By Jeff Diamant
Religion News Service
FORT DIX, N.J. – The Rev. Andrew Barton is a Presbyterian pastor who considers himself an advocate for peace and questions whether the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was justified.
Yet he wants to be able to help counsel traumatized soldiers home from the war zone. He has wondered: Would soldiers be open to listening to him? How might he approach them?
Barton and two dozen other clergy came here Thursday (Sept. 20) for advice on how to counsel military families in dealing with war-related issues, including loneliness, marriage problems and the turbulent readjustment to civilian life.
The two-hour session, the first of its kind held at the base, focused on helping reserve soldiers and their families. Many soldiers in the reserves did not expect to serve active duty when they signed up years ago but are now preparing for second deployments, said Maj. Gen.
Glenn Rieth, the state adjutant general.
Families of full-time soldiers who live on base have active support groups, but the families of reservists fighting overseas often feel they are on their own, Reith said. Often, neighbors do not know they are in need.
“When they depart, in most cases the only one who knows it are the immediate family members. There are neighbors down the street who don’t even know that this woman or this man just put a uniform on to go serve and take care of the nation’s business overseas,” he said.
Nancy Ferrara, a psychologist from Brick, N.J., who spoke at the session, said clergy can often gain a sense of which families are in need by keeping a careful eye on the flow of worshippers: “Observe who’s starting to come to services, and who’s stopping coming to services.”
It is urgent, Rieth said, that reservists who return from war with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury–conditions that do not present themselves physically–be handled with care and sensitivity.
“They are real-life issues,” the general said. “And unfortunately, when they’re not dealt with appropriately, they come home and they turn to alcohol, they turn to drugs, they beat their families, or they put a gun to their head and blow their brains out.”
Chaplains at Fort Dix already are trying to help 187 reservists who returned this summer from 20 months abroad.
There have been visits to soldiers’ homes. And Col. Alphonse Stephenson, the command chaplain of the Army and National Guard at Fort Dix, said he has tried to organize lunch with 20 soldiers in Newark, though he has struggled to reach 12 of them.
“They were away for 20 months,” he said. “For 20 months they’ve been thinking about how wonderful it was to go home. In those 20 months their visions became larger than life. It became all ‘Father Knows Best.’ They get home, and it’s not it at all. You know what they do? They move!”
At least a few of the clergy said they plan to enlist as military chaplains.
Rabbi Alexander Trachtman of Lakewood, the only non-Christian cleric who attended the session, said he is considering becoming a military chaplain.
“It’s real life. It’d be a real change,” said Trachtman, an Orthodox rabbi. “We’re all Americans. We all share the same pleasures and freedoms. We have to share the same responsibilities once in a while.”
Carla Gunning, an assistant pastor at a church in Burlington, said before the session she had considered becoming a reservist but she now expects to apply for active duty.
“When you see what the soldiers are going through, the sacrifices in their lives and their families, and to suffer PTSD, it’s important to show them we love and encourage them,” she said. “It’s not so much about whether clergy people agree or disagree with the war in Iraq, but being able to see to the needs of the soldiers.”
Jeff Diamant writes for The Star Ledger in Newark, N.J.)
Copyright 2007 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
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posted September 21, 2007 at 6:05 pm
This is good. I think that regardless about one’s opinions on Iraq, everyone can agree that the soldiers need to be taken care of, and that there have to be measures in place to help them through the stresses and trauma of war.
God bless.
posted September 21, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Joey, I agree. And this will be an immense and ongoing problem for decades, costing billions of dollars to try to deal with injuries and traumas. And costing some lives, no doubt.
And all because GWB and his Republican cronies invaded Iraq with no valid reason and apparently no concern about what they were getting us into.
posted September 21, 2007 at 11:50 pm
There is a large part of me that thinks this is another example of Bush&Cheney making a huge mess of people’s lives and expecting someone else – anyone else – to clean it up. For that alone I want to say it is the military’s problem and THEY need to deal with it.
But it isn’t.
These folks will be coming back to our communities and whatever they are dealing with will become part of our community’s life. So, as with natural disasters and other calamities, clergy are trained to help as best they can.If nothing else we become listening posts, trained to at least sense danger, if not able to actually deal with it. For most of us it is one of the central reason we heard the call to ministry. Calls for help are not ignored.
But it still galls me that Bush&Cheney will get out of this completely free – not even a sense of guilt because I am fairly sure it is something of which they are not capable. Otherwise this gigantic miscalculation of staffing, resources, and money would not have happened.
posted September 22, 2007 at 11:42 am
You’re right jestrfyl, they appear to have no conscience, no direction, just ambition.
posted September 22, 2007 at 12:13 pm
This is a good thing. Contrary to popular opinion, (and I speak as one in the know…) ministerial students in undergrad AND seminary studies are NOT given a great deal of training in the subject of counseling. Not even a less than great deal. Bear in mind that the vast majority of their education is geared towards learning the Bible, of course, their own specific brand of theology, and the rudimentary basics of preaching. And even if they DO take a number of classes on “Pastoral Counseling”, MUCH of that edumacashun will tend to focus on knowing particular “proof texts” to apply to various situations… not particularly the best approach to dealing with such serious issues.
So, with that in mind, I consider it a good thing that ministers who NEED this and WANT this will have an opportunity to learn even a little bit more about REAL counseling. (And by the way, I also have a degree in Substance Abuse counseling, so I speak as a semi-insider on the counseling side, as well…)The thing that irks me, however, is the probability that many ministers will go on believing that their Bible based proof texting will do the job just fine…
I can’t speak about the education of Rabbi’s… I would hope they have a broader base of counseling education than much of the Christian Clergy….
Don
posted September 22, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Don,
My rabbinical friends, and my few contacts with imams tells me they are no more prepared for real life counseling situations than any of us are. There is so much we are taught in seminary that is useful only in the truly refined atmosphere of academics and theology and ecclesiology. But stuff like family or individual crisis survival, budgets for non-profits (I am expected to know this by the groups that invite me onto their boards), building & facility managment, and administrative managment – well, we are on our own. Maybe someday someone will create a truly useful SEMINARY (and not merely theo -illogical or eccles-illogical matters) education. I know many have threatened, but we are too busy trting to figure our how to do what they did not teach us that we never get to it. And I lmaost never get to use the stuff they did teach.
posted September 22, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Don, thank you. That was instructive. I presume there are preachers who get broader educations, though perhaps not much on real counseling. Would you (or anyone else knowledgeable here) care to characterize the training given at various institutions where preachers or priests train.
I ask that because I think in some communities preachers are considered educated people, on a par with say doctors and lawyers and other degreed people. It sounds like some of them get quite a narrow education which would not, of itself, prepare them to give advice on much beyond what’s in the Bible. I imagine some, on the other hand, get a much broader education.
And of course some will show the curiosity and ambition to get wider knowledge and capabilities from broad reading or courses like in the article, as might anyone else.
posted September 22, 2007 at 3:15 pm
jesterfyl, that was instructive, too. You preachers who try to serve your communities (as opposed to, say, getting power in them) clearly have a more than full time job. Do you have opportunities for appropriate further training?
posted September 24, 2007 at 12:02 pm
The opportunities for further education exist, but they require time away (which we do not get easily), and money (which on a pastor’s salary or a church’s budget is not easily available). Usually, we rely on outside reading, conversations with colleagues (when we are not busy “writng our names in the snow”), or denominational gatherings.
I am not a counselor and chose not to be. My field of choice was Christian education, a program not available in seminary so I learned by doing, reading, and liberating ideas from friends. Now I am in the more pastoral leadership I try to make time for the stuff I have ignored previous to this. But reading theology? Not likely. Some Bible study, but not much. Spiritual writings, sometimes. Mostly administrative, crisis and caregiving, and growth (I am not a salesman, so church growth is a least favorite topic).
posted September 24, 2007 at 10:35 pm
j, I hope you have retirement in your future before too awfully long. It’s such a great opportunity to do things you haven’t been able to and I think you’ll love it.
posted September 25, 2007 at 10:15 am
nnmns,
Thanks for the thought. I have so much planned for my retirement that I may not be able to schedule and appointment with Death for a very long time. Sadly, retirement will have to wait for about 10 years, or more. So, I do what I can with the free time I get. I may never get my pilot’s license (a dream), but I will build my outdoor garden train (in th eplanning stages)and maybe get a boat (got one picked out).
posted September 30, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Being a minister/pastor/priest/rabbi etc. is very hard under the best of circumstances. Trying to counsel soldiers who have been or are currently in Iraq or Afganistan must be even harder. Their families are also in need of support. So much credit to the men and women who are trying to get a better idea of how to help them.