Christian Chaplain slammed again for taking on PTSD?

Simplicity must really breed contempt. There is nothing wrong with a Christian Chaplain talking about how Christ can heal the wound to the soul. That is what PTSD is. It strikes the emotional part of the brain. Many believe that this region of the brain is also where the soul lives within all of us. As a matter of fact, it is the belief of many therapists the best healing happens when the mind-body and spirit are joined together to heal the whole person. There is nothing wrong with a Muslim Chaplain or a Hebrew Chaplain addressing the healing from their own faith. That is why there are Chaplains from many faiths, beliefs and walks of life.

There is a problem with Chaplains more focused on getting coverts instead of taking care of those in need, which I have a huge problem with, but that's another story. There is no constitutional problem as long as they do not cross the line as many have done. There have been and always will be Chaplains in the military. The problem comes when Christian Chaplains decide they will not uphold their nondenominational duty to attend to all Christians. We need to face the fact there are not enough Chaplains in any faith to attend to all those in need.

Faith can help the healing if they really understand it, but too many have limited understanding or claim to be Christian but have never heard how much they are loved and there is nothing they cannot be forgiven for. Yet it is the same story for other faiths.

The belief that we were all created, souls sent to this earth for a reason, is a Christian belief. It is thought that what we were intended to do on this earth was already hard wired into our soul and everything we needed to accomplish it, carry us through and heal from, was already there inside of us. That humans are called to go into certain fields and they respond to the "tug" seeking what they feel compelled to do.

Ask a member of the clergy why they chose that profession or why a doctor chose their's and you will hear they always wanted to do it or felt pulled into it.

For me, I believe that the members of the military and the people who go into law enforcement are called because there will always be a need for people of compassion and courage to defend others. When they are trying to heal from PTSD, their wounding is deeper because they were not only subjected to traumatic events, they participated in them. They don't have to just try to get over the event itself but all too often what they had to do in response to those events.


Chaplain Holdridge is also right on the fact that what we now call PTSD can be seen in the pages of the Bible. The spiritual crisis is recorded over and over again, particularly in the Psalms. Suggesting that this can help the Christians in the military heal is not wrong and if the other Chaplains from other faiths saw helpful readings within their own faith, there would be nothing wrong with that either. Telling all servicemen and women they had to use the Christian teachings to heal would be very wrong.

You can read it all here
Spiritual Resiliency

The other issue here is that in the Old Testament, the word Lord was used for God. In the New Testament the word Lord meant Christ. Most of what the Chaplain uses are taken from the Old Testament and we also need to remember that Christians, Jews and Muslims use the same pages along with their own.

Chaplain
1. A member of the clergy attached to a chapel.
2. a. A member of the clergy who conducts religious services for an institution, such as a prison or hospital.
b. A member of the clergy who is connected with a royal court or an aristocratic household.
3. A member of the clergy attached to a branch of the armed forces.

It is their job to take care of the spiritual needs of the troops. It is something that I have been saying for a very, very long time. Some cross the line and some go their own way but the issue of taking care of the mind-body-spirit by psychological, physical and religious professionals should be supported.

Army Chaplain Tries to Cure PTSD With Jesus
A top army chaplain has published his prescription for PTSD: Jesus. His actions may be unconstitutional -- and dangerous to soldiers.
August 7, 2010

Many Christians believe faith in Jesus Christ can cure almost anything: alcoholism, cancer, homosexuality, even the Son of Sam. But can it cure post traumatic stress disorder in troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq? The Army Reserves' top chaplain for military policemen believes so, and published his prescription on the Army Reserves' official Web site for everyone to see, in an act a watchdog organization argues is unconstitutional and dangerous when soldiers continue to kill themselves at an alarming rate.


In a nearly 11,000 word essay, "Spiritual Resiliency: Helping Troops Recover from Combat," Command Chaplain Col. Donald W. Holdridge of the 200th Military Police Command at Fort Meade, Maryland, argues belief in Jesus Christ and Bible reading, particularly King David's Psalms, can help cure a soldiers' PTSD. "Combat vets need to know that most of these [PTSD symptoms] do fade in time, like scars," writes Holdridge, a professor at the Baptist Bible College, as the Army Reserves banner hangs from the top of the Webpage. "They will always be there to some degree, but their intensity will fade. What will help them fade is the application of the principles of Scripture."


The tone of Holdridge's essay only gets more unapologetically evangelical as the chaplain's initial wading in a Christian sea slides into more brackish waters, evangelizing soldiers with PTSD that their service was part of a larger theological plan and dangerously merges church and state. "Military and law enforcement personnel bear the additional burden of contending with evil by acting as an arm of the state to punish those who have no respect for human life (Rom.13:4)," he writes.
Army Chaplain Tries to Cure PTSD With Jesus