Padres, religious and otherwise, in Australia

File this post under "Not military justice, but . . . " 

Former Royal Australian Navy Principal Chaplain and Director-General of Chaplaincy Collin Acton OAM has written a fascinating Pearls & Irritations post about the underrepresentation of nonreligious (aka secular) padres in the Australian Defence Force, with some eye-popping data. Excerpt:

The [Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal] DFRT interim report revealed the staggering gap in the provision of secular pastoral care/wellbeing support. As of November 2022, the ratio of Christian chaplains to Christian personnel stood at 1:134. In comparison, the ratio for non-religious pastoral carers (MSWOs) to non-religious personnel was 1:11,992. For Muslims, the ratio was 1:62. For Buddhists, it was 1:83.

In not pursuing secular reform, Army and Air Force are effectively disregarding the evolving needs of non-religious members in seeking pastoral care. The question that then must be asked is: “Why?”

I see several challenges that need to be addressed for reform of Defence chaplaincy to happen.

The first is the age and conservative nature of senior military leaders. As detailed by [Col. Philip] Hoglin, religious adherence among senior personnel remains high – about 80 per cent. In contrast, almost 65 per cent of Defence personnel in total and about 80 per cent of new recruits are not religious.

It is these older senior leaders who consider religion an important part of the Defence Force. Senior officers will also have grown up in the military with memories of the “good old padre” and cannot see why the current generation would not want to engage with the chaplain.

Another block to reform is the taxpayer-funded committee of religious clerics known as the Religious Advisory Committee to the Services (RACS), which oversees chaplaincy appointments. From the outside, it looks like a multifaith 10-member committee. However, it is predominantly led by five Christian members, and they are all former senior military chaplains strategically elevated to influential roles within their churches.

This committee vehemently opposes chaplaincy reform initiatives. It frustrated my reform efforts. In 2022, after I spoke on ABC radio about the need for secular reform, the committee raised allegations against me with the Chief of the Defence Force, prompting an investigation. The investigation ultimately exonerated me – not before it was made clear that I would have to leave my Navy career of more than 30 years if I wanted to continue publicly advocating for secular reform of chaplaincy.

It’s troubling that a committee of religious clerics with a direct line to the Chief of Defence Force has so much influence over Defence’s frontline pastoral care and wellbeing support capability.

Amplifying that concern is the fact that some of its members have spoken publicly about chaplaincy roles being “missionary” ones, apparently with the aim of bringing people to Jesus. The current chair, Anglican Bishop Grant Dibden, said in a 2021 speech that chaplains were “missionaries in the Defence Force”. In a report to the Anglican General Synod in 2022, he said Defence chaplains must have a “missionary mindset” and must be strong enough to “resist” pressures to “compromise their message”.

Discuss among yourselves.