Defence must recruit secular alternatives to religious chaplains or face increasing risks to its members’ health and wellbeing, according to a former top military recruiter.
Col Phillip Hoglin, now a reservist and military researcher, said the Australian defence force (ADF) is becoming less religious, but has only a handful of secular support officers.
Critics argue ADF members avoid seeking help from people whose views differ from their own and who may hold conservative views on abortion, sexuality and relationships.
About two-thirds of the force are not religious, but the number of pentecostal and evangelical chaplains has increased. The man behind the increase, Ralph Estherby, has said he fought for seven and a half years for the right to be a Pentecostal chaplain, and that he now oversees more than 100 chaplains.
Figures released by the Department of Defence in response to questions from Senator Jacqui Lambie show there are 108 Pentecostal chaplains, and that each of them represents just 15 religious ADF members on average.
The Australian Christian Churches (ACC, formerly Assemblies of God) has 13 chaplains and only 13 members. The ACC believes in talking in tongues, faith healing, miracles and the second coming, and has stated that it “supports the biblical view of marriage as a lifelong, exclusive union between a man and a woman”.
There are five chaplains identifying as nondenominational Christians, while 4,217 serving members identify that way – a ratio of one to 843.
Estherby is from ACC and runs its Chaplaincy Australia ministry. He also sits on the ADF’s religious advisory committee.
In an address to the ACC conference this year, he said he was initially told Pentecostal chaplains were not allowed in the ADF.
He said he fought to become the first appointed chaplain in 2009, and he now represents 120 Pentecostal chaplains. He said the situation with military chaplains was an “amazing opportunity” to mobilise those in the church to go outside to “people who would normally not be touched by a church”.
“When Jesus says, ‘Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold’, we need to think about what that could possibly mean,” he said at the conference.
“They may be at the local football club, they may be in the aged care sector, they may be in the ADF … I believe that wherever there is a group of people, there should be a chaplain.”
Estherby told Guardian Australia most people did not care what “flavour” a chaplain was.
Asked if people might be reluctant to seek help from someone whose beliefs and values they disagreed with, he said the chaplains were “chosen to be nonjudgmental and non-sectarian”.
But others have said there should be change.
Hoglin, a former director of military recruitment, said in July that Defence must provide a “secular wellbeing capability” or risk the health of some staff.
In a piece for the ADF website, The Forge, he wrote that almost 64% of members do not identify with any religion – a number that is rising – while there were only a small number of “maritime spiritual wellbeing officers” in the navy.
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“It is almost inevitable that members with no religious affiliation will exceed three-quarters of the total ADF permanent force population by the end of this decade, driven by the newest and future recruits,” he wrote.
Hoglin wrote that there was now a dwindling supply of religious chaplains.
“Principled stances on whether or not religious chaplains can provide adequate, unbiased wellbeing and pastoral care to nonreligious sailors, soldiers and aviators will become almost irrelevant when the numbers of religious chaplains available to Defence are inadequate,” he wrote.
“Ultimately, the longer Defence procrastinates in its evolutionary transition toward secular wellbeing, the greater it places defence members at risk of adverse health and wellbeing outcomes.”
The Rationalist Society of Australia’s president, Meredith Doig, said the group had raised concerns with government ministers about “a number of publicly expressed views of other Christian chaplains that we believe most Australians would consider unacceptable and incompatible with providing nonjudgmental care”.
Doig points to a 2020 defence force remuneration tribunal decision on bringing in secular officers. The navy, which has a handful of secular roles, had submitted that it had identified a “capability gap in the provision of mental health and wellbeing care for its members and their families who are reluctant to access pastoral support from navy chaplains based on their religious affiliations”.
A defence spokesperson said the navy trial would be assessed next year, after which the army and air force would look at similar programs.
“Defence employs multidisciplinary support teams to care for its people. These teams are made up of doctors, psychologists, social workers, counsellors and religious chaplains,” the spokesperson said.
“When providing support, chaplains and maritime spiritual wellbeing officers respect freedom of conscience and all religious and nonreligious perspectives.”
ADF members also have alternative support services to religious chaplains, they said.
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