WASHINGTON – I am in the spiritual readiness business. What does that mean, you ask? The answer is that, as a part of my duties as an Army chaplain, I am focused on building Army spiritual readiness, so that all the Soldiers with whom I serve will be ready to defend our freedoms when called upon.
Building Army spiritual readiness is a key and essential way in which the Army Chaplain Corps cares for the members of the Army family. The phrase, spiritual readiness, represents new language for the Army, but it is work that builds on our Corps’ 250-year legacy of sacred service.
Military chaplain basics
Like all our country’s military chaplains, I am authorized to serve as a religious leader in the military by the faith group to which I belong. In my case, that faith group is the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., and I am a committed Christian and a proud lifelong Baptist. That means I am excited and honored to lead Christian worship services and to minister to fellow Christians - and especially fellow Baptists - as a fundamental part of my duties in the Army. But I am not in the Army to care for just Baptists or even Christians! My chaplain colleagues and I are in the armed forces to care for all our fellow service members and their families, regardless of their religious preferences and even when they are not religious at all.
Military chaplains play a crucial role in creating a supportive and inclusive environment in which our nation’s diverse service members are free to exercise their constitutional First Amendment right to decide for themselves if and how they will practice religion. When the Army Chaplain Corps was established in 1775 at the request of General George Washington, to provide religious care for our new nation’s Soldiers, all our Corps’ chaplains were Protestant, with very little variety. But our Corps has diversified along with the other military chaplaincies, in order to be better equipped to meet the needs of everyone serving in America’s armed forces. These days our nation’s military chaplains represent all the major religions of the world and more than 100 specific faith groups, and we are a microcosm of American diversity in nearly every other way as well.
Today’s military chaplains are a diverse collection of advocates for religious freedom, and we work with one another to ensure those serving our country have the resources needed to practice their religions of choice, as well as the support they need to thrive whether they are religious or not. In the Army Chaplain Corps, we do that work in alignment with the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness Soldier Readiness System. This is where spiritual readiness comes into the discussion.
Spiritual readiness and Army Holistic Health and Fitness
Army Field Manual 7-22 explains the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness Doctrine - or H2F. It is designed to build holistic peak performance in America’s Soldiers, so that they will have the physical lethality and mental toughness required to win in combat decisively and quickly, and then return home healthy.
Prior to the manual’s most recent revision in 2020, H2F addressed four domains of individual Soldier readiness to accomplish their assigned missions to defend our nation: physical, nutritional, mental, and sleep. Now the H2F Doctrine includes spiritual readiness, recognizing that, as human beings, each of us is a combination of body, mind, and spirit. Spirituality and spiritual readiness relate to how we develop our beliefs about the meaning of life and our sense of connection with others. The spiritual dimension applies to all people, whether they are religious or non-religious, and it is unique to each individual person, even though it provides important, really rich common ground for people to share.
Peer-reviewed scientific research has shown that spiritual health positively influences physical and mental health, that it increases positive well-being and decreases harmful behaviors, and that it increases human flourishing. Spiritual health leads to spiritual readiness, which the Army defines as “The development of the personal qualities needed to sustain a person in times of stress, hardship, and tragedy.” Any reader can probably easily surmise why this sort of readiness is vital for America’s Soldiers and their family members as they face the challenges that come with military life!
The qualities that come with spiritual readiness develop out of the combination of religious, philosophical, and human values we embrace individually and collectively. It is those values that enable us to make meaning out of our life experiences and to persevere when times get hard.
Army leaders are expected to encourage personal spiritual readiness by establishing command climates where Soldiers practice mutual respect for one another, in ways that encourage dialogue and foster team cohesion. Army chaplains support that effort by promoting and modeling respect and concern for everyone on the Army team, and by helping Soldiers and their family members a) to secure positive personal core values of their own; b) to fortify a sense of life purpose defined by their values; c) to commit to daily practices that reinforce their values; and d) to connect with others in ways that support their sense of purpose.
Spiritual readiness: For winning in combat and in life
General Randy George, who became the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army in September 2023, has reminded all of us in the Army that we are “a warfighting organization” whose mission is timeless and clear: “to fight and win our nation’s wars.” This is true of all our country’s military services.
Military chaplains are noncombatants. We do not carry weapons and we do not fight. But we proudly serve alongside and support the men and women who put their lives on the line in order to defend our nation. That takes us wherever those men and women go, in peacetime and in wartime, even though we much prefer peace, as I think we all do.
As we serve alongside our nation’s warriors and families, military chaplains support their constitutional right to practice their choice of religion or no religion at all. We also encourage, counsel, and care for them to help build their spiritual readiness to overcome stress, hardship, and tragedy, individually and in connection with one another.
Field Manual 7-22’s language might be new, but our nation’s military chaplains have always been in the spiritual readiness business. Ever since 1775, America’s military chaplains have been helping those who wear our country’s uniforms to make meaning out of their life experiences and to persevere when times are hard.
We continue that sacred legacy today, so that the men and women who defend our nation can thrive and win, in combat and in life.
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