Chaplains and Religion Substituted for Professional Mental Health Care in the Military

[Judi Lynn]

Chris RoddaSenior Research Director, Military Religious Freedom Foundation; author, "Liars For Jesus"
Posted: August 15, 2010 01:58 PM

Chaplains and Religion Substituted for Professional Mental Health Care in the Military

The following is a joint letter sent by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. The military's practice of substituting religion for professional mental health care for PTSD and suicide prevention has become increasingly frequent, with alarming reports coming in to MRFF from active duty troops, and reports coming in to VCS from veterans who were subjected to this practice while on active duty and are now suffering the consequences of not getting the professional help they needed when they needed it.

August 9, 2010

Dear Secretary Gates:

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has learned on numerous occasions over the past several years about blatantly sectarian Christian religious programs and Christian proselytizing in the military. The proselytizing is unconstitutional and we demand you issue an order to stop it now.

Our letter addresses a particularly pernicious subcategory of proselytizing that must also cease immediately. The military often substitutes evangelical chaplains in the place of professional mental health care for service members suffering from mental health conditions, especially post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These reports have recently become increasingly frequent and alarming.

Among the many types of shocking incidents and illicit and dehumanizing practices reported to MRFF have been the military's teaching of creationism as an actual bona fide means of suicide prevention; the use of a parachurch military ministry's evangelical Christian program to treat PTSD; service members seeking help being sent to and proselytized by chaplains instead of being sent to mental health professionals; articles in official military publications stating that finding Jesus is the only solution to the mental health problems faced by members of our armed forces; mandatory mental health training inside chapels, plus countless "Spiritual Fitness" events and programs being promoted as mental health solutions.

Perhaps the most alarmingly repugnant stories are those coming in from our recent war veterans regarding the widespread practice of "battlefield Christian proselytizing." When, on active duty, our service members sought urgently needed mental health counseling while on the battlefield and with the gun smoke practically still in their faces, they were instead sent to evangelizing chaplains, who are apparently being used with increasing frequency to provide mental health care due to the acute shortage of mental health professionals. Chaplains are not certified, professional mental health experts.

According to the reports of these veterans, the chaplains they were sent to for evaluation and treatment had the unmitigated temerity to urge, as a medicinal cure, a conversion to evangelical Christianity, and sometimes even went as far as disgustingly lacing their "counseling" with the soldiers' need to stay on the battlefield to" kill Muslims for Christ." Even in the best cases, while the chaplains' words of proselytizing may have provided a temporary placebo, allowing these soldiers to return temporarily to combat for the remainder of their deployment, within months of returning home from war, their "temporary religious faith" wore off as their profound mental health symptoms, quite predictably, returned in all their fury. And, again, the shortage of available mental healthcare professionals and lack of treatment exacerbated the service members' psychological trauma.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/chaplains-and-religion-su_b_678779.html

[cliffordu]

1. Scumsucking assholes........

Bring on the fucking rapture and get these assholes off my planet.....

[Skittles]

10. sanctimonious idiots really do ruin life on this planet

[cliffordu]

11. Yep...Makes me want to

KICK THEIR ASSES

:hi:

[Skittles]

12. I can't stand them

the worst are the "born agains" - who was it that said they are an even bigger pain in the ass the second time around? :hi:

[MadMaddie]

2. This is a greater danger to our military than anything else

The religious right zeolots have a lot of power in the military, what if these zeolots have control of the weapons? This has bothered me for a long time....

These people are using religion to deal with PTSD? Is there a direct correlation between those that have received this "treatment" and suicides?

[ThomCat]

3. This is beyond disgusting!

This is so Hugely Atrocious, I want to throw something! How Dare They do this to our military! :grr:

We need the ACLU and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to sue the government over and over and over again until BULLSHIT like this finally stops and they finally get the message that you just don't let this BULLSHIT happen. :grr:

There is absolutely no excuse for allowing this to happen, and it could not happen so pervasively without the direct, explicit knowledge and permission of a lot of people at all levels all the way to the top.

[mnhtnbb]

4. Good grief. We're back to The Crusades.

[burnsei sensei]

5. This must not be tolerated.

There are credible, scientific ways of approaching the problems of these soldiers.
There are also credible artistic and sociall-based approaches.
There is no excuse for this. To use religion is to isolate the soldier with his pain.
It's bad, bad medicine.

[Raster]

6. Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before.

Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; forward into battle see his banners go!

I guess somebody did not get the "Prince of Peace" memo.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. That's really not good. Come on military. Step up and take care of your people!

[msongs]

8. soya think the commander in chief is gonna stop this? not without a survey first lol nt

[madrchsod]

9. a lot of rules and regulations were violated by these groups

i hope the military shuts these guys down..but i doubt they have the balls to do so.

army chaplains do have a role in the military and it`s unfortunate these people took advantage of the program.