Fighting Spirit: A Combat Chaplain’s Journey (Hull & Roberts, 2024)

I was moved by Fighting Spirit, a documentary about military chaplains that is conventional in its filmcraft but mostly lets its powerful content speak for itself.

While the film is an amalgamation of historical sketches of different chaplains presented as a means of explaining the office, the titular journey is taken by Justin Roberts, a contemporary chaplain suffering from PTSD who attends the belated funeral of Father Kapaun. Kapaun was an army Chaplain who served in the Korean War, and the remains of his body were only recently identified. Roberts believed honoring Kapaun’s sacrifice would help him process his own memories and feelings about his vocation.

Although I have never served in the military, I owe an emotional and spiritual debt to a chaplain who, over the course of years, helped me understand the impact of trauma in my life and helped me to learn ways to cope with it. I had always simply thought of him as a godly man who happened to apply his gifts professionally through the military. Fighting Spirit helped me to understand that he and many like him not only practiced his gifts in that setting but may also have acquired insight and experience through them. As Roberts states, the role of the chaplain extends beyond simply being with a soldier at the end of his life. It can also extend to counseling — helping a soldier to process what he or she experiences.

Another historical responsibility of the chaplain that I had not been aware of is to advise commanders in matters of morals and ethics. The film shows how chaplains can influence and have influenced military policy, from opposing military-sanctioned brothels in World War II to fighting an unofficial bounty program during the Vietnam War that gave leave to soldiers with more kills. The latter was thought to incentivize indiscriminate killing, which could in turn cauterize the moral conscience.

While there were plenty of stories of bravery and sacrifice in combat, it was these stories of speaking truth to power that left the deepest mark on me. We live in an age in which an increasing number of Americans who identify as Christian seem to be comfortable speaking and acting in jihadist terms. It was sobering to see men and women who managed to be anti-war while serving those whose beliefs (about war or God) might differ from their own. I pray, especially in this current era of religious and political polarization, that people of faith might not only be inspired by these stories but learn from them how to serve indiscriminately and use their faith as a tool that helps us heal from war rather than an ideological justification for it.