Celebration of Spiritual Care Week: Supporting Our Veterans Through Unity and Prayer

Chaplain Willis, thanks for that kind introduction, for your leadership, and for the critical spiritual care you and your team of chaplains bring to Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors. And I’m especially grateful, Chaplain Willis, for the work you’re doing in support of the President’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Conrad [Washington] so good to see you and the team from the VA Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Thanks to you all for your commitment to strengthening VA’s partnerships so we can reach every Veteran.

Let me also acknowledge my good friend whom I admire greatly, Melissa Rogers from the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

And most of all, my thanks to our chaplains and faith-based and community partners.

It’s always a privilege to be among leaders from different faith communities. I couldn’t be more grateful for all you do, and for our partnership serving Vets, their families, caregivers, and survivors. And I’m grateful we’re together so soon after the vicious terrorist assault on Israel just over two weeks ago.

The brutality of that attack rightly led the President to identify it as “evil.” And there is no more accurate description of it. And as we’ve feared, there’s been a spike in extremist threats and hate crimes, including anti-Semitic and Islamophobic violence. A week ago Saturday in Illinois, we saw more of that evil—again, again, no more accurate description of it—in the vicious murder of a Palestinian-American boy, a six-year-old child, and in the brutal attempted murder of his mother. So, as President Biden has urged, “We must stand united—regardless of our backgrounds and beliefs—[and] affirm that an attack on any one group of us is an attack on us all and that hate can have no safe harbor in America.”

And you, our faith leaders, you help us hear our better angels. You are our frontline of defense against religious hate. That’s why this gathering—which is a celebration of unity, of community, of multi-faith partnerships—is so important, particularly now.

At its essence, this is a celebration of love. And strong love must be what we’re about.

Here’s what I mean. Recently I read about the time—nearly six decades ago—that American journalist Calvin Trillin found himself with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on a flight from Atlanta to Jackson, Mississippi. Dr. King was heading to Greenwood, Mississippi, into the thick of the civil rights fight. During the flight, Mr. Trillin listened to a conversation between Dr. King and another passenger—a young white man who was critical of Dr. King’s effort to end segregation, even suggesting that what the Reverend was advocating was contrary to biblical teaching.

He asked Dr. King, “Do you feel you’re teaching Christian love?”

“Yes,” Dr. King replied, “that’s my basic approach. I think love is the most durable element in the world, and my whole approach is based on that,” he said. “I’m not talking about weak love,” Dr. King explained. “Weak love can be sentimental and empty. I’m talking,” he said, “about the love that is strong, so that you love your fellow-men enough to lead them to justice.”

Strong love.

Now, that’s the toughest love of all, because it demands so much from us—demands that we pick up that yoke of leading others and lead them to justice. Strong love demands action. It moves us to advocacy, to alliance, to activism, education and to partnership in the common cause of justice. It’s that strong kind of love that bends the long arc of the moral universe a little closer to justice for the oppressed, for the marginalized, for the victimized, for everyone suffering injustice, and against the kind of evil that we witnessed that morning of October 7th in Israel. Because we know there is only one kind of justice, not one kind for me and one kind for you. And it is strong love that transcends race, transcends gender, sexual orientation, personal faiths—love grounded in shared humanity.  

From my own faith, that’s the message I take from Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians. Paul wrote, “Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.” That’s the call of our faiths—individually and collectively—to sit together at the same table, to share in that communion, to break bread together. That’s the call of our national motto: out of many, one. And that’s the call of our shared humanity—to embrace King’s strong love in the hard work of building community, of building unity, and confronting evil.

Now, I am not so un-self-aware to come preach to a bunch of preachers. Yet Dr. King did say on that very same flight, in the conversation with the young provocateur, “We’re all preachers.” We preach with our words. We preach with our deeds and our examples.

Which is to say, we all have a role in this project of building community, building unity, confronting evil. I think that’s a high calling of our faiths—not just in times like these, but especially in times like these. And that is my prayer, that we remember and help others know that “we who are many are one body,” and that we will join hands and build unity, whatever our faiths, and grow a sense of community among all people.

Our VA Chaplains do that work—our Imams and Rabbis, Priests and Preachers, from Buddhists to Baptists, from the Native American Tradition to the Wesleyan Tradition. They offer Veterans care and compassion, lift them up, guide them, empathize with their challenges, put their arms around Vets during struggles, celebrate their victories with them and their families, perhaps give Vets a sense of peace in their last moments on this mortal coil, and embrace Veterans of all faiths, or of no faith at all.

VA Chaplains offer their wisdom and spiritual support to providers, to Veterans, to their families, and to those caring for them. They participate in medical rounds and patient care conferences. They provide meaningful spiritual care interventions. They offer interdisciplinary education for providers. They are often the first person a Vet is comfortable talking to about mental health challenges or concerns.

And their spiritual care offers concrete health benefits. That’s what we celebrate this week, the idea that you and your care is part of the integrated care that studies show us leads to better outcomes for Veterans. Research shows, VA patients who have chaplains or faith leaders involved in their health care leave the hospital sooner and better manage their pain and stress. That’s why our Chaplains and faith leaders are invaluable to everything we do here at VA—building trust, offering the light of hope to Vets and those serving Vets, often in their darkest moments.

You know, it wasn’t long after Army Vet Chaplain Paul Dordal joined VA’s Chaplain Service that he found himself on his own sort of road to Damascus at the Pittsburgh VA Medical Center. A fellow VA employee, a fellow Veteran, and a Muslim was in despair, on the floor of his office, sobbing at the loss of a beloved family member. Well, Chaplain Dordal’s first thought was to provide some spiritual comfort and then help his Muslim colleague get in touch with his Imam.

And in that moment of sorrow and pain, that Vet looked up from the floor and taught a lesson for all of us. “You’re a chaplain,” he said. “Can’t you pray for me?” So Chaplain Dordal began his prayer, “in the name of Allah.” Immediately, he felt a spiritual connection, and felt their shared commitment to faith. “It was,” Chaplain Dordal teaches, “a very profound moment as we recognized that though we are of different faith traditions, we have a deep respect for each other’s beliefs and values.” Years later, Chaplain Dordal and his new friend designed a space in the VA chapel facing Mecca, so Muslim Vets and staff have a private place to pray. And that, my friends, is just one of those miracles of our VA Chaplains, a miracle in which we are all called to share.

Chaplain Willis, thank you for inviting me. And, everyone, thank you for supporting America’s Veterans through unity, community, and prayer. May our God bless us all.