War and faith

You know as well as anyone that soldiers often face extraordinary physical, emotional, and psychological pressures. Have you seen soldiers turn to their faith in their attempts to respond to these things?

Well, this is one of the major times in your life when you would turn to faith. Really, some of the stresses the soldiers face out there are incredible. Although it’s not a huge war on a historical scale, the troops who are fighting it sometimes face combat seven days a week. So, on the very broad scale, it’s a small war. But for the people who are fighting, it can be very intense. So, the soldiers definitely benefit from any kind of moral leadership. Strong, faith-based leadership is crucial.

Soldiers of faith respond to the pressures with prayer. Some soldiers will pray before going on a mission. Some units huddle up and pray together before going on missions.

I’ve been on a few missions lately with chaplains. On one of them, a mission in which we might have faced combat, the chaplain brought everyone together for a prayer. I think that’s a good thing. It gets people in the right frame of mind. This is serious. Everyone knows it’s serious. But there’s a reason why we’re doing it, and we need to remember the reason we’re here.