Spiritual Neutrality in the Canadian Military

The evangelical magazine Christianity Today offered an article with this headline not long ago: 

Canadian Military Chaplains Can’t Mention God in Public

Adam MacInnis

A new directive bans members of Canada’s military from using religious language at events.

While Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seeks to make US military chaplains more explicitly religious, the Canadian government is heading in the opposite direction as new directives ban chaplains from using religious language at public events.

Released on July 29, the instructions noted that members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) making public remarks at any type of public or semi-public event “shall uphold the principle of state religious and spiritual neutrality by not using words, actions, or symbols that are specific to a particular SFT [Spiritual or Faith Tradition] on the part of the Government of Canada.”

It also instructs chaplains not to offer prayer at official events, including military ceremonies or commemorations. If chaplains are asked to pray at a public event while serving as a representative of the CAF, they are told to instead offer a spiritual reflection without religion-specific language.

This is correct, not something we can take for granted from American sources writing about Canada. This directive has been in the works for a while and met with resistance by lots of people in this country. There have been assurances that this doesn't mean that there won't be chaplains anymore. They will continue to provide worship opportunities and counsel related to faith, and this is important. They'll just be offering spiritually neutral uplift, I suppose. So why bother? And what chaplain of any faith wants to do this? Will respectful repatriation processions such as the one shown above now exclude chaplains?

                                     The first Buddhist chaplain in the Canadian Military

I've had mixed feelings about this change over the past couple of years. I have attended many Remembrance Day services over time where there were specifically Christian prayers and hymns and even homilies. In one community our congregation printed up copies of the hymn sung every year because the crowd tended to mumble through it without the lyrics. It seemed disrespectful not to sing with assurance. 

Still, we know that in our pluralistic society that members of the military and those who gather for events are of different faiths or none. Why should they be expected to endure Christian elements that are often represent theology from another era anyway? 

I would prefer this rather lame neutrality to the exclusive nonsense emanating from the Pentagon these days. Even Roman Catholics are being pushed aside by Hegseth's directives. 

We'll see what happens in the days ahead. 

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: THE GLOBE AND MAIL. Stained Glass, Riga CATHEDRAL: Getty Images. Pete Hegseth: AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES.