A Page on the World: The Faith of the American Soldier
By Stephen Mansfield, 2005, ISBN 1-58542-407-2
Reviewed by Cecil E. Maranville
Stephen Mansfield provides us with an interesting insight into the way today's American soldier understands and uses faith. He relates numerous interviews with field soldiers, as well as chaplains, and he contrasts the faith of today's soldiers with those in American armies of the past. "We have the most religious Army since the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War"—General Barry McCaffrey (p. 33).
Today's America, says Mansfield, is religiously in tension with itself, and that is affecting the solider in the field. That is, the public is inclined to be religious, readily identifying with the nation's Christian roots. But a largely liberal judiciary is steadily separating government from any mention of religion.
The media reflects this liberal attitude, rarely if ever reporting the part that religion is playing on the battlefield, such as the fact that the marines who assaulted the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah held a prayer meeting to solicit God's blessing before launching their attack. Or that medics report having to push aside crowds from the wounded because so many men were trying to lay hands on the fallen to pray for their healing.
Mansfield tells of a band of young soldiers all less than 25 years of age, gathering to pray before battle. They have talked about the fact that the people of God in the Old Testament lost battles when they sinned. So they quote Psalm 51:1-4,10 together. This is a psalm or prayer of repentance.
Mansfield says that one might not expect the "millennialists' army" to be religious. One quarter to one third of this generation comes from single parent homes. Nearly 50 percent were sexually active in their teen years. And, they reject traditional church doctrines and standards, finding that structured religion is not relevant to their lives—but they want God and they want His blessings on what they are doing. More than 80 percent describe their religious faith as very important and 75 percent say that they pray at least once a week.
