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109 chapter four Liturgy and Interpretation Somewhere in Vietnam, in a bomb crater filled with water, Joseph Dulany baptized soldiers, and in those moments, remnants of death and destruction became founts for the symbolic waters of life. On another military base, James Johnson grieved as he held the lifeless body of a friend who was killed on a mission Johnson would have been on had he not stayed behind to baptize another soldier, and was left pondering the significance of trading a new spiritual birth for a death. Later, Johnson recorded in great detail the mutilation of a Viet Cong corpse by American servicemen with C-ration plastic spoons, and agonized over his inability to respond according to his moral beliefs. On a ship, Joseph O’Donnell anointed the mangled remains of eighteen Marines with the Catholic Sacrament of the Sick, a blessing performed as much for those left alive as for the dead. Curt Bowers baptized soldiers of different races, ethnicities, and backgrounds as others armed with automatic weapons stood watch to ensure their safety. Orris Kelly offered Communion to soldiers returning home, regardless of their religious preference, as a symbol of community and reconciliation. James Hutchens participated in every aspect of his unit’s initiation ritual, though he substituted lukewarm water for liquor. Chaplain Tumkin went AWOL (absent without leave) when conditions at camp got too rough. In the midst of day-to-day work—holding services, filling out paperwork , traveling to units, counseling soldiers, and visiting troops—and occasionally as a result of it, chaplains confronted a variety of problems in Vietnam. As chaplains worked through complex moral, theological, and pastoral dilemmas, they also adapted traditional religious practices and interpretations for the context of war and reframed the experience of war within religious paradigms. Doing so brought together two sets of cultural norms and values that at times appeared opposed to one another. Most often, chaplains—like those to whom they ministered—made decisions based on the exigencies of particular moments. As chaplains addressed the moral and theological problems described in Chapter 3, they also thought broadly about the morality of the Vietnam War, responded to changed 110 | Liturgy and Interpretation liturgical and worship settings, and engaged in a creative process to lead the creation of diverse and dynamic liturgies of war, which were particularly suited to the war zone and further allowed participants to interpret their wartime experiences through a religious lens. The Morality of the Vietnam War Just as chaplains used a variety of religious lenses and interpretations to respond to questions of morality in war, so too did they use religious ideas, especially as perceived through the lens of the Cold War, to consider the morality of the Vietnam War as a whole. Their interpretations of the war’s morality were especially important as they led soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen in worship and provided religious counseling. If chaplains could not credibly discuss the morality of serving in war, and of this war in particular, they risked losing the trust of those they were there to serve. Even so, chaplains were wary of engaging in this sort of theological exercise . Soldiers in combat needed reassurance of their moral goodness, perhaps of their salvation, because they also needed to remain militarily effective. Unsurprisingly, chaplains turned to proof texts and simple exegesis to accomplish these goals. James Hutchens recalled that the sermons he gave before his unit deployed centered on the “responsibility to our government (Romans 13), the sixth commandment (‘Thou shalt not kill’), and the problem of the Christian serving in the Army.”1 Hutchens crafted his sermons to reassure soldiers going into combat that what they were doing was not only morally defensible but also their duty. In the cramped quarters of troop ships, isolated at sea for three or four weeks at a time, soldiers, sailors, and airmen had ample time to question the morality of war and to participate in worship and Bible study. Curt Bowers recalled that the most common question asked was, “Can I be a Christian and still kill?” He answered using various examples from the Old and New Testaments to reassure soldiers of their duty and morality.2 Yet he cautioned readers of his memoir not to frame this question solely in philosophical or theological terms. In combat, soldiers did not enjoy the “luxury” or safety of classrooms; they “were wrestling to find the real flesh-and-blood answers,” for their battles would soon deal in flesh and...

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