Grounding fliers in faith

Lutheran, The, May 2002 by Hunter, Elizabeth

Four years ago, I wondered: 'I wear a collar and high heels, how am I going to wear combat boots?"' says Christine Blice-Baum. Before becoming one of the ELCA's 132 active duty military chaplains, Blice-Baum was a campus pastor and church music professor at Thiel College, an ELCA school in Greenville, Pa.

Today Blice-Baum serves several Air Force squadrons at a base in Ramstein, Germany-the hub for U.S. food drops over Afghanistan. For the 45-year-old mother, it means not only continuing a meaningful ministry with young adults and families but keeping up with athletic young soldiers.

Blice-Baum provides pastoral care and ethical advice to those involved in military operations. "Because [chaplains] can never be ordered to fire a weapon or do anything against our religious conscience, we can be that ethical and spiritual presence," she says, adding that receiving an officer's military education gives her credibility.

"We are also there when many of our folks leave on missions that may result in the loss of life-both for them and others if the target is wrong or there is a miscalculation," she says. Before these deployments, military chaplains lead the soldiers in prayers for peace.

"I don't know one person who came into the Air Force to learn to kill people," Blice-Baum says. "We take very seriously the fact that our goal is to work toward peace. No one wants to go to war."

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, some administrative personnel talked with Blice-Baum when they were reassigned to weapons-carrying roles.

"Some asked me if God would forgive them if they had to shoot someone in the line of duty," she says. So they discuss forgiveness and grace, as well as "integrity, doing the right thing and under what circumstances they would use the weapon," she says.

Most military personnel who come to Blice-Baum discuss their relationship with God and what God wants them to do. "I think our Lutheran theological background gives us language for dealing with the world and the kingdom," she says.

Although military chaplaincy is a different kind of ministry, Blice,Baum says, some things don't change. She still has church council meetings, Bible studies and visitation to do. "We preach the gospel, just like in the parish," Blice-Baum says. "We talk about reconciliation, love of enemies, the cross and living one's faith in the workplace-whether that be at a desk or on the flight-line."

Darcy Harris, a navigator, says Blice-Baum helps keep airborne parishioners like herself grounded in faith. "It's stabilizing to be able to go to church and know this is one thing that isn't changing," Harris says.

Hunter is a section editor of The Lutheran.