Spiritual Dormancy: The Strategic Effect of the Depravation of God

Abstract

This paper explores the strategic effect the Army is achieving by removing God and religion from its doctrines of Soldier or leader development and the unintended negative impacts this will have on soldier conduct. Spirituality is a component of soldier fitness but there is no direct reference to God or religion in the Army s latest capstone document the Army Doctrine Publication 1: The Army. The lack of consideration of religion, a fundamental construct of our Nation and Army, could cause dilemmas for soldiers and leaders to maintain their moral bearing as they support and defend our Constitution. When soldiers and leaders long to have a better sense of who they are and what they are accomplishing, ignoring the importance of God dehumanizes and demoralizes soldiers and lends itself to breakdowns in discipline and actions that go against good order and discipline. If the influence of God is ignored, we lose sight of life s value and view it as a consumable resource creating a values conflict between the soldier and Army.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA589202

Entities

People

  • James G. Erbach

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Chaplains
  • Christianity
  • Department Of Defense
  • Doctrine
  • Education
  • Governments
  • History
  • Humanities
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Personality
  • Psychological Phenomena And Processes
  • Religion
  • Students
  • United States
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.