Stahl makes a compelling case that the American military chaplaincy, as representative of the state, promoted “a religiously diverse and pluralist nation” (6). Her argument is most robust for the period from World War I through the early Cold War. By the Vietnam War, changes in military policy regarding religious pluralism and integration largely paralleled changes in society. Both America and the chaplaincy grappled with recognizing and including minority groups from the mid-1960s through the late 1980s.
During World War I, the chaplaincy shaped civil society by legitimizing Catholics, Jews, and Protestants as the three recognized American faiths, regardless of ethnic group. It is significant because nativism in society did not accept Catholics and Jews as properly American, or even necessarily white. At the same time Stahl notes that the chaplaincy upheld racial segregation. Civilian religious bodies influenced the chaplaincy by nominating appropriately credentialed candidates. Denominations that lacked ordination for its ministers, such as the Mormons, chafed at what they considered undue restrictions against entry into the chaplaincy. Other denominations objected to being lumped into a single “Protestant” classification. Nonetheless, through military policy, the state demanded that all chaplains be able to minister to any serviceman. In this way, Stahl argued, the state encouraged “moral monotheism—religious identity and moral behavior unfettered by doctrinal specificity” (39).
Chaplains influenced civil society during the 1930s. As the US Army assisted with the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corps, chaplains brought their nondenominational religious services to the camps. A rabbi, Catholic priest, and Episcopalian minister developed a long-running radio program, which promoted interfaith cooperation. In the years leading to the World War II, as many churches promoted pacifism, the military demanded that its chaplains accept the necessary use of military force. In other words, the state refused to endorse or legitimize pacifism. The tri-faith structure of Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant chaplains continued through World War II as the military refused to accept Buddhists into the chaplaincy despite the number of Japanese American troops who practiced that faith.
In the postwar and early Cold War era, Stahl asserts, Presidents Truman and Eisenhower built a “military-spiritual complex” which conflated “religion, morality, and patriotism” (149). This generalized Judeo-Christian religiosity presented a stark contrast to the atheism inherent in communism. Eisenhower, as a military professional, had been influenced by the nondenominational tolerance promoted by Army chaplains, and he expanded moral monotheism by adding “under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” to American currency.
At the same time, conservative evangelicals and fundamentalist Christian denominations sought recognition, inclusion, and influence in the military chaplaincy. Stahl recounts the efforts of the National Association of Evangelicals to change the government's nondenominational policies to include sectarianism. Mormons and others also insisted on separate recognition rather than inclusion in a general “Protestant” category. Religious conservatives chafed at racial integration. By the early 1960s, Stahl argues, “the religious pluralism enshrined in the military chaplaincy for four decades teetered on the brink of collapse” (187). Cracks in the nondenominational state religion paralleled the fracture and then collapse of the postwar liberal consensus.
As it was within American society at large, the Vietnam War broke the status quo. Jewish, Catholic, and liberal Protestant denominations struggled to reconcile their opposition to the Vietnam War with their desire to minister to the troops. With rabbis, priests, and ministers exempted from the draft, the chaplaincy depended on volunteers. Men from more liberal denominations increasingly chose not to serve in a war they did not support, while evangelicals volunteered in larger numbers thus gaining a wider influence within the chaplaincy.
After the Vietnam War caused the end of the draft, women and African Americans enlisted in greater numbers than ever before. As a result of these demographic changes, the chaplaincy “diversified in three ways: by recruiting racial minorities, assenting to the inclusion of women, and addressing the needs of more varied faiths” (228). With the ascendancy of evangelicals, the Chaplain Corps shifted away from nondenominational pluralism in favor of sectarianism and evangelism. The military struggled to find acceptable ground for Sikhs and Muslims with respect to grooming standards and turbans much as they had earlier struggled to accommodate Saturday Sabbath for Seventh Day Adventists. By the 1980s, Stahl concludes, the chaplaincy had moved away from tri-faith religious service to one that is “multi-faith, ethnically and religiously diverse, and supporting of the soldier's right to free exercise of religion” (256). Tensions between conservative and liberal religious groups in today's society are reflected with the Chaplain Corps.
Stahl exhaustively researched her subject in national and religious organizations’ archives. She effectively and accurately details the positions within the War Department, Defense Department, Chaplain Corps, and a wide variety of religious organizations. The weakest area of Stahl's argument concerns her assertion in the thesis about how the chaplaincy spread the ecumenical version of religion in the military to the wider society. By the end, she stated instead that “the chaplaincy has served as a fairly reliable bellwether of the politics of religious toleration and accommodation” (265–266). Stahl clearly establishes the influence of pluralistic religion on society before the Vietnam War but that influence waned considerably after the war. Instead, outside groups pressured the chaplaincy to open to new minority groups, and society demanded space for Black and women chaplains as well.
Enlisting Faith is a detailed, extensively researched, and solid account of the evolution of state recognized religion in America. Scholars in religious and military history as well as those interested in the relationship between state and society will find this monograph well worth reading.
