Clergy learn together how to help vets

Clergy learn together how to help vets
By Anna Badkhen
Globe Staff / April 22, 2008
HADLEY - When a young veteran arrived at the Wesley United Methodist Church two years ago, the Rev. Lyle Seger barely noticed his presence. The church was moving to a new building, and Seger was preoccupied. The veteran attended a couple of Sunday services and then stopped coming.


Last February, the man returned to Seger's church to speak at a seminar about emotional needs of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and seeing his life shattered by his tour of duty in Afghanistan, the veteran had turned to alcohol, left his wife and two children, and considered killing himself.

"It was like getting a gut punch; it was eye-opening," said Seger, a pastor of 22 years who sees his calling in helping people. "What would have happened if we were more attentive to him?"

While private charities and government agencies have focused on ways to help returning vets dealing with traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, or major depression, clergy have had little training. And with vets looking to churches for healing, ministers like Seger have not always known how to respond.

"They are not reaching out to them in a meaningful way that would help them heal from the war," said the Rev. Philip Salois, a Vietnam War veteran and chief of the chaplain service at the VA in Boston.

In Massachusetts, some members of the clergy are trying to find out.

click post title for more
more stories like this on site
Humbled at Walter Reed
State to hold veterans fair in Hartford
State forms commission on veteran mental health care
Commission to study effects of war on Mass. veterans
Program targets veteran suicides

It's about time!!!!!

This is one of the biggest reasons why I did the new video PTSD Not God's Judgment. So many feel they were abandoned by God because they were where they were, doing what they had to do, seeing what they had to see and then wondering how a loving God could tolerate what happens during war. The point is that His heart must be breaking when it does happen but His wisdom knows the difference between evil and the willingness to lay down your life for the sake of your friends. He knows the warriors are willing to do that, but they pray to Him they never have to use their training. He knows our troops do not get to decide where they will risk their lives, how long they will risk their lives or which enemy they are told to kill.

The first warrior created by God was the Arch Angel Michael. He was created before man was even on the planet. God knew freewill would create chaos, right and wrong would be susceptible to pride, greed and those who seek to take power. Even the angels battled against each other. From the beginning of recorded time, man went to war with man, nation attacked nation because rulers wanted more and more of everything no matter who they had to kill to get it. Yet the warriors are the ones who only serve their country.

Every civilization, every generation had to address the aftermath of war for the survivors. Most adapted procedures to deal with the suffering of the warriors by taking care of their mind, body and spirit in healing. No matter which time they lived in or what faith they had, their leaders fed the three parts of the warriors. America has done little to address any of the three parts. The warriors of today are not given time for their bodies to rest, recover and rebuild strength. Their minds are not allowed to heal and they are forced to wait for the medical care they need. Their spirits are not addressed at all by the government or the clergy. The excuse is the separation of church and state.

This is where Chaplains come in. They are non-denominational pastors without a church, without a pulpit and without an agenda other than taking care of the spiritual needs of mankind. It should also be where the clergy come in but they are disinterested. I've talked to members of the clergy trying to get them to do this but as I was trying to explain it, I could see their eyes glaze over and then they would change the subject.

Most of this comes from the fact they are people who love God but have lived their lives in study of God and not in the study of man. They do not pay attention to the news or the events shaping their "flock" as they deal with things impossible for them to understand. The clergy have a had time understanding what the troops are going through just as they have a hard time understanding the anyone who comes to doubt God's love. They make speeches about forgiveness in their sermons but they never get to the heart when there are people sitting out there listening who have survived the ravages of war and then doubting the very same love of God they are hearing about from the pulpit.

Please read the rest of this article and then pass it on to your own clergy. Again, it does not matter what faith you are a member of. This is a human illness and a human need.



Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington