By Forrest Adams

Chanhassen resident and Faith Presbyterian Church pastor Chris Carlson sneezed for 10 months in Afghanistan, the “dustiest place” he’s ever been, but now the 54-year-old chaplain is back for a humid Minnesota summer.

His army reserve unit returned in March. The deployment was from May 1, 2008, to March 1, 2009. Carlson was back in the pulpit at Faith Presbyterian in Minnetonka on Easter Sunday, April 12.

On the subject of how God, war and man interact through the chaplaincy, Carlson said it is “very subjective.” He deals with the power of hope — the hope there’s a God who cares about the soldiers, hope they will live another day, hope their families back home are OK. Carlson said he sees his function as “a symbol of hope” to the troops, and it’s hope that keeps some of them functional.

“It’s very subjective, but it’s very powerful,” he said. “One of the things they teach you in tactics is not how to kill people. It’s how to take the heart out of your enemy to fight. That’s how you win battles. You take their hope and their heart to fight.”

He doesn’t tell soldiers, ‘The lord’s blessings on you. Now go out and kill the enemy.’ As a chaplain, he’s still an ordained pastor with a simple cross on his uniform, an ordained clergy with all the privileges and duties of providing religious services for people who want them. Carlson performs many of the same functions that a pastor at home would perform, but he is also a staff officer in charge of advising the army commander on troop morale. That’s where the hope is important. His is a ministry of presence.

“A lot of people draw strength from you,” he said. “They may never say a word to you, but they draw strength from the fact that you’re there. You represent something. You represent that God is still around. That doesn’t mean they will come to faith. The fact that you are there means a lot to people.”

Chaplains are considered non-combatants, so they do not carry a firearm. Consequently, they are accompanied everywhere by a chaplain’s assistant who is an enlisted person carrying a weapon. In Afghanistan, Carlson stayed at a brigade headquarters just west of the border with Pakistan. He also occasionally boarded a helicopter with his assistant to visit troops who were out on a mission.

“Every time I would put on body armor and board a helicopter to go visit guys out in the field, it was a big deal. They appreciated it,” he said.

Chaplains in the U.S. military exist because of the constitutional clause that says everybody has a free right to exercise their religion. In addition to Christian chaplains, there are Jewish and Muslim chaplains. Carlson said some of the most common questions soldiers would ask him had to do with the spiritual matters and marital counseling.

“When you’re there, you think about life a lot more,” he said. “You think about the eternal things a lot more, or you do things to forget them. I think it’s harder for the guys who don’t have a faith. Everything in the civilian world is reflected in the army. They’re just normal people,” he said.

As a father of three grown daughters and a husband of 30 years, Carlson was much older than most of the other soldiers. It’s something he used to his advantage.

“Over there I talked to a guy my age and said, ‘We’re old. Why are we here?’ He said, ‘We’ve been there, done that’,” Carlson reflected. “It really helps to have a little gray hair and say, ‘Son, I’ve walked this walk and talked this talk, and I think can help.’”

Readers can contact Forrest Adams at fadams@swpub.com.