Welcome to the
"Liberty Insider."
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This is your program
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that brings you
up-to-date news, views,
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and discussion on
religious liberty issues
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around the world in general
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but often very specifically
in the United States.
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My name is Lincoln Steed
editor of Liberty Magazine.
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And my guest is
Chaplain Paul Anderson.
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Welcome. Thank you, Lincoln.
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I'm looking forward
to discussing with you
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because you have
been a military chaplain,
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you are working for the
Seventh-day Adventist church,
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now in charge of
the chaplaincy program.
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But we can explain
I think, a lot of--
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what a lot of our
viewers may not know
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is particularly
Seventh-day Adventist
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about the
churches chaplaincy program
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and how it began, you know,
what the rational behind it?
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How did the
Seventh-day Adventist church
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become integrally involved
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with the military
chaplaincy program?
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Well, that goes
back to World War I,
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after World War I and
then into World War II
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there was a need to
support the military members
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who were drafted in terms
of religious liberty support
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and reasonable accommodations
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for being able to
worship on Sabbath.
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Which was not particularly
automatic in World War I,
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there were real difficulties
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on the part of
Seventh-day Adventist
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but because anyone of faith.
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That is true and
the church seeing
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that need developed a
national service organization
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which was a arm of
the religious liberty
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interest of the church,
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it's primarily
for military people
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but also for
people in communities
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who were having
issues, we were the--
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NSO was the first responder.
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Thirty years ago NSO was changed
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to the Adventist
Chaplaincy Ministry.
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During World War II
some Adventist pastors
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felt a patriotic call to serve
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and became the first
moves is an army chaplain
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and subsequently the
other branches opened
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for Adventist chaplains.
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Now may be I'm wrong but
my memory is tickling me,
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they took the initiative,
it wasn't the church decided.
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They took the
initiative and then the church
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seeing this brought
them under their umbrella.
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Correct.
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The initiative or impetus
to become a military chaplain
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is a person drive--
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Even now, yes. Even now.
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But I think when
it began it sort of
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it became a defect
involvement that the church
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then decided to get behind it
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and set up the
department, right.
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And during the draft years
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there were always
Seventh-day Adventist
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who were serving in the military
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because of the draft.
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We usually--
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the position for
Adventist in that year
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was noncombatancy it
still is the official position
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but it's not
doctrine of the church.
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So we always had
Seventh-day Adventist in uniform
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but they impetus
to become a chaplain
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and serve as an
commissioned officer
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who is a spiritual
advisor was a new thing.
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But the church
embraced it and through
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the Adventist
chaplaincy ministries department
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offers support
intangible support
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to our service members
wherever they are serving.
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I hope our
listeners will understand
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but I've got to
interject a question here
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you just raised it.
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Yes, our historic
position was noncombatancy
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and way before
the chaplaincy program
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at the very
beginnings of the our church
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during the civil war was decided
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that we would as a group
officially be noncombatant
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which was interesting
to me because Ellen White
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the cofounder of the
Seventh-day Adventist church
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and the visionary for that body,
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she wrote very definitely
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that the God's
punishment was on the south
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because of their
stands on slavery.
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So she cast it as a moral
war and yet this is precisely
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when they decided
to be noncombatants.
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And, you know, I never
went into the military,
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was drafted but I'm a product
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or my physic is
formed by the Vietnam War
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and we did have
noncombatancy allowances
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for Seventh-day
Adventist and others,
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we were not the only ones.
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Right.
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But it seems to me
with the all voluntary army
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now that we have
the noncombatancy
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is not really an
option when you, is it?
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It is not.
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At this point anyone
enlisting in the service
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because it is an all voluntary
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Army, Navy, Air
Force, Marine Corps,
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noncombatancy is not an option.
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However there
are career tracks--
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Oh, but once you are in,
yes, but you couldn't choose,
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you couldn't sign up
and say, "I'm signing up
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because I want to be in
this noncombatant track."
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Yes, actually you can.
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For the Marine Corps for
instance everyone has to--
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it's a combat specialty
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but they are
not always at combat
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and there are unique
roles and jobs in the military,
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you know, a mechanic
or an aviation mechanic
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or a cook or a hospital corpsman
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or medic those are jobs
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where you may not
likely be involved
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in the actual
execution of combat.
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It's a support role.
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But because it's an
all volunteer service
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the claim for noncombatancy
it doesn't exist currently.
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So let me just basically
ask the question again.
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When someone is applying
and signing up for the military
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before they put the
name on the bottom line
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they can indicate that
they want to be in an area
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that that probably
would not require combat
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and they are not gonna
be held to something else,
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it kind of in essence
contract on the track.
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In most cases the
process for enlisting
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is that a recruiter
would be in touch with someone
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or someone who is interested
goes to see the recruiter.
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They take what's called
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the Armed Services
Vocational Aptitude Battery
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based upon the scores
that an individual gets
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after taking that test
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job categories
are opened to them
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if the scores are high enough.
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And there are some people
who are actually given bonuses
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for signing into say
the nuclear power program
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in the navy or a
linguistics program
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in some of the other branches.
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And when you do
that you are contracted
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to be trained in that specialty.
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There are others who
scores may not be as high
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who don't get that guarantee.
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But if the score was low
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and if they
really had inhibition
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they don't have to
then proceed, right?
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Correct. Correct.
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So that's an
interesting distinction
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but there is no question
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that the
Seventh-day Adventist church
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long ago
established a recommendation
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to its members
as we can't require,
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these are guidelines,
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well thought out
guidelines for them
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and that hasn't
officially changed, does it?
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It hasn't changed but
there is no prohibition
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from serving in the military
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and if an individual chooses
to go into a combat specialty
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who is a
Seventh-day Adventist member
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we don't disfellowship them.
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We support them just as we would
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someone who was noncombatant.
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Yeah.
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And that's an interesting area
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that may be we
better not go into.
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But, you know, it's
a matter of conscience.
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At the end of the day
all of this not just military
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it's between us and God,
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you know, that's the root
of the Protestant Reformation
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or an
understanding that informed
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the Protestant Reformation
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it doesn't mean we
do whatever is okay
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and that a church
doesn't have a standard
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but just to rely on
the church standards
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it might be wrong.
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The both, the body of believers
may have settled on something
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and in our
religious liberty area
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as you well know the
conscience is the key.
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You need to be convicted on it.
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And that individual
liberty I personally think that
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I was privileged to have
been born in the United States
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and to have been
afforded the freedoms
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and opportunities that we have.
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I think that there is some value
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in being
supportive to the entities
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and institutions that
are charted to protect
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and defend the freedoms
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that are
allowed in this country.
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You mean, values
to the church body
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or to the individual?
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To the individual
but also the church body,
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the freedom of
religion, the freedom to speak
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and to assemble that
we have in this country
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as constitutional guaranteed
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but if there is no one willing
to defend that constitution
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or support it
then we might lose it.
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Yeah, it's a-- I mean,
it's not highly dividable
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but it's a
reasonable debate to have.
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Yes.
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And I think the
previous element of the point
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you are making is very true.
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Our church is
indeed any faith group
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I think does well to
show that they are loyal
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to whatever the
state they live under house
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unless it
contradicts their faith.
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So if we are
able to be supportive
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and be involved that's good.
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I think that its-- it
should be an imperative
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or it should become
imperative that our churches
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began to look at
community involvement.
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Seventh-day
Adventist have always been
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involved in community
service and there are chaplains
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who are prepared
for disaster response
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so we have hospital
chaplains, we have chaplains
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who are particularly trained
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in critical
incidence stress management.
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Now your department is not just
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with the military chaplains
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then, you are over the
hospital and other chaplains
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which is a large subset
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of what of the
chaplaincy program.
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Right, currently
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the Adventist
Chaplaincy Ministries Department
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endorses 475 chaplains
across North American division.
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Most of those
chaplains are hospital chaplains
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and many of them are
community, some corrections,
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some are in with
police departments.
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We even have a chaplain
who works at Dallas Airport
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and he's got quite
an adventurous story
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in that some of the big
jets, international jets.
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The pilot and crew invite
him to come on to the plane
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to have prayer with them
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before they load the
plane with passengers.
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Well, well, I need to
find out which planes,
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once I would fly with them.
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I'm a little
over my fear of flying
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but it would have
been much more encouraging
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to know that
that pilot is praying
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and has angels under the wings.
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I was passing by one of
the chapels, airports now--
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Hey, I was
thinking the other day
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I was walking
past the one at Dallas.
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Yeah, prayer
rooms and chapels there
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and I saw a couple of
pilots and flight attendants
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from a foreign airline
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who were praying
together in the airport chapel.
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Now particularly when
this some area of accident
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and, you know, recently I
think it was that Russian jet
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then at one of the airports
I saw all the family members
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milling around in great distress
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that's a moment
of incredible stress
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when the role of
the chaplain is--
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I mean, it's just
unique and powerful.
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Absolutely. Absolutely.
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I mean, that's
what chaplains do.
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The role of a chaplain
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really is to meet
people where they are
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and to join
them in their journey
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or their drama or trauma
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and help them
find their stability
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and then
hopefully they are reconnect
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with their foundation and faith.
00:12:36.69\00:12:38.59
That's a wonderful role.
00:12:38.62\00:12:39.95
Let's take a break
and we will continue
00:12:39.99\00:12:41.66
this discussion a little
bit of history of chaplaincy
00:12:41.69\00:12:44.66
with the
Seventh-day Adventist church
00:12:44.69\00:12:46.03
and what's really
involved with this department.
00:12:46.06\00:12:48.40
Stay with us, we
will be right back.
00:12:48.43\00:12:50.27