Perspectief 2015-30

Perspectief 48 Fred van Iersel as an organization functions in a chain of command, where individual freedoms are limited. So the military culture discourages a culture of following the individual conscience in military affairs. Sixthly , the churches in this country are substantially decreasing in membership; they are no longer strong institutions with a self-evident moral authority and a social status as natural partner for the state. Even if they would consider necessary a moral conflict with the state on issues of war and peace, they are hardly able to confront it with supposedly ethically unjust policies. So military chaplains who prefer a prophetic role have to stand battle alone, not because there is something wrong with the churches themselves, but because their positions have weakened. 4 Conclusion: Telling the Truth as a Prophetic Task At the beginning of this lecture, I told you about the hesitation a pastoral manager may have regarding prophetic types of military chaplaincy. In fact, there are grounds of pastoral prudence that support these hesitations. Nevertheless, prophetic types of chaplaincy do have a legitimacy in the main sources of Western culture. A military organization that does not allow for it, might lose its openness for moral truth in critical situations. Military chaplaincy may aim at prevention of trespasses and crimes, through its professional participation in moral education and training in the military. But under exceptional circumstances – when there is an imminent threat of violation of human persons’ dignity – a military chaplain must have the possibility to transcend the paradigm of pastoral professionalism and to act as prophet, either through confrontation in Nathan’s style, through Socratic self-clarification, or through the guiding support– including witnessing - for military who are discovering the moral meaning of suffering and of their guilty participation in it. This approach will be more acceptable when pastoral prophetism is part of a more comprehensive concept of pastoral care. Then, both the spectators and actors in the play of prophetism may give in some of their reluctancy.