Religion: A Missing Component of Professional Military Education PKSOI Paper | Page 29

Are chaplains the best choice, or the only choice? Can
religious literacy be outsourced? Engagement with religious actors cannot be the sole domain of chaplains.
The transitioning of chaplains away from their
traditional role of ministering to the troops and their
families will not be easy, and political considerations
will exacerbate making chaplains religious advisors.
And, chaplains lack an in-depth training in religions
that limits their usefulness as expert advisors.58 Possibly relying on chaplains to assume the role of subject
matter experts regarding pan-religious issues is little
more than pushing the problem aside with a quick,
but inadequate, fix. Also, assigning the role of religious literacy subject matter expert to chaplains takes
them away from their ministry role, and that is their
job.
Coupled to a lack of education regarding other
faith traditions is the “increasingly evangelical com­
position of the American chaplain corps” and chap­
lains maintaining their right to evangelize and pros­
elytize among non-military populations59; irrespective
of DoD policy. Chaplains are not interchangeable. Not
all chaplains have identical views regarding ecumenism.
Existing approaches to Religious Leader Engagement (RLE) suggest an acceptance by military leaders
that religions are interchangeable. This is not the case.
Engagement with religious actors and institutions is
a critical task of military leaders and not something
that can be pushed off on just anyone. Military leaders
require an understanding of religion and its presence
in the public domain.

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