6 - Religion, War and Morality

Summary

Introduction

CHAPLAINS and other interested parties could find much to reassure them concerning the religious state of the American serviceman or woman. Atheists were rare (even non-existent in military cemeteries) and, quite apart from combat and other experiences, the American military environment seemed to promote a greater religious consciousness. Furthermore, and in contrast to the brutal example set by other armed forces, America's soldiers and sailors could be admirable exponents of the Golden Rule, and even of the Christian missionary impulse, among Allied, liberated and even enemy civilians. Nevertheless, and as the experience of World War I had recently shown, military service in the context of a global war was inherently hazardous from a moral point of view, the path of the American serviceman and woman being strewn with perils and pitfalls of enormous variety and Bunyanesque proportions. As a result, the moral conduct of a great many service personnel gave considerable cause for concern, often falling disturbingly short of contemporary civilian norms and standards. With this in view, and when assessing the effects of war on faith and morals, John W. Early, the Lutheran senior chaplain of the 79th Infantry Division, wrote after VE day:

The moral and religious life of personnel serving in the European Theater has been impaired somewhat, because of the close association with all types of men, the increased opportunities for misuse of sex and alcoholic liquors, and the hatred and contempt that was encouraged for the rights of conquered individuals. Evidence of this is to be found in the number of rape cases reported or noted, the shipment of loot by all grades of personnel, the size of PTA accounts and money orders sent, the operations of Civil Affairs Groups in liberated and occupied countries, and the unchristian motivation of Psychological Warfare Division personnel.

This chapter will consider the moral experience of military service, and consider its religious implications both in the shorter and the longer terms.

Morality and military service

Writing in The Link in March 1945, Congregational-Christian chaplain Lawrence D. Graves claimed that a certain proportion of service personnel had sought to place their consciences in a state of suspended animation for the duration of the war, claiming that:

Soldiers have a tendency to rationalize their sub-normal behavior and say, ‘This is on the house; we won't count this one.’