Annotated Bibliography of Pastoral Care with Military Families

James A. Martin, Leora N. Rosen, and Linette R. Sparacino, eds. The Military Family: A Practice Guide for Human Service Providers. Westport, Conn.: Praegar Publishers, 2000.

Martin, Rosen, and Sparacino complied The Military Family: A Practice Guide for Human Service Providers with the intent to “provide civilian human service providers with a ’101’ course in military family studies (p. xvi).” The different chapters within the book help its readers to better understand the unique aspects of military family life from children raised in military families to retirement from the military. Although the book is written from a psychosocial perspective, I believe that pastoral caregivers would find a majority of the articles in the book incredibly helpful for better understanding the unique aspects and characteristics of military families. Particularly helpful articles to pastoral caregivers during war-time include: “Coping with the Unique Demands of Military Family Life,” “Wartime Stress and Family Adaptation,” “Providing Family Support During Military Deployments,” and “Marital Adjustment Following Deployment.” This book is the most current comprehensive resource for working with military families that I found.

Florence W. Kaslow and Richard I. Ridenour, eds. The Military Family: Dynamics and Treatment. New York: Guilford Press, 1984.

The intended audience of The Military Family: Dynamics and Treatment is professional therapists who work with military families. Each article is focuses on specific treatment needs of military families. Despite its intended audience, the articles are very accessible to the average reader. The first article, “The Military, Service Families, and the Therapist,” can provide pastoral caregivers, even if they are not professional therapists, with some helpful clues as to unique aspects of providing care to military families. While a majority of the articles cover topics that are not specific to wartime needs, each article does explore some particular aspect of military family life that might affect the way that a military family reacts or behaves during wartime. Each article includes an extensive reference list that can be helpful for additional reading on particular topics. The major drawback of this book is that it is a bit out-of-date having been published in 1984.

Florence W. Kaslow, ed.. The Military Family in Peace and War. New York: Springer Publishing Company, 1993.

In the foreword of The Military Family in Peace and War, James Sears, a Rear Admiral in the Medical Corps in the U.S. Navy, asserts that the “ability to understand and work effectively with or for military families requires, most importantly, a knowledge of the military culture (ix).” It is to this goal that this book is fashioned. Each article in the edited volume is authored by psychological/psychiatric, not pastoral, professionals who all have significant experience within the military culture. The book is divided into two sections: (1) Personal and Interpersonal Issues that Affect Military Families and (2) Broader Social Issues: Policies, Programs and Services Geared to Military Families. In Part I, chapters of particular interest to pastoral caregivers include topics such as the effects on children of a parent missing in wartime, the skills essential to treat military families, and the special concerns of military families. In Part II, pastors can find valuable information about services available to military families from which pastors can augment their referral databases.

Donald W. Hadley and Gerald T. Richards. Ministry with the Military: A Guide for Churches and Chaplains. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1992.

While Ministry with the Military is written with the evangelistic aim of the recruitment of people to minister to military service members, it does provide some helpful tips regarding the understanding the nature and stresses of military families. Hadley and Richards dedicate a significant portion at the beginning of the book to justifying the role and legitimacy of military chaplains. However, they then provide some possible models of ministry to military members and their families. The second half of the book is dedicated to outlining specific needs of military members, skills necessary for effective ministry with the military and critical issues currently facing ministry with the military such as PTSD and absent family members. They conclude the book with a very informative chapter concerning the specifics of casualty notification calls outlining the entire process of how a family member is notified of their loved one’s death during military service.

Hadley and Richards provide significant scriptural defense of and theological reflection regarding each of their suggestions. However, I found that many of the technical resources that they cited to be a bit out of date with most of them from 1972 or earlier. I believe that this book would quite helpful for a parish minister whose congregation has a very high concentration of military members.

Note: The Military Chaplains’ Review was only published until 1992. In 1993, it was replaced by The Army Chaplaincy: Professional Bulletin of the Unit Ministry Team. You may obtain copies of either the Military Chaplains’ Review or The Army Chaplaincy by contacting:

Robert G. Leroe, “The Effects of Hardship Tours on Children.” Military Chaplains’ Review Winter 1988, 49-55.

This article focuses on the effect that separation of child and parent during military tours has specifically on the children in military families. Leroe covers topics such as age-specific reactions of children to deployment, the effect of the behavior of the parent who remains behind, and reactions of children to the return of the absent parent. There seems to be a basic assumption in the article that the absentee parent is the father. While this article contains no theological reflection on parent/child separation/reunion, I believe that it would helpful to pastoral caregivers and support groups as an educational resource regarding issues pertaining specifically to children in military families.

Thomas P. Doyle, “The Marriages of Military Personnel: A special Question.” Military Chaplains’ Review Winter 1988, 29-39.

Doyle, a Catholic chaplain, served for a number of years on the Marriage Tribunal for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Service in Maryland as well as a chaplain in the Air Force. He shares a number of reflections and observances regarding special issues that confront military marriages. I think his reflections are insightful and important for pastoral caregivers in terms of both pre-marital and marital counseling of military marriages. His discussion includes military marriages in both wartime and peacetime.

Chet Lanious, “Family Separation and Maintaining Relationships.” Military Chaplains’ Review Winter 1988, 57-62.

Lanious describes the content of his article this way: “This article suggests some practical ways for managing the stress of separation. The suggestions are primarily focused on the family, but could be usefully transferred to other groups and applied to relationships as well.” His very practical suggestions include separation, deployment and reunion.

Richard D. Thompson, “Homecoming: A Period of Adjustment.” Military Chaplains’ Review, Winter 1991, 21-29.

This article, written by an army chaplain, provides some very practical advice to members of the military who are returning home from a long deployment. It includes tips regarding marriage, sexual issues, parenting, finances, infidelity, and language. Thompson is quite realistic that homecomings/reunions are not a fix to problems that may have existed prior to deployment.

Nils Juarez-Palma, “Pastoral Care to Hispanic Military Families.” Military Chaplains’ Review, Summer 1992, 9-18.

Stephen K. Kim, “Pastoral Care to Asian-American Families.” Military Chaplains’ Review, Summer 1992, 19-28.

These articles provide unique cultural perspectives on providing pastoral care to both Hispanic and Asian-American Families. They provide helpful insights into particular cultural issues that come into play within the military frame of reference including historical perspectives on each culture, issues surrounding death and grief, and family systems dynamics.

N. Duncan Sinclair. Horrific Traumata: A Pastoral Response to the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. New York: The Haworth Pastoral Press, 1993.

As it is described in its foreword, Horrific Traumata is “a book about helping survivors who suffer from the after-effects of horrific trauma.” (p. ix) Duncan Sinclair, himself, is a survivor of trauma having been a military chaplain on active duty in Vietnam during the Vietnam War . He includes personal stories of his own trauma and recovery and healing which clergy may find helpful as they build their own sense of empathy for those dealing with PTSD caused by military combat. Some of his writing may be a bit too technical for pastoral caregivers as his audience is pastoral counselors, however, he does include a number of case studies in addition to his own experiences which makes much of his writing accessible to all clergy.

David W. Foy, Kent D. Drescher, Allan G. Fitz, and Kevin Kennedy, “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.” In Clinical Handbook of Pastoral Counseling, Volume 2, edited by Robert J. Wicks and Richard D. Parsons. New York: Paulist Press, 1993, 621-637.

This article provides a good overview to PTSD, its causes, symptoms and basics of treatment. It is written to pastoral counselors who by definition have more training than a typical pastoral caregiver, but it is written in a way that is accessible to those with less training. The article is not specific to PTSD caused by military combat experiences, but it does include significant references to military combat-induced PTSD. With pastoral counselors as its audience, the article includes substantial theological reflection regarding PTSD as well as an analysis of dealing with PTSD within a religious setting.

Andrew J. Weaver, “Psychological Trauma: What Clergy Need to Know.” Pastoral Psychology 41, no. 6 (1993): 385-408.

Unlike the previous article, the audience of this article is all clergy, not just those trained as pastoral counselors. It includes a quick reference guide to help clergy recognize PTSD along with guidelines for knowing when and how to make referrals. This article does not include as many references to PTSD resulting from military combat experiences, however it does include a number of resources within its bibliography and references lists that clergy can use to expand their reading on the subject.

Robert W. Bermudes, “Ministry to the Repeatedly Grief-stricken.” Journal of Pastoral Care 27 (December 1973): 218-228.

Despite the fact that this article was published thirty years, it still contains wisdom for today’s clergy as they minister to military families. For this article, Rev. Robert Bermudes studied the wives of submarine personnel and their reactions to their husbands repeated deployments. He describes his results by relating their reactions to the grief cycle. He concludes by describing the ways in which he altered his parish ministry with these wives to enable them to cope/live with their repeated grief. With the current state of war being one that yields more grief due to deployment rather than actual combat deaths for American soldiers, the methodology of this article still rings true for clergy called to minister to military families today.

The following websites are good sites to help educate clergy and military family members alike regarding what support services are available to families through the military and government sponsored agencies.

This site provides links to the military chaplain websites in all branches of the military.

This website is an excellent resource for those who provide services to military members and their families. It includes access to “quality of life policies, the latest research initiatives, model programs, publications, resource referrals, and a wealth of information to support family programs.”

An important page of this website is the MRFC Program Directories page. http://www.mfrc.calib.com/progDir/index.cfm

This page includes directories for Family Centers, Family Advocacy Programs, Child Development Centers and Youth Programs that are located around the country on or near military installations.

According to the website, the mission of the NMFA is to serve the families of the seven uniformed services through education, information and advocacy. The NMFA was originally organized in 1969 as the Military Wives Association, but in 1984 it changed its name and broadened the scope of its advocacy. It is now dedicated to improving the quality of military family life. Information can be found on this website concerning topics such as health care, housing and education.

The Military Family Research Institute is an interdisciplinary research program housed at Purdue University. Its research centers on issues that impact the quality-of-life of military members and their families. The website includes a particularly helpful list of deployment support resources.

The NMHA has a page on its website dedicated particularly to coping with disaster and it includes sub-topics such dealing with the stress of war, bereavement and grief information of military families and communities and helping our children deal with war. (http://www.nmha.org/reassurance/anniversay/index.cfm)

Currently this website only has one simple page referring to wartime issues, but it does contain a far more detailed page regarding the aftermath of September 11^th. This page (http://www.aapc.org/prayer.htm) includes many tips and resources for clergy and pastoral counselors in regards to helping faith communities’ cope with trauma and disaster.

This website is a part of the mission of Campus Crusade for Christ International. It includes both information about both support for the troops as well as for their families.

Within the Focus on the Family website is this page that includes a number of articles and links that provide information for supporting military families in a time of war.

The following list contains particular web pages within denominational websites that speak directly to the pastoral support of military families.

At this site, if you follow the links to “Nations in Conflict” and then to “Ministry,” you will find very practical article entitled “Basic Training: Ministering to Military Families” that includes a list of suggestions of how to support the military families in your parish.

In the last fifty years, there has been a dramatic shift in the make-up of the military forces in the United States. What used to be a “single man’s” military, in which men were told “if the army wanted you to be married, it would have provided you with a wife,” is now very much a “married men and women’s” military. [1]In 1987, more than 80 percent of the active duty officer corps, 78 percent of the enlisted career force and 28 percent of the first term enlisted were married. While at any give time, 15 to 20 percent of all married United States servicemen and women are assigned to locations away from their families.”[2] The percentages of married people in the military are still about the same now as they were in 1987. With the current war in Iraq and the war on terrorism, the number of servicepeople deployed has certainly increased. With these statistics in mind, it is possible to understand the need for pastoral caregivers to understand the family dynamics and unique culture of military families in order to provide pastoral support to them. While military chaplains used to be able to attend to most of the pastoral needs of the servicepeople, “civil” clergy are now providing support to the families of the servicepeople.

In order to conduct my research to develop this annotated bibliography aimed at providing clergy with resources for offering pastoral care to military families, I took a number of routes. In a review of the literature I found articles mainly in the journal Military Chaplains’ Review.[3] The dates of these articles had a narrow range of 1984-1992. It turns out that this journal was discontinued in 1993 and was renamed and revamped into the publication entitled The Army Chaplaincy. From all appearances, it seems that the Military Chaplains’ Review was a far more scholarly and academic-style journal which reported actual research conducted by military chaplains while The Army Chaplaincy focuses more on personal reflections of chaplains as well as on recruitment, training, and leadership issues for new chaplains. Thus, I was able to find some helpful articles in the Military Chaplains’ Review, but found nothing pertaining to this topic in the more recent publications of The Army Chaplaincy.

I also discovered some relatively comprehensive books on the topic of military family dynamics and treatment. Most of these books have been written from a psychosocial perspective, not a psycho-spiritual perspective. Thus, they provide excellent background into the particularities and unique aspects of military families, but they do not provide theological reflection along with their research. I only found one book written specifically to the topic of ministry with the military, and its focus is not so much pastoral care per se, but rather recruitment of those who might minister to the military and the actual evangelism of military families.

I found it quite difficult to find current printed resources for my topic. It seems that there is a flurry of publishing that occurs after each major military conflict or structural change in the military. Thus, much of the most recent printed resources were published in the early nineties soon after the Gulf War. I was, however, able to find plenty of far more current and helpful information on the Internet.

As I began to organize the resources, I found that it seemed to make sense to group resources together by the type of resource rather than by particular topics. The categories are Comprehensive Books Concerning Military Families; Pertinent Articles in the Military Chaplains’ Review; Trauma/ PTSD/ Grief; Military/Government Internet Referral Sources; Civilian/Religious Internet Referral Sources; and Denominational Internet Resources. Within my abstracts, I made it clear what particular topics could be found in each resource.

As I have reviewed my bibliography, it appears that I did not include an abundance of resources for issues concerning PTSD, trauma and grief. However, these topics are covered quite well in my more comprehensive resources, both printed and internet-based.

I explored over 30 different denominational websites during my search. From my bibliography, you can see that I did not find a good deal of usable material. I had expected to find an abundance of resources from most conservative denominations and less in the more mainline/liberal denominations. I actually found almost the opposite of that, barring a few exceptions. It was the Protestant mainline churches that had the most material. The denominations that fell to the far left such as the United Church of Christ and Unitarian/Universalists included almost exclusively materials concerning only peace work on their websites. At the same time, the most conservative denominations included only material regarding military chaplaincy in particular that was less helpful to most clergy, and they included almost no information regarding care for military families, only care for the servicepeople themselves.

I did include information in my bibliography about how particular resources can be obtained citing whether particular resources are still in print and all of the appropriate Internet website addresses.

I was pleased to find more resources than I originally thought available, but was disappointed in limited number of specifically faith-based materials. I was impressed at the variety of resources that the military and the government itself provides or at least makes available to its servicepeople. It is my hope that pastoral care providers will be able to use this bibliography to build up their referral databases for military families as well as better equip them to provide direct pastoral care to military families.

[1] Mark E. Fentress, “A Support Program for Military Family Separation,” Military Chaplains Review, Winter (1987): 41.

[3] In these searches, I used search terms such as “ministry with military families,” “pastoral care with military families,” “pastoral counseling with military families,” and “pastoral support for military families.” I also searched on topics such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), grief and bereavement.

Pastoral Care with Military Families: An Annotated Bibliography