Calvinism under fire -- xxiv

October 29, Sunday

I preached on  Galatians 6:7. Attendance at the Jean Fontaine School was 30, Diana Hotel 20 American Church 150, Motor Pool 50. 

Chaplain Van recites these numbers every Sunday, and the numbers do vary. Why GIs show up or why they don't remains of great interest to him because he feels very deeply (and traditionally) that attendance at Sunday worship is requirement for a Christian life. Back in the States, it's clear that he is mystified by the imbalance when Sunday worshipers so greatly outnumber Protestant. Months before--during training--he asked his Catholic colleagues why that was happening. The answer he received had to be gratifying--because we know, the Catholic chaplains told him, that the church will be and is best sustained by religious training in church and in home and in school. 

I'm guessing it was part of his job's mandate that he chart numbers as he did. It's fair to say that the lengths of his additions are increasing.

Today I met Chaplain Kidder, who is six and a half feet tall, and the soldiers call him "tiny". He had been in combat since the invasion. He said that
Chaplain Vander Ark was working at an aid station when the Germans opened with fire. Vander Ark had a nervous breakdown and was sent to the rear for recuperation. I asked Chaplain Kidder what effect that [battle] had on him. I was surprised when he answered, "The war had made a Calvinist out of me." I asked him what he meant by that statement. He said, "When you are standing in a foxhole, you cannot ask God to send the bullets to the left of you or to the right, for then the soldiers might get shot. When you see nothing but death and destruction, it is impossible to see any good in this war at all. But a Calvinist emphasizes God's overall plan, working for a greater good." I asked Kidder if the soldiers were more religious at the front. He said, "If we get a good shellacking from the enemy on Saturday night, we will have a good attendance on Sunday morning, otherwise not. The war intensifies what is in a per­son. If a person is a Christian, he will become a better Christian. If not, the war will make him worse." 

How much authority does a chaplain have? In some incidents he can even take a general to task. A general wanted to set up a brothel for the soldiers under his command. A chaplain voiced his objection and the general told him to mind his own business. The chaplain re­sponded, "That is just exactly what I am doing." When the project was completed, the chaplain called up the authorities at Corps HQ and in­formed them what the general had done. Immediately, the general was informed that no brothel would be tolerated in the United States Army.

The little brothel story is interesting because it's not difficult to guess that the anonymity of the chaplain might just suggest it was Chaplain Van himself who spoke out against the brothel. It would be tough to prove that to be true. What is, at least to me, greatly fascinating is that the story does seem to suggest that Chaplain Van sits around a table of people who have some significant power. 

Two soldiers had been friends throughout their military career. When they were stationed in England, both dated the same girl at intervals. Now when they were stationed in Paris, the girl informed them that she was pregnant and wanted to get married. Both of the boys claimed to be the father of the girl and demand that she should make a choice as to which of the boys she wanted to marry. They did. A few weeks later they both came to my office with a letter from the girl. She had made her choice. After I read the letters to the men, the one that wasn't chosen congrat­ulated the one who was selected. They left my office arm in arm and the one who had gained the girl asked for help in getting a furlough to go to England and marry her.

These kinds of problems don't appear to happen with any less frequency in his position in Paris.