I would want to tell a young person, yes, you can pursue a career in the military, but you need to be prepared to say no when everyone else is telling you to say yes. Would you cease to participate in war crimes at the risk of alienating your comrades, at the risk of your life, at the risk of your reputation? Would you be willing to stand for the truth and report the crimes, even if it meant the end of friendships and your career?

Among the many legitimate vocations that Christians can pursue, military service is certainly an acceptable choice. Serving in the military can be very beneficial. Many young people have testified to the fact that military service helped them grow up to be responsible adults. Many have taken advantage of financial assistance programs that help pay for college. Others have learned much about leadership, service, and honor by serving in the military. There are also many benefits—learning technical trades or even learning a unique skill, such as how to fly aircraft—that lead to long and profitable careers later in civilian life.

Even with all these advantages, as a pastor there are several areas in which I would want to provide counsel to a young person if he or she was considering military service as a vocation.

First, I would want to ensure that the person was very spiritually mature.

A regular part of military service is constant relocation and even deployment to foreign countries or war zones. With such an ambulatory life, being a member of a church and having regular access to the means of grace can be a great challenge.

If you’re on a year-long combat deployment to a war zone, you might not be able to hear the preaching of the word or take the sacrament consistently. And when you do, it might have to be a chaplain from another denomination or even religion who would perform a “religious service.” This means that a person has to be spiritually mature enough continually to seek through every means and avenue consistent spiritual nourishment.

Second, the Christian has to have a strong will—a dogged commitment to serve Christ and continually strive for greater sanctification.

The military is no different than the rest of the world, but it can have a strong group mentality, which is quite different from civilian organizations.

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