Religion and War

Since the founding of the nation, the U.S. military has appreciated the value of both organized religion and religious nationalism (civil religion) in achieving its national security goals. Colonial militias called upon ministers for prayer, but it would be the religious underpinnings of the Revolutionary War that began the formal interaction between the military and religion that has persevered to today.

Military chaplains are the most obvious manifestation of that interaction. While they hold dual accountability to both their home denominations and their chain of command, most are fully incorporated into the armed forces—once enlisted—and by necessity preach an ecumenical, or common-denominator, religion to meet the spiritual needs of the majority of men and women under their supervision. By homogenizing the major faith groups (Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish) and providing spiritual justification for the nation's military objectives, chaplains promote a militant form of religious nationalism.

This so-called American civil religion entails the belief that the United States is God's chosen nation—the New Israel—and that the military is the instrument of God's will. According to its precepts, if the American people reject sin and willingly sacrifice their own self interest for the common good (especially during times of war), God will reward the nation with victory and prosperity. The military's use of civil religion complements rather than replaces denominational faiths and serves an important unifying function. Such was the case during the Revolutionary War when both Congregational and Presbyterian churches supported the patriot cause with their financial and spiritual resources. Employing biblical ideology, clergy also greatly strengthened the will to fight by calling for Americans, God's chosen people, to throw off their English bondage (Egyptian bondage, in the biblical narrative) and create a new nation based on divine principles as had the Israelites of the Old Testament.

Religious nationalism continued to play a crucial role in the new republic's military affairs following the Revolutionary War. While early legislation regarding the armed forces did not specifically mention religion, the founding elite considered patriotic faith an essential component of the [Page 724]citizen–soldier concept. According to the Uniform Militia Act of 1792, the United States could avoid the dangers to liberty created by a large standing army by requiring all able-bodied males to train with militias while the national government maintained a small regular army to patrol the frontier. During hostilities, according to the theory behind the legislation, the army would expand with citizen–soldiers who would sacrifice their own self interest to volunteer for military service. Because American defenses would depend on the civic virtue of the American citizen—values that national leaders believed the public lacked—the military (along with the family, church, law, press, and free public education) would need to instill the requisite masculinity, personal morality, patriotism, and self-sacrifice into the national psyche. While civic virtue is not necessarily related to spirituality, the armed forces found organized religion and religious nationalism the most effective means to communicate to the American people the values it believed necessary for national defense.

The link between military service and the national character has been well accepted by the American public. For example, at the beginning of both the War of 1812 and the Spanish–American War there was considerable public support for a long war to teach the civic and moral virtues as well as to teach the masculinity believed lacking in the nation's youth. The coupling of personal morality and spirituality with masculinity, however, has historically presented the U.S. armed forces with an interesting dichotomy. The military, according to common perceptions still held by the public (despite the integration of women into the armed forces) both uplifts character as well as corrupts it—perhaps indirectly—by turning “boys” into “real men,” a transition that frequently engenders various vices, such as heavy drinking and womanizing. In order to attract middle-class recruits, the armed forces has worked closely with religious organizations to create a civilized and moral environment without “softening” or “emasculating” the American male. The armed forces generally have succeeded in keeping the two sides of military character education in balance by viewing religion as a masculine endeavor that teaches self control but not the eradication of male passions. Additionally, the military has relied on the nation's churches and various religious agencies to provide the spiritual justification necessary for a strong national will during times of war.

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