The Cultural Challenge of the Chaplaincy
A friend of mine asked me what I thought the military chaplaincy’s greatest challenge might be over the next decade. I answered that the greatest challenge might not be within the chaplaincy itself. We chaplains are a strange mix of “God and country” in a culture that is increasingly uncomfortable with that formulation. Our culture is: Fragmenting Religiously . The old cultural consensus is dead, and along with it, religion's dominant place in society. The culture is awash with endless permutations and combinations of religious ideas. "Spiritual but not religious" is on the rise. Even among the religious, identification with a particular institution or stream of tradition carries little weight. Religious institutions themselves often seem adrift and uncertain about their identity. The "me" and the "now" are it. Pushing Religion into the Purely Private Realm and out of the Public Square . There is great distrust of religious institutions, discomfo...