Religious and Cultural Advisement Course began Monday aimed at teaching
Religious Affairs Specialists aimed at improving their skills at advising
unit commanders on religious... VIEW ORIGINAL
On Monday the first Religious Affairs Specialists will start the first phase of the Religion and Cultural Advisement Course -- a class aimed at improving their skills at advising unit commanders on religious issues.
Religious Affairs Specialists, military occupational specialty 56M, until recently were known as Chaplain's Assistants. The change was facilitated to give unit chaplains better information to advise commanders with.
These changes "go hand in glove" with the name change, said Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan Watters, the developer and course manager for the RCAC at the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School on Fort Jackson.
A gap in training was found where advanced individual training Soldiers "weren't receiving courses in world religion, cultures and how to combine the two in operational environments," the 11-year veteran said.
"As a chaplain's assistant I didn't know all about culture and religion," said Staff Sgt. Toya Alexander-Cruz, a distance learning instructor at the school. "We weren't being taught that … I couldn't mentor other Soldiers because I didn't have a clue … I had to Google (the question) or ask a chaplain."
This will help Soldiers within the unit to be knowledgeable on different religions and cultures, said the native of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Watters and his team were tasked to develop a course to fill the gap and support the MOS name change. The RCAC they developed is a 200-level college course where Soldiers will receive credit hours from the University of South Carolina.
RCAC uses three eight-week distance learning classes developed by the university. The first class Global Human Religiosity was created specifically for the new Army course. The other two classes in the first phase are Morality, Ethics and Religion, and Religion and Conflict: Islam. The latter course can be tailored to different religions as the Army finds itself operating in different areas, Watters added.
The second phase of the course consists of two 40-hour resident courses.
RCAC will "give the commander a much better picture of the operational environment he is in," Watters said.
Recent Army conflicts point to the need for more cultural and religious advisement.
"Examples in Iraq and Afghanistan show where we did not recognize some of the … important religious this in that area -- whether it was a holy day, a sacred item or location," said Watters, who has deployed 11 times during his career. "We went in roughshod over some of those things.
Eventually, it came back to bring death to American forces due to our callousness.
"Through advisement we can say, 'Sir, Ma'am, this location is a holy site, this day is a holy day, this is why they are doing what they're doing.' Through that it will make a successful mission and commander to make better choices," Watters said.
Social Sharing