Assignment 3

Assignment 3

Chaplains know that they do not command and have little opportunity to be autocrats.  Yet, ministry is performed and provided, leadership is exercised, and soldiers and their families are cared for within an institution built on coercion. The chaplain's situation is similar to the tensions and ambiguities that civilian clergy deal with daily in the free market place of religious ideas and practices. The underbrush of the Army, too, presents the moment and context for ministry for chaplains.  Doing ministry in this underbrush depends on the chaplain satisfying the expectations of ministry without ever forcing people to comply with certain religious programs, teachings, values or types of behavior.  The chaplain must persuade people through argument or example.  Sometimes this means being a panhandler.  At others it means being a prophet.

Critical for the Army chaplain as leader is finding a path through the Army underbrush rooted in coercion.  This is when persuasion becomes an art form of leadership.  Civilian clergy have a similar challenge in the secular society, but the chaplain is unique in that law and practice make the chaplain an officer in, and subject to, the institution rooted in coercion.  It is not the same as being a free agent in the public market place of America's religious supermarket.  History and law expect chaplains to have a clear understanding that they cannot use coercion.  Whether rabbi, priest, minister or imam, they are to be clergy first and foremost, never losing their pastoral hearts. [1]

Consider the differing vocabularies of command and ministry.  Words like control, dominate, dictate, order, regulate, and obey are identified with commanders.  Words like mercy, caring, sensitivity, compassion, reflective, loving, justice and servant are identified with chaplains.  These words mirror the cultural expectations of clergy as leaders reflected in Schuller's study.

Most Army commanders, it ...