Chaplains Survey

The Military Chaplains Just War Education Project developed an in-depth survey to assess the military chaplains’ level of understanding of the Just War tradition, their interests in gaining additional educational subject, and its potential application to their ministry. The Office of the Bishop Suffragan for Armed Forces and Federal Ministries orchestrated the distribution of the survey to the Church’s entire military chaplain corps. Approximately 25% of the chaplains responded, providing a robust sample size.

The quantitative and qualitative data emerging from the survey provided valuable insights into the educational needs of military chaplains which led directly to the focus areas for the materials produced by the project, especially the expert video interviews.

Among other important findings, the survey showed fully 100% of responding military chaplains agreed that “an understanding of the Just War tradition would help them better minister to servicemembers” and that they would “benefit from additional exposure to Just War teaching,” validating the purpose of the project.