Greg,

the SDA position used to be (less today) that its members should avoid the armed services where possible, and when not to serve as non-combatants.

Given that chaplains and medics both provide a significant morale boost to the side that they are serving on, they arguably are a force multiplier.

Have you found reconciling these aspects stressful?

Do you think the SDA church should drop its not-as-a-combatant stance?

/Bevin

Bevin, I think that you are pretty will informed on the various issues. So, I will comment on them for others reading.

The position of the SDA Chruch, in North America, and some other places, is that it is an individual decision, and whatever position one takes one may be considered a SDA in good standing. Notwithstanding this, there has been an underlying recommendation that SDAs take a non-combatant position for military service.

The above is not the exact position in some other areas of the world. There are some places where national will be expelled from the SDA Chruch if they serve in the military in any manner. There are other places with differing positions.

At the present, with the draft gone, SDAs do not serve in the military in a non-com positions, with some exceptions that I will give, in the US Armed Forces.

Non-combatants may serve as chaplains, and in certain medical positions. During my entire military carreer, I was officially listed as a conscientious objector. However, my personal position, places me close to a combatant position, but still a nom-combatant.

Do I think the official position of the church should change? No. I believe it is a good one that allows individual choice.

Force multiplier: I understand your comment. Yes, officially the military position is that chaplains and medics are force multipliers. I do not challenge this. My personal position is that God needs His people in society, and that includes the military. So, as a military chaplain, I went with my soldiers, to include combat, to be in society, and not because the military termed me a force multiplier.

No, I do not find stressful conflicts between my personal beleifs, and military realities.

Telling people to join, or not to join the military: In today's society one can not tell another what to do. I do not tell them either way. I talk to them. I talk to them about their values, what they expect from a military enlistment, their religious beliefs, and then I give them a dose of reality.

So, when the son of a Conference official tells me that he wants to fly a helicoptor gunship, I tell him what that will be like in the context of what he has told me about himself. When another person tells me that she expects to work in a hospital, Monday throught Friday, and always have Saturdays off, I give her a dose of reality. When someone tells me he wants to be a "wheel-vehicle mechanic" so he can learn to rebuild engines, I give him a dose of reality. Then they make the decision. I do not tell them what to do.

NOTE: Under the Geneva Conventions chaplains are officially non-combatants. Chaplains need to be very careful that they do not engage in warfare that allows the United States to be charged with a violation of those conventions. E.g. Chaplains who recieve public notice of their involvement in an armed manner subjects them to official discipline.