Search Results for: moral injury

Religious Leaders Seek to Help with Moral Injury

The Chicago Tribune revisited the issue of “moral injury” in returning US combat veterans.  The term is distinct from PTSD and is defined in the article as

the soul-scarring mental condition described by experts as “moral injury,” or the internal conflict a soldier can experience after participating in wartime atrocities that contradict personal values.

Other groups have similarly tried to recruit and train churches to help these veterans, as they feel they’re more likely to open up to a religious leader than someone in their chain of command.  Said a chaplain:  Read more

The Controversy over “Moral Injury”

The Stars and Stripes covered the “Navy and Marine Corps’ annual conference on combat and operational stress,” and indicates new “buzzwords” — “moral injury” — are causing some consternation:

One Marine commander roped into a panel discussion at the last minute bluntly took issue with the phrase: “As a Marine, I’m insulted.”

Lt. Col. James “Hall” Bain…said he thought the term implied that Marines were stressed as a result of immorality.

The Corps trains Marines to have “the skill and the will to kill,” he said. “It’s based on an ethical standard.”

In his defense, LtCol Bain seems to take issue with the terminology, not the concept.  In other places, the term “moral injury” has been used to describe the dissonance that occurs when one man kills another:  Read more

Study: Top Cause of PTSD is Moral Guilt

In an era in which society encourages each to do his own thing, and “right” is a relative term, a recent study seems to indicate many people do inherently have an understanding of morality at their core — and this may sometimes conflict with the actions required by military combat:

The conflicts that troops feel can range from survivor guilt from living through an attack where other troops died, to witnessing or participating in the unintentional killing of women or children, said researchers involved in the study.

The key quote comes near the end of the article:  Combat experienced US Marines were the subject group, and the study showed

Their condition [PTSD] was more closely linked to an inner conflict Read more

The Moral Wounds of War, Good and Evil

Chaplain (Cmdr) Gordon Ritchie addresses an infrequently discussed but increasingly important subject in today’s military:  the moral wounds of war.

In a time in which suicides are on the rise and the military is seeking moral leadership, something that often gets left out is the “moral injury” to those who must wage war at the call of their country.

The character of man recognizes, even if unconsciously, the incongruity of the value of life and the necessity of death in war.  Solace is found in knowing that one’s Read more

Activists Join Mikey Weinstein in Calls Against Kenneth Copeland

VoteVets.org, a fringe “left-leaning” political activist group, has joined with Michael “Mikey” Weinstein in demanding Kenneth Copeland be disinvited from the prayer breakfast to be held at Fort Jackson. In so doing, however, they also joined him in attributing to Copeland things he didn’t say [emphasis added]:

[VoteVets is] calling on Ft Jackson to rescind its invitation to Kenneth Copeland, the evangelist who says doctors and science can’t properly treat PTSD.

[Copeland] claims #PTSD doesn’t afflict True Believers.

Big Problem: Copeland believes only non-believers get PTSD and that only the Bible, not doctors or median [sic] can help service members struggling with it.

Copeland didn’t say those things — at least not in any source cited by his critics.

They, Chris Rodda, and Mikey Weinstein are perfectly free to disagree with Copeland, and he’s done plenty of things to mock or highlight.

Why do they feel the need to lie about what he’s said or believes?

Tom Carpenter, the one man Read more

Christian Marine Helps Vets with PTSD

Clayton Lassiter was a US Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now he’s a pastor in Florida, and he’s aiming to help veterans with some of the same struggles he had:

Since January, three of Clayton Lassiter’s buddies from his military command have killed themselves.

Having served with the Marine Corps during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lassiter has dealt with his own struggles. He’s had nightmares, flashbacks and used to have trouble being in unfamiliar environments.

Notably, the article only mentions the VA once — to highlight that it is “overwhelmed.” Lassiter isn’t out to point people toward the VA; he’s trying to start a group of veterans helping veterans, potentially focusing on the area that helped him:  Read more

Beware of the NCMAF Compromise! An Adjuration for Bible-Affirming Chaplain Endorsers

An adjuration for Bible-Affirming Military Chaplain Endorsing Agencies to come out from among them (2 Corinthians 6:14-17)

by Sonny Hernandez

The National Conference on Ministry to Armed Forces (NCMAF) began in 1982 as a private, non-profit organization that connects member faith groups with military and VA chaplaincies, and claims to “celebrate the religious diversity of the United States of America.”

The NCMAF has members that are Roman Catholic, Jewish and Orthodox, Buddhist, Islamic, professing Christians, and even claims to span the total theological spectrum of religious life in the United States. What this means is that NCMAF has members that unite together who accept idolatry, blasphemy, sexual degeneracy, Trinitarian heresies, adulation to false gods, and even compromise from professing Christian endorsing agencies that align themselves with a theologically depraved conglomeration.

I. Biblical Edict

If an ecclesiastical endorsing agency affirms Read more

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