Chaplain Leadership as the Art of Persuasion

by Chaplain (MAJ) Paul A. Baker, USAR  

Conundrum.  That is a good word to describe chaplain leadership in the United States Army.  Chaplain leadership is a conundrum because it must perfect the artistic attitude and techniques of persuasion in an institution that, by its very nature, requires its leaders to exercise command by ultimately depending on the power of coercion.  Truly, this is a puzzling problem filled with challenges.  

American cultural tradition, military law and military regulations do not allow chaplains to exercise command or use coercive power to accomplish their mission and perform their duty.  This results in the paradox of chaplain leadership depending on the use of persuasive skills, methodologies, attitudes, and clergy personality types in an organization that is built philosophically, legally and functionally on coercion.  

Exploring chaplain leadership as an art of persuasion is accomplished by considering three major components.  First, consider the American cultural context of clergy leadership, with special consideration of the historical roots.  Second, the theory and practice of leadership in the Army is considered, recognizing coercion as the foundation of command.  Third, specific attention is given to chaplains as leaders who are practitioners of the art of persuasion.  

The American Cultural Context

Religious freedom for the individual is a bedrock right in the United States.  The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees this right through the complementary clauses of nonestablishment and free exercise:  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...." Both in theory and practice these clauses provide a delicate balance between a citizen’s religious beliefs or non-beliefs and practices or non-practices, and government’s authority and ability to limit or dictate those beliefs and practices.  

Religious liberty in America is the result of religious pluralism and Enlightenment social philosophy.  The vast majority of colonists who founded the British colonies of North America had been raised in an environment of state religion, the accepted reality of political life since the earliest days of the founding of nation states.  This meant that, in Britain, the official religion of the king and realm was the Church of England.  In France, the religion of state was Roman Catholicism.  Religious tolerance had evolved in some European nation states, but the various sectarian faith communities existed only under the approving authority of government and the state church.  They were simply tolerated by government.

In colonial America the state church concept was established in most of the colonies.  The colonies practiced religious toleration as a result of the practical need to encourage settlement and economic development.  This resulted in the growth of a plurality of religious groups and communities in the various colonies.  Also, this meant that by the end of the Revolutionary War, no one church held numerical dominance in the new United States.

Within the mix of evolving religious pluralism was added the Enlightenment social philosophy that championed individual freedom and cast government as the protector of individual rights.  English philosopher John Locke had a dramatic impact on the thinking of Americans such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.  This was particularly true with respect to religious freedom and the role of ecclesiastical institutions in society.  Historian Sidney Mead claims Jefferson echoed Locke’s concept of voluntary association.  Beginning with the words of Jefferson, Mead centers on volunteerism as central to public religion:

‘ ... a voluntary society of men, joining themselves together of their own accord, In order to the public worshipping of god in such a manner as they Judge acceptable to him and effectual to the salvation of their souls.’  It is voluntary because no man is by nature bound to any church.  The hope of salvation is the cause of his entering into it, If he find anything wrong in it, he should be as free to go out as he was to come in. 1

Voluntary association was eventually put into law through Jefferson’s efforts in the framing of the Virginia constitution.  His Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom of 1779 became the model for Madison and the First Amendment of the Constitution.  Defending his revolutionary achievement of forming a society with religious freedom and voluntary association, Jefferson said:  "Almighty God hath created the mind free.  ... To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical." 2

Since government exercises the power to compel, that is coerce people to comply to law, religion cannot be legislated.  In order to protect the freedom of the mind and preserve individual rights, religion cannot rely on the coercive power of government.  Religion must be the result of voluntary association, depending on winning followers through persuasive arguments in the public arena of conflicting ideas.

Ironically, even the most intolerant religious communities in America supported religious freedom.  This was the result of no one ecclesiastical society having a majority of public participation and smaller church groups not wanting to be dominated by larger ones.  Besides, religious establishments attracted a small number of people in the early decades of American national life with only five to ten percent of the people being church members. 3  

The pragmatic consequence was a legal establishment of religious freedom where government would not use coercion to enforce or promulgate a particular religious teaching.  Also, government would protect and preserve the freedom of religious groups to use persuasive argument in order to win members and promulgate teachings and practices through the principle of voluntary association.

Religious leaders in the new United States could not depend on government to coerce people into a particular religious belief or practice.  Clergy became solely reliant upon the art of persuasion to achieve their goals and exert leadership.  At times this has given clergy leadership the flavor of merchandising.  As H. Richard Niebuhr aptly describes:

The voluntaristic system of the free churches in North America, it has been said, has tended to transform their officials into merchants who offer all sorts of wares so that as many customers as possible may be attracted to their ecclesiastical emporiums. 4

Military chaplains have not been exempt from the legal and historical influences of voluntary association.  This is why the legal justification for military chaplains rests on the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.  Soldiers must be free to practice their religious faith and have access to clergy of their particular faith community as an exercise of religious freedom and voluntary association.  To allow this to happen, the government provides clergy who serve as chaplains.  Chaplains provide for the religious needs of soldiers and their families, while performing direct ministry to those who seek it from the chaplains of particular faith traditions.

The legal and historical roots of religious freedom resulted in the nonacceptance of clergy using coercive power as an instrument of government authority.  These same roots also forbid chaplains from exercising the coercive power that undergirds command.  That is why chaplains, along with civilian clergy, are leaders who rely on the exercise of persuasion to accomplish their mission.

Leadership In The Army

Whether chaplain or commander, the ultimate goal of leadership in the Army is to inspire soldiers on the battlefield "to do things against their natural will — possibly to risk their lives — to carry out missions for the greater good of the unit, the Army and the country." 5

Leadership is defined in FM 22-100, Army Leadership, the Army’s primary doctrinal statement on leadership, as "the process of influencing others to accomplish the mission by providing purpose, direction, and motivation." Simply stated, leadership is the ability of a leader to get people to do what the leader wants them to do.

In 1942 a pioneering book provided a first-time systematic approach to American military leadership, Leadership For American Army Leaders, by LTC Edward Lyman Munson, Jr.  He defined leadership by speaking of its goal:  "The goal of leadership is the instant, cheerful, and willing obedience and cooperation of subordinates."6  The person who can accomplish this goal is not only a leader, but, even more importantly, a practitioner of the art of leadership.

Leadership in the Army centers on providing purpose, direction, and motivation.  In the final analysis, leadership in the Army is founded on the legal authority of command.  It is command authority that carries with it the power to apply coercive force.  A leader can lead without coercion.  Yet, it is the recognition that a commander is backed by coercive force that makes command leadership different.  Edward Munson, Jr., put it this way:  "The Army officer is backed by military law — no discipline can survive if force is lacking when it becomes needed.  But the more he leads rather than drives, the less the application of any force whatever becomes necessary." 7

General military authority is granted to every soldier, including chaplains, to take action in various situations.  General military authority is not limited to command authority.  The Uniform Code of Military Justice, for example, "gives authority to ‘commissioned officers, warrant officers, petty officers, and noncommissioned officers to quell quarrels, frays, disorders ... and apprehend personnel ... who take part.’  Leaders may exercise general military authority over soldiers from different units." 8

In contrast to general military authority, command authority primarily originates with the President of the United States.  As agents of the president, leaders "have command authority when they fill positions requiring the direction and control of other members of the Army." 9  Command authority is restricted to soldiers and facilities of the leader’s own units over which command is granted.

Command carries with it use of coercive force, up to and including the exercise of lethal force.  The commander may direct the use of lethal force towards members of his or her command or towards an opponent or enemy.  "Military command," according to Roger H. Nye, "requires a concentration of ordination and energized power in one person — power gotten by unusual legal ordination and energized by the will of a person to wield that power." 10  

In order to maintain discipline and compel a soldier to comply with laws and regulations, a commander has authority to use various degrees of appropriate coercion, including death.  In combat mutiny or desertion can be punishable by death.  Normally, the use of lethal force against a soldier of the United States Army is the result of the careful legal process involved in a courts-martial.

Roger H. Nye, in The Challenge of Command, elaborates on his understanding of command as the wielding of power:

To command is to direct with authority.  To command a military organization is to think and make judgments, employing specialized knowledge and deciding what those commanded will and will not do.  To command in wartime is to assume responsibility for taking and saving human lives.  To command in peace and war is to direct how human beings will conduct themselves towards each other.  As such, the commander sets moral standards and sees that they are obeyed.  To command, therefore, is to think and decide, to feel and moralize, to act and wield power. 11

As an institution of society and instrument of government, the military is entrusted with the authority to use coercive power.  Granted, command leadership in the Army requires the use of persuasive skills.  Yet, it is the power of coercion that sets command apart from leadership by religious leaders, who are dependent only on the power of persuasion.

Chaplain Leadership and Persuasion

Chaplains know that they do not command and have little opportunity to be autocrats.  Yet, ministry is performed and provided, leadership is exercised, and soldiers and their families are cared for within an institution built on coercion.

The chaplain’s situation is similar to the tensions and ambiguities that civilian clergy deal with daily in the free market place of religious ideas and practices.  From the study Ministry in America these words speak to this situation:

Ministry "happens" most authentically in the midst of suffering and ambiguity.  One’s own human predicament forms part of the response of ministry.  Clergy frequently delude themselves by thinking that one is prevented from genuine ministry by the underbrush of false cultural expectations, organizational demands, and the general nitty gritty of "running a church." These excuses vanish with the realization that those very misunderstandings, intrusions, and tedious expectations present the moment and context for ministry. 12

The underbrush of the Army, too, presents the moment and context for ministry for chaplains.  Doing ministry in this underbrush depends on the chaplain satisfying the expectations of ministry without ever forcing people to comply with certain religious programs, teachings, values or types of behavior.  The chaplain must persuade people through argument or example.  Sometimes this means being a panhandler.  At others it means being a prophet.

In his study, Ministry in America, Schuller presents seven areas of ministry that illuminate the dynamics of persuasion and are vital to how clergy do ministry.

• The most desirable ministry factor of clergy is to be "Open and Affirming." This means having a positive approach to handing stressful situations; fidelity to tasks and persons; personal responsibility; flexibility of spirit, acknowledgment of limitations, and valuing diversity.  Of particular significance to persuasive leadership, this means acceptance of the clergy role, meaning "avoiding the use of the authority of the ministerial role to dominate arguments or gain personal advantage."
• "Caring For People Under Stress" is the next factor.  Primary to the understanding of caring is perceptive counseling that reaches out to persons under stress "with a perception, sensitivity, and warmth that is freeing and supportive."
• "Congregational Leadership" depends on leadership skills that enable members of the parish or congregation to be leaders and ministers.  This is done by sharing leadership, building congregational community, effective administrative practices, responsible staff management, and healthy conflict management.
• Being a "Theologian In Life and Thought" is an important factor to clergy and the public.  This includes acknowledgment of one’s own vulnerability, use of a broad knowledge that stimulates people to be thinking believers, theological reflection, service to humanity "without seeking personal reputation for success or infallibility," clarity of thought and communication, and the acceptance of counsel.
• "Ministry from Personal Commitment of Faith" involves a high degree of diversity of interpretation from various traditions.
• "Development of Fellowship and Worship" involves clergy in a public setting. Among the various characteristics in this area are preaching and worship leadership, relating well to children and youth, and encouragement of mutuality in the congregation.
• The final factor, "Denominational Awareness and Collegiality," means having knowledge of one’s denominational practice and collegiality with other faith communities. 13

What is striking about the seven ministry areas revealed in the study is that no credence is given to the use of coercion.  Clergy are to use the skills of argument, advice, urging, even inducement.  Never is forced obedience advocated, demanded or expected.

Not only does Schuller’s study demonstrate historical continuity with the place and practice of religion in America that was legally institutionalized in the First Amendment, it is also compatible with Army chaplains’ roles and expectations.

Critical for the Army chaplain as leader is finding a path through the Army underbrush rooted in coercion.  This is when persuasion becomes an art form of leadership.  Civilian clergy have a similar challenge in the secular society, but the chaplain is unique in that law and practice make the chaplain an officer in, and subject to, the institution rooted in coercion.  It is not the same as being a free agent in the public market place of America’s religious supermarket.  History and law expect chaplains to have a clear understanding that they cannot use coercion.  Whether rabbi, priest, minister or imam, they are to be clergy first and foremost, never losing their pastoral hearts.

Consider the differing vocabularies of command and ministry.  Words like control, dominate, dictate, order, regulate, and obey are identified with commanders.  Words like mercy, caring, sensitivity, compassion, reflective, loving, justice and servant are identified with chaplains.  These words mirror the cultural expectations of clergy as leaders reflected in Schuller’s study.

Most Army commanders, it seems, expect chaplains to comply with the cultural roles required of all clergy.  Chaplain Everette J. Thomas in 1981 surveyed thirty-nine Army colonels with the intent of identifying how commanders perceive chaplains.  The following percentages indicate how many commanders identified each characteristic.  The survey indicated that commanders perceive a chaplain as a dedicated person of God (100%); a counselor to soldiers (97%); a moral influence on troops (95%); concerned with service, not status (95%); a member of the military team (90%); a clergyperson more than an officer (74%).  The chaplain was not seen as unnecessary by all 39 commanders.  Also, the vast majority of commanders surveyed did not perceive the chaplain as without dedication or calling (95%), involved with non-clergy duties (92%), or as a justifier of the military establishment (85%).  The characteristics perceived by the colonels as positives mirror the qualities and expectations of leadership that rely on persuasive techniques and personalities. 14

The contrast of commander leader and chaplain leader is also evident in personality types.  John J. Hoogland, retired Army chaplain, established the dominant personality types for chaplains and commanders in his 1990 Doctor of Education dissertation, "Status Achievement Among Army Chaplains In Terms of Jungian Psychological Types."

Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Hoogland determined that the majority of senior commanders (Army War College students) are sensing (S), thinking (T), judging (J) types (53.78%).  The following MBTI types descriptions are from the Myers-Briggs brochure, Introduction to Type.  The S types focus on the realities of a situation; work in the here-and-now; are realistic and practical; good at remembering and working with a large number of facts; prefer proven procedures and are careful with details.  As T’s they make decisions objectively, based on cause and effect; analyze and weigh evidence; focus on logical consequences; see objective standards of truth; are good at analyzing what is wrong.  The Js like living in a planned, orderly way, wanting to regulate and control it; make decisions, come to closure, then carry on; are structured, organized, want things settled. 15

By contrast senior Army chaplains (colonels) were predominately NFP (20.49%), SFJ (13.93%), and NFJ (9.84%) types.  Among junior chaplains the F (feeling) type indicator accounted for about 53% of profiles.  Consider the N type and F type indicators.  The N (intuitive) looks at the big picture; grasps for overall patterns; grows expert at seeing new possibilities; values imagination and inspiration.  The N shows the meanings, relationships, and possibilities that go beyond the information from a person’s senses.

F (feeling), in contrast to T (thinking), is the dominant indicator among chaplains and civilian clergypersons.  The F types make decisions based on person-centered values; consider how important choices are to themselves and others; like dealing with people; are sympathetic, appreciative, tactful; value harmony and work to make it happen.

When considering chaplain leadership and personality types it helps to recognize that persuasion lends itself to the NF type characteristics of being imaginative, inspirational, people centered, tactful, sensitive to harmony, sympathetic, and appreciative.  These MBTI characteristics are evident in the factors identified in the seven areas of ministry and the models of ministry in Schuller’s Ministry in America study.

Hoogland’s study indicates that the Army cultivates and rewards F type chaplains.  Also, the STJ commanders who constitute the vast majority of Army senior leadership value their contrasting F type chaplain leaders.  While encouraging F type chaplains to be their feeling selves, HoogIand states:

Line officers appreciate all types of chaplains.  This does not suggest, of course, that chaplains can forget about basic military considerations.  It does suggest that senior line officers have a long history of dealing with civilian clergypersons, understand their basic pastoral role, and judge those who serve in the Army both as pastors and as soldiers. 16

The practice of chaplain leadership is dominated by feelings.  Traditionally, the shepherd’s crook symbolizes spiritual care, personal involvement, warmth of compassion, mercy, and commitment to the individual.  All of these are feeling qualities.  It is not by chance that at one time the branch insignia of the Chaplain Corps was the shepherd’s crook.  Also, the shepherd’s crook is now part of the design of the Chaplain Regimental crest.  It is equally not surprising that Chaplain Hoogland, in an address to the United States Army Chaplain Center and School faculty and staff in the spring of 1991, declared that the most important attribute a chaplain can possess is a "shepherd’s heart."  For the chaplain, the art of persuasion is sculptured by the shepherd’s heart.

Conclusion

A conundrum for chaplains? Yes.  Chaplain leadership in the Army reflects continuity with the historical roots of religious freedom and volunteerism in America, As a result, clergy, both civilian and military, as leaders must depend on the power of persuasion in the free marketplace of ideas and beliefs.  In the daily life of the Army, leadership, centered in command, is practiced with the authority that comes from the power of coercion in an institution founded on the exercise of coercive force.  At the same time, for the Army chaplain, leadership means depending on the authority that comes with the power founded in persuasion and practiced as an art.  

ENDNOTES

1.  Sidney E. Mead, The Lively Experiment, Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, 1963, p. 58.

2.  Fawn M. Brodie, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, Bantam Books, Inc., New York, 1963, p. 155.

3.  Op. cit., Mead, p. 46.

4.  H. Richard Niebuhr, The Purpose of the Church and its Ministry, Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, 1956, p. 55.

5.  Field Manual 22-100, Military Leadership, July 1990, p. 1.

6.  Edward Lyman Munson, Jr., "Leadership For American Army Leaders," from The Infantry Journal, Washington, 1942, p. 1.

7,  Ibid., p. 61.

8.  Op. Cit., FM 22-100., p. 75.

9.  Ibid.

10.  Roger H. Nye, The Challenge of Command, Avery Publishing Group, Inc., Wayne, NJ, 1986, p. 19.

11.  Ibid.

12.  David S. Schuller, et al., Ministry In America, Harper & Row, Publishers, San Francisco, 1980, p. 8.

13.  Ibid., pp. 30-42.

14.  Everette J. Thomas, "The Commander-Chaplain Perceptual Communication Gap," unpublished study paper, February, 1982.

15.  Isabel Briggs Myers, Introduction to Type, Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, 1980.

16.  John J. Hoogland, "Status Achievement Among Army Chaplains in Terms of Jungian Psychological Types," Doctor of Education dissertation, Temple University, December, 1990.

Chaplain (MAJ) Paul A. Baker serves as an IMA for the Chief of Chaplains Office with the Reserve Advisor.  He is also the senior pastor at Zion Lutheran Church, International Falls, MN.