Abstract
This paper focuses on is the role that religion plays in a nation's war machine. Snyder specifically looks at the period from December 2, 1942 through the end of World War II in 1945, considering only the United States and the role of Judeo-Christian religions and their leaders who served in America’s military forces. Simply called "chaplains," regardless of what faith they represented, these men played just as vital a role in the American war machine as did the rifleman, the airman, the medic, the seaman and the submariner. He argues that America's military chaplains were vital to the war effort by fulfilling multiple roles essential to the cohesion and fighting capability of the military. In the minds of the fighting soldiers, chaplains necessitated and supported the notion that death was conquerable only through divine salvation. This mindset, in turn, allowed soldiers who accepted this salvation to, at least to some extent, shed their fear of death and dismemberment; in essence, soldiers fought harder and more confidently knowing the chaplain was there to guide their souls to the afterlife once it left their bodies. In the minds of chaplains, often the role conflict that resulted from being a pacifist and a clergyman while serving in the military, an institution that exists wholly to serve the various combat oriented needs of the state, was resolved through a number of psychological techniques and socially popular rationalizations based largely on their extensive knowledge of the Bible to justify their position in the military.