Bringing God to Men: American Military Chaplains and the Vietnam War

Seven: Dissent and Mission

196 chapter seven Dissent and Mission “To hell with Jehovah.” One line in one song included in the Armed Forces Hymnal sparked the controversy. In 1974, a tense congressional election year, the inclusion of Sydney Carter’s song “It Was on a Friday Morning” provoked accusations of blasphemy not only from religious groups but also from American politicians and policy-makers, including Senator Strom Thurmond and Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger. The incident was a flash in the pan of the larger “culture wars” that increasingly engulfed the United States, but it indicated a growing divide between the ecumenical ideals of the traditional chaplaincy and the increasingly sectarian and conservative nature of the changing Chaplain Corps. These debates fit well within the narrative of the rise of the Religious Right, the withdrawal of mainline religion from the public sphere, and the military’s post-Vietnam search for a mission and function. Institutionally, the chaplaincy faced serious questions about its utility , organization, and mission after the Vietnam War. Liberal and mainline religious groups felt betrayed by what they viewed as chaplains’ prophetic failure and openly criticized the Chaplain Corps’ effectiveness. Some went so far as to accuse them of complicity in the tragedy of Vietnam . Conservative groups, on the other hand, continued to promote an evangelical mission to the military. Liberal and secular observers launched a civil court case that sought to declare the military chaplaincy unconstitutional on the basis of the First Amendment, while conservative and evangelical Christians gained traction in political circles and in the military . The chaplaincy continued to face shortages of Catholic, Jewish, and liturgical Protestant chaplains. It admitted women to the Chaplain Corps for the first time in history in the 1970s, and worked to reconfigure the way chaplains were assigned to units—all partly in response to the Vietnam experience. The process of theological interpretation, conflict resolution, and identity formation that took place in Vietnam continued when chaplains Dissent and Mission | 197 returned home, and the Chaplain Corps, deeply affected by the experience of Vietnam, similarly underwent a process of reflection and reorganization . This chapter examines three trends or episodes that illustrate the ways in which the chaplaincy responded to post-Vietnam concerns. First, in the 1970s, the military chaplaincy responded to ongoing attacks from liberal and mainline religious groups and from secular critics about the constitutionality and moral advisability of maintaining a military chaplaincy . The Chaplain Corps’ response, along with the changing demographic of the Chaplain Corps, demonstrated the degree to which the military chaplaincy had become divorced from its mainline roots. Second , the chaplaincy undertook a major ecumenical project to produce an armed services worship book, and its inclusion of the song “It Was on a Friday Morning”—an ironic and meditative song about Jesus Christ’s crucifixion —created an uproar among conservative Christian groups and secular politicians who deemed the song blasphemous. Though it is only a single episode whose significance to the macro-level issues is minimal, it is symbolic of larger fights, and it holds an outsized significance within the Chaplain Corps’ historical archive. Both sides in this instance dug in and insisted on the fundamental rightness—and righteousness—of their position. This challenge exemplified the chaplaincy’s attempts to retain independence and its historical commitment to ecumenicalism as well as the Religious Right’s increasing cultural capital and political power. Finally, these cultural crosscurrents—declining liberal support for the chaplaincy and rising conservative power—affected the organizational culture and perceived mission of the chaplaincy, shifting it toward the political and Religious Right and expanding its operational role outside of its traditional mission to provide religious support for military service members. Major changes were afoot between the 1970s and 2000s, and the Vietnam experience informed and influenced many of them. This process of reflection, resolution, and reorganization, both individually and institutionally , left important legacies for the expression of religious practice within the American military and for the role of chaplains. Postwar changes eventually endangered chaplains’ ambiguous position within military and religious structures as changing demographics, doctrines, and interpretations threatened to undermine the chaplaincy’s historical emphasis on religious and pastoral support for service members and ecumenism within the Chaplain Corps. 198 | Dissent and Mission Mainline and Liberal Critique As the war wound down, liberal and mainline religious groups continued to call for the civilianization of the military chaplaincy. Furthermore, several books appeared in the late 1960s that set...