Taking faith to the 'new' front lines

How to teach ethics and values across faiths and to those with no faith is a prime concern for chaplains. "The chaplain brings not just his or her tradition's answers to questions, but more importantly, the experience of process - of struggling with issues of right and wrong," says Resnicoff. "Chaplains get involved in morals, ethics, and values because someone should be able to come to us and ask, 'How can I carry a weapon? How much bad can you do in the name of good?' These are questions that face us always in the military." And chaplains must serve people of many faiths, helping them find answers within their own tradition.

Some are now concerned about the rise of movements in Europe, including political parties, supporting various forms of intolerance and taking advantage of the economic doldrums. "How should chaplains combat these feelings?" Rabbi Albert Guigui of Belgium asks. "What should we do in the barracks so that our young people learn to love rather than hate those with a different race or religion?"

Robert Seiple, the US State Department's special representative for international religious freedom, who spoke at the conference, said that under difficult circumstances there is a tendency to scapegoat. "We should never assume that tolerance has been learned," he said. Two things tend to promote religious tolerance, he added. "People need to know their own faith at its core, in its richness - all faiths have some form of the golden rule. And they should know enough about their neighbors' [faiths] to respect them."

Today's military is putting great store on understanding different cultures and religions and other peoples' histories.

Maj. Gen. Charles Wax, US Air Force, director of plans and policy directorate at the US European Command, says, "We can no longer only pursue our military and operational plans centered on nations or national borders.... There are only 190 nations in the world, but there are 5,000 recognized ethnic groups." And those ethnic groups may well be defined in part by religious heritage, he says.

US engagement strategy

The new US National Security Strategy emphasizes not only preparedness, but "engagement." "Engagement means we're involved proactively with other nations so that we shape the environment to prevent war," Resnicoff says. "It's like the fire department, which doesn't just fight fires. It tries to change the way we build buildings and educates on how to prevent fires."

This means the US European Command (which actually deals with an area encompassing 89 countries in Europe, Africa, and part of the Middle East) is working with other militaries and with civilian groups under many situations. The chaplain is becoming recognized as the "natural bridge" to many of these parties.

In engagement with militaries of Eastern European nations, many still struggling with democracy, chaplains advocate values of fundamental human dignity and "religion as a basic human right." Some are wary of chaplains because of bad experience with missionaries, Resnicoff says. We explain we're not promoting a religion, but freedom of religion, and our approach is that "those in the military who fight and sacrifice for freedom should be allowed to enjoy those freedoms."

In situations such as Bosnia, where "shaping the environment" is crucial to peace and to allowing foreign troops to go home, Resnicoff is involved with nongovernmental groups in helping advise local leaders on steps toward reconciliation. Involving chaplains in such a group "wouldn't have happened even a year ago," he says, but many are seeing "the role of the chaplain can be much more than it has been in the past." He is now hoping to train some chaplains in reconciliation skills.

"The world is changing, the military is changing, the mandate of civilian organizations is changing," Resnicoff says. The chaplain can bring to the table wisdom about "the struggle of trying to understand how you do your best to live up to values in an imperfect world."

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