A pastor (minister, priest, rabbi, imam) is a leader of a local church, synagogue or mosque congregation, and as such represents the movement, denomination or at the very least the congregation whom he or she serves. A pastor is involved with the promotion of his or her faith, congregation its programs, doctrinal distinctives and theological perspectives.
 

A Chaplain generally does not offer religious or spiritual advice unless the employee specifically requests it. A Chaplain may share parts of his or her spiritual journey where appropriate when it coincides with a specific aspect of the clients’ situation. Law Enforcement Chaplains serve the personnel of the agency and their families, and have a responsibility to provide an effective and ethical service.
 

A Chaplain is not a proselytizer. A Chaplain coerces no one. Counsel given by a Chaplain is directed only to those who seek him or her out. It may be helpful for the individual seeking help to differentiate between a Christian Chaplain and a Chaplain who is a Christian.
Chaplains, in a desire for the good of the whole person, seek to contribute to an environment which supports mutual respect, self esteem, and the appropriate pursuit of personal and professional growth and agency goals.

The role of a Chaplain may differ according to the individual Chaplain’s educational background, expertise experience and faith tradition, but generally can be described as follows:

1. Pastoral
Chaplains provide pastoral or supportive care for employees and their families, supplementing the other support services of the EAP. It is recognized that some employees may prefer a chaplain to a peer or clinical counselor for personal counseling. chaplains help to provide for spiritual, personal and social needs, and to facilitate the goals and directives of the EAP. It is intended that these services contribute positively to the quality of life and operations in the agencyI.

2. Chaplains provide practical care in a number of ways which may include:
 enabling individuals to understand their spiritual concerns;
 providing personal advice and counsel;
 providing prayer, counsel and spiritual support in times of crisis, such as divorce, family problems, use of deadly force, lawsuits or internal investigations.
 providing services to newly assigned employees who are dealing with the dislocation and adjustments of living and working in a new city. The chaplain, as “local” can help ease the new arrival into the local culture;
 diversifying social contact especially for newly arriving employees;
 providing support for those who are spiritually inclined or are deeply religious and want counsel and help that comes from someone who truly understands their issues.
 assisting EAP peer counselors and clinicians when dealing with those who are deeply religious and who may distrust counsel that is strictly secular.
 providing support for employees who are spiritually minded in relating professional demands to the dictates of their conscience or religious expectations;
 promoting the sense of family and community within the agency as a whole;
 advocacy where appropriate;
 FBI Chaplains recognize that in many instances it is appropriate that they work in conjunction with other units of the agency, as a ministry of presence or in a consulting role; for example HRT, BSU or ERT’s.

3. Spiritual
Chaplains provide “presence” as an individual who is in touch with God, with the spiritual aspects of life, and who bring peace, tranquility and understanding, and hopefully offer counsel and comfort.

4. Religious Teaching
Chaplains may provide religious teaching and opportunities for dialogue and discussion in accordance with the teachings of their faith traditions.

Specific Uses of a Chaplain
When an individual is deeply spiritual, and wants scriptural support for the counsel he or she is receiving, it is a good thing to recommend a Chaplain. (Many spiritual people naturally distrust advice and counsel given by someone who does not believe in God or is unfamiliar with the scriptures whether it is the Bible, Vedas or the Koran).
When the individual has been involved in use of deadly force and asks if God is mad, because the scriptures say, “Thou shalt not kill,” it is a good thing to recommend a Chaplain.

When there are life and death issues, such as a death or birth in the family, suicide or diagnosis of the individual or family member with a possibly terminal disease – it’s a good thing to recommend a Chaplain.

Conclusion:
We need to recognize Law Enforcement Officers and their families as a people group with their own very specific values, stressors, and family dynamics.

We want to avoid the Humpty Dumpty Syndrome. As Chaplains we can help Humpty Dumpty before he falls.
The counsel of a Chaplain, minister, priest or rabbi is a matter of ethics, not one of religiosity. There is nothing inherently religious about God. If a clinician or peer knows of a resource that could help one of our personnel or has helped others, and does not offer that resourced, it would be unethical. It is an ethical responsibility to inform personnel of the possibility of drawing on spiritual resources.
It's with in bounds for clinician to bring awareness that many claim to receive help, relief serenity, thru practicing presence of God and found it the pathway to healing. Chaplains are a key component in Agency health and functionality.

 

Part Two: Other Resources Related to Chaplaincy
 

Chaplains and Separation of Church and State

In an interview with Tom Witosky for the Des Moines Register, June 1, 2007, Tom Berg commented on the constitutionality of chaplains in a secular environment. Berg is a constitutional law professor at the University of St. Thomas College of Law in St. Paul, Minn. He has authored two legal case books and more than 25 legal briefs on issues of religious liberty and free speech. He is also an expert on the constitutional issue of separation of church and state. Berg said that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that religion-based programs can enter public institutions, but become inappropriate when religion and government become one or the program becomes coercive.

When religious initiatives are appropriate, according to Professor Berg:

The use of chaplains in the U.S. military and in prisons indicates that the government can be used to provide religious counsel and help to those who want it. "Government is deeply involved in those situations," Berg said. "If it didn't provide that avenue for prisoners and soldiers to have access to a clergyman, then government would be viewed as suppressing religion."

Berg said that an institution needs to "… structure [the Chaplain’s program] in such a way as to make sure the chaplain is simply there as a resource and not participate in any kind of coercive pressure."


Excerpts from From Chaplain Leadership as the Art of Persuasion by Chaplain (MAJ) Paul A. Baker, USAR , published in the “Army Chaplaincy” Winter 1998.

“Military chaplains have not been exempt from the legal and historical influences of voluntary association. This is why the legal justification for military chaplains rests on the free exercise clause of the First Amendment. Soldiers must be free to practice their religious faith and have access to clergy of their particular faith community as an exercise of religious freedom and voluntary association. To allow this to happen, the government provides clergy who serve as chaplains. Chaplains provide for the religious needs of soldiers and their families, while performing direct ministry to those who seek it from the chaplains of particular faith traditions.

The legal and historical roots of religious freedom resulted in the non-acceptance of clergy using coercive power as an instrument of government authority. These same roots also forbid chaplains from exercising the coercive power that undergirds command. That is why chaplains, along with civilian clergy, are leaders who rely on the exercise of persuasion to accomplish their mission.

“Consider the differing vocabularies of command and ministry. Words like control, dominate, dictate, order, regulate, and obey are identified with commanders. Words like mercy, caring, sensitivity, compassion, reflective, loving, justice and servant are identified with chaplains. These words mirror the cultural expectations of clergy as leaders reflected in Schuller’s study.

Most Army commanders, it seems, expect chaplains to comply with the cultural roles required of all clergy. Chaplain Everette J. Thomas in 1981 surveyed thirty-nine Army colonels with the intent of identifying how commanders perceive chaplains.

The following percentages indicate how many commanders identified each characteristic. The survey indicated that commanders perceive a chaplain as a dedicated person of God (100%); a counselor to soldiers (97%); a moral influence on troops (95%); concerned with service, not status (95%); a member of the military team (90%); a clergyperson more than an officer (74%). The chaplain was not seen as unnecessary by all 39 commanders. Also, the vast majority of commanders surveyed did not perceive the chaplain as without dedication or calling (95%), involved with non-clergy duties (92%), or as a justifier of the military establishment (85%). The characteristics perceived by the colonels as positives mirror the qualities and expectations of leadership that rely on persuasive techniques and personalities. (from Everette J. Thomas, "The Commander-Chaplain Perceptual Communication Gap," unpublished study paper, February, 1982)

Excerpts from Warrior, prophet, priest: the strategic value of chaplains to the war effort and community - Infantry Magazine, July-August, 2006 by Stephen Muse, Glen L. Bloomstrom

Contributions of the Chaplaincy
Historically Army chaplains have been and remain the critical link in assisting with Soldiers' morale and helping with the transition between war and civilian life. Chaplains have consistently been catalysts and innovators in addressing Soldier and family needs and initiating programs, which later became independent Army programs. Chaplains established lending closets and provided "Helping Hand" funds using offerings taken up at chapels which were the precursors to today's Army Community Service and Army Emergency Relief. After World War II, chaplains were at the forefront of initiatives to racially integrate the force. During the Vietnam period and following, chaplains initiated and were integral to drug and alcohol treatment and "Human Relations" programs.

The chaplain remains the primary frontline professional person in whom Soldiers are likely to confide in or seek out in distress. While the stigma of the label of "mental illness" still prevents Soldiers from talking with psychiatrists and medical personnel, the American Association of Pastoral Counselors found that when "... confronted with a personal problem needing counseling, 66 percent of persons would prefer a counselor who represented spiritual values and beliefs.

Eighty-one percent prefer someone who enables them to integrate their values and belief system into the counseling process." Results of the Sample Survey of Military Personnel (SSMP) indicate that next to a friend or close relative, Soldiers rank chaplains as the one "most likely for Army personnel to turn to for advice about confidential personal or family problems."

Excerpt from : Chaplains: The Calm in the Chaos, Newsweek - May 7, 2007 issue By Lisa Miller

“They inspire, give comfort and pray for safety. Throughout America's history, chaplains have 'come nigh unto the battle.”
History's battlefields have almost always held a place for men and women of God—someone to inspire and give comfort, give parents and fiancées the bad news, file forms, educate, pray for safety and, failing that, safe passage. Deuteronomy 20:2-4 says, "And it shall be when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people."

In America, the role of military chaplain has, in the past 250 years, grown from ad hoc—the village pastor who fought with the boys in his congregation—to bureaucratic. But from the start, the job has had inherent tensions: To whom does the chaplain ultimately report? To the troops who need guidance? The government that pays the bills? God? And in the hell of war, how does a chaplain hold on to faith?
George Washington thought chaplains belonged in the military and he wrote 50 letters saying so; in 1775, Congress approved funding. Almost immediately, though, the position raised ethical and constitutional questions. In his "Detached Memoranda," James Madison worried that military chaplains might violate the Establishment Clause.

In the 1840s, a group of Protestants from Tennessee wrote a letter to the secretary of War, saying they didn't want their tax dollars to pay for a Catholic chaplain—and as the diversity of the U.S. troops grew (black and Jewish chaplains joined the military in the Civil War), so did these tensions. Two years ago, the Air Force had to issue a statement saying it didn't prefer one religion to another after staffers complained of proselytizing by evangelicals; in 2004, General William G. Boykin was reprimanded for making anti-Muslim remarks.
On a frigid night in 1943, the U.S. transport ship Dorchester was sailing near Greenland when it was hit by a torpedo from a German sub. Among the dead were four chaplains—two Protestants, a Catholic and a Jew—who gave their own life jackets to men on deck. They could be heard praying together as the massive ship slipped under water, and their sacrifice and compassion became the stuff of legend.
With Sarah Childress, Sarina Rosenberg and John Barry © 2007 Newsweek, Inc.
 

Excerpt from War in the Chaplain Corps
By Ward Sanderson, Stars and Stripes
Stripes Sunday magazine, November 23, 2003
The American Civil Liberties Union does not oppose chaplains.

"It’s been challenged and upheld by the courts," said Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU’s national capital affiliate. "The reasoning is, when the military takes someone and puts them on a ship, or somewhere in Afghanistan, it’s reasonable for the government to provide some means of exercising their religion. That’s the same thing that happens in the prisons. We’re not opposed to that."
Doug Bandow, a religion and politics analyst with the libertarian Cato Institute, agreed.

"I don’t see how you can have folks in the military and not give them access to chaplains," Bandow said. "You can’t put guys in Iraq and say, ‘Good luck, now find a church.’ I don’t think anyone can argue that it’s establishment of religion."

The chaplaincy is inherently about religion, and diverse ones. Navy chaplains constantly bring up the idea of pluralism. The problem, evangelicals maintain, is that it can mean the ability of all chaplains to pursue their faith, a requirement that all chaplains not offend the faith of another or simply describe the environment of many faiths making up the sea service.

Cmdr. Lawrence Zoeller, an equal opportunity investigator testified: “A chaplain wouldn’t preach his doctrine if it was offensive to another religious group,"

"That is, in effect, both an establishment of religion and a violation of free exercise," Arthur Schulcz, the Vienna, Va.-based attorney said of the testimony. "That is, in fact, contrary to the whole spirit of the First Amendment."

"Pluralism, again, doesn’t describe how we do what we do," Navy Chaplain Hendricks testified. "It more describes the context in which we serve."