a0 Still, for those to whom faith has a particularly strong value,\u00a0having the ability to speak with a spiritual advisor who shares one’s faith–and one’s military lifestyle–may be invaluable to recovery.\u00a0 In addition, the Manual for Courts Martial Rule 503\u00a0continues to protect communications with Chaplains as absolutely<\/em> privileged; they are the only communications so protected.<\/p>\n

Without a doubt, Chaplains exist to serve all, including those outside of their faith and those with no faith at all.\u00a0 As counselors, they are invaluable to the health of our military, and they perform in that role professionally and admirably.\u00a0 They are not, however, merely<\/em> “mental health professionals.”\u00a0\u00a0While\u00a0there have been recent calls to regulate\u00a0Chaplains to the point of “spiritual neutrality,” the fact remains that Chaplains are\u00a0invaluable spiritual<\/em> advisors and counselors to men and women of faith in the military.\u00a0 Beyond the assurance of Constitutional free exercise for military members, the mental and spiritual health of the military benefits from its Chaplaincy corps.<\/p>\n

As noted at Miltary Christians Worldwide<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

USA Today has published an article that discreetly (or perhaps inadvertently) highlighted the value of Chaplains in today’s military.\u00a0 General Carter Ham, one of\u00a012 four-star generals in the Army, made news with his admission that he sought counseling from a Chaplain to deal with combat stress. Talks with a chaplain he trusted helped Ham understand that his mood swings and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4,2],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chaplain","tag-churchandstate","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257","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=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}