Mainline chaplains

I WANT TO thank the CENTURY for having the courage to carry articles challenging the handling of the war in Iraq while at the same time carrying recruiting advertisements for the U.S. Army Chaplaincy.

On July 16, 2003, on the outskirts of the town of Abu Ghraib in Iraq, I said final prayers for a soldier, Ramon Reyes Torres of the 432nd Transportation Company. Ramon's convoy was hit by a car bomb as it passed through the area. When I arrived on the scene, Ramon's fellow soldiers were gathered around his exposed body, staring in shock and disbelief at their fallen comrade, whom they had known and grown up with back home in Puerto Rico. Ramon's death was the first combat casualty they had witnessed.

It wasn't a pretty sight, so I took charge, and I and another soldier scooped up Ramon's remains so they wouldn't be desecrated by the locals. A group of us then held hands for prayer, committing Ramon to God's care and asking God, in the midst of things we couldn't even begin to understand, to comfort and care for Ramon's family and friends as they grieved his loss.

As the prayers were ending, a crowd of locals started to gather, and on seeing the covered remains of Ramon they started cheering and singing and dancing. They were openly celebrating the death of another human being, one of God's children. It was evil--in-your-face, raw and exposed.

As the intensity of the cheering increased, one of the soldiers beside me clicked the safety off his rifle, raised his weapon and pointed it at the crowd. I knew viscerally the rage and anger this soldier felt. I too had lost friends to horrible deaths in Iraq. Part of me wanted to say, "Go ahead. Do it." However, I am a pastor and an American soldier, and I know the "right thing to do." I put my hand on his M-16, gently lowering it, and said, "We can't become the thing we hate." It was one of many times that God's presence guided me in being in the right place to help protect angry, tired, hot and edgy soldiers from their own worst selves.

The army chaplaincy is woefully short of chaplains from mainline denominations. Mainline chaplains connect well with soldiers because we sense our call as "serving the other in the savior's name" rather than trying to make sure the soldier is "saved." Some of my mainline/liberal colleagues gave me a hard time about joining the military. My response to them: "You talk a lot about serving the poor, the downtrodden and the forgotten, but when does the rubber hit the road? For me it's no longer a nice idea but a cruciform calling."

Chaplain CPT Glenn Palmer

Battalion Chaplain, U.S. Army

COPYRIGHT 2006 The Christian Century Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning