Category Archives: Chaplain

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How God Called Me to Navy Chaplaincy

Kit, Central Iraq, with a CENTCOM assigned Task Force, 2019.

Written By Lieutenant Commander Kristian L. Carlson

Kit Carlson has served alongside Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, & Special Forces, and has completed three deployments. In 2020, the Navy sent him to Duke University’s Divinity School to earn a specialized Master’s Degree, ThM, in Pastoral Care, where he focused his studies on challenges facing Active Duty personnel, Veterans and their families. His specific areas of interest include care for persons with Complex Trauma, strategies for healing from PTSD, Moral Injury, & mild TBI. A key personal mission of his is to leverage the strengths of faith-based Veteran Service Organizations as strategic partners to chaplains, the VA, and the DoD in their ongoing resiliency & suicide prevention initiatives. He is married to his Chilean sweetheart, Damaris. They have two young children, who are the delight of their hearts.

At sea, aboard USS Bunker Hill, with my much respected “big brother” Command Master Chief Jim Follmer (prior HTCM)

The initial moments are etched well in my memory. I’m writing from O’Hare airport in Chicago. It was here in this city that many of my hopes would coalesce culminating 27 SEP 2006 when I was commissioned an Ensign in the United States Navy as a Chaplain Candidate Program Officer, at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri. Then again 13 DEC 2011, I was commissioned as a 4100 Active Duty Chaplain at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. But here in Chicago is where it all began, at a Christian college, Trinity International University. I minored in Biblical Studies and majored in English Literature with a focus also in music.  11 SEP 2001 came:

James Allen: “Kit, dude, did ya see what just happened to the Twin Towers in NYC?” 

Me: “No. What?”

James Allen: “Dude, somebody just struck the towers with a jet. We’re going to war, man.”  

James was an Air Force veteran, a suitemate with me in the CIT dorm and a good friend. As a military dependent at the time, I heard firsthand the new security measures happening at Fort Rucker, Alabama where dad was installation Chaplain, there at the home of Army Aviation. And I heard straight from my sister Nora, what was happening in Okinawa, where my brother-in-law was Ops, then XO, at MWSS-172 as a Marine Officer.  Our worlds had dearly changed.  That day, my friend Christine and I rode the “L”, an above ground subway, to Downtown. We shared the love of Jesus on the trains with Chicagoans, prayed for people and spoke of taking courage in Christ.   Then we got off the “L” and went and sat still stunned, in solidarity with New York, on the steps of the Sears Tower. It was our way of taking in the shocking tragedy of people leaping from Tower windows to escape the flames and the horror of trembling doomed skyscrapers. And it was a way for us to say, “our God is Great. He is with us (Ps 46), and we are not afraid.” 

Fast forward. In 2004 I was teaching at a Christian High School in West Allis, Wisconsin, just outside of Milwaukee.  That November, on Election Tuesday, I stood on the corner of 35th and Oklahoma, on the city’s South Side and toted a Bush-Cheney sign to the chorus of naysaying cars driving by and folks flipping me “the bird.”  I did it because I believed in what President Bush wanted to accomplish in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a response to 9/11. And a way to intervene in two fraught nations over-run by Al Qaeda Islamic terrorist networks and by a dictator, Saddam Hussein, who had flouted international sanctions and maybe even harbored WMD.  I share about Milwaukee because while I had longed to serve in the military, something crystallized in my heart that day, as I stood at some risk, by myself, in a deep blue city, campaigning for George W. Bush. Much in my heart was also related to his Pro-Life stance as opposed to John Kerry. But the critical nature of the president’s power to move the levers of Government and the prospective of continuing with God-fearing leadership captured my energy and hopes.

Less than two years later I was commissioned as a Navy Chaplain Candidate Program Officer (CCPO). While I had envisioned myself as a tentmaking missionary in the Arab World, perhaps teaching English, working as a Foreign Service Officer, or for the NGO Samaritan’s Purse, God had other plans. I left Milwaukee, and moved to Fort Leonard Wood where my dad, a mustang former Army Chaplain assistant, now Installation Chaplain and Colonel, was serving as the Maneuver Support Center Chaplain. 

Dad T, Harold T. Carlson, Hero.

While teaching was rewarding, and I did a good enough job to be invited back the next year ( I taught American Literature honors, Speech and Spanish to six sections –120 students!)…I still hadn’t fully landed on my “niche”, the vocation God would open to me. In fact, I was exhausted from working 70 – 90 hours a week and living alone in a small flat in the city, by myself, above the widowed homeowner. Mrs. Phyllis Huffman, my landlord, loved watching the musical Golden Age Hollywood movies. She wistfully spoke of her deceased husband, who was a plumber, but to her a Troubadour. He could sing beautifully and helped rear their beautiful family and loved her well. Looking back, spending time with Phyllis as a 24-year-old “green” teacher, I was “chaplaining”—shepherding– a lonesome, grief-stricken person, with the Comfort by which we ourselves are comforted (2 Corinthians 1:4). 

I left Wisconsin the summer of 2005 and landed at Fort Leonard Wood, where I sought respite and direction from the Lord for His calling on my life. Having recently done ministry work in Israel during the 2nd Intifada, and later also in formerly communist Romania in summers of 2002 and 2004, I continued to feel drawn to Missions, especially to Muslims.

My final big step toward chaplaincy happened in Fall 2005. A Colonel Chaplain (R), Skip, and his wife Dawn, parents of a medically retired Force Recon Marine, and of two missionary daughters to Turkey and Indonesia, asked me to begin leading music worship with them for a Bible Study of 200 Soldiers in Basic Training.  Many of the young Soldiers were heading to danger in the Middle East as Combat Medics, MPs, and “88 Mike” Truck Drivers, to serve during the Surge of forces designed by Generals Petraeus and McChrystal. It was called “COIN”, a counterinsurgency strategy to win hearts and minds, and build democracy among Iraqis and Afghanis.  I reluctantly said “Yes” to the Bible Study, but did not truly feel HOOAH enough to stand in front of Soldiers.  I liked occasionally smoking tobacco pipe and a Hookah, wearing Birkenstocks and hemp necklaces, playing guitar and reading classics like Dostoevsky and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. How would these hardened warriors receive me??

Dostoyevsky’s book is an all-time favorite of mine. Read at my Romanian American buddy, Viorel’s urging, in 2000. So glad he insisted. Moving novel.

But somehow they did. And 200 in the Battalion, quickly became nearly 1000 a week for three straight years. 

Baker Theater, Team Devotions, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, 2006

I became a contract musician leading worship for two Soldier services. Weekly I discipled Soldiers and led rehearsals, a band, and choir of 20 – 35 musicians. We gave out 7000 full OT and NT Bibles from the American Bible Society which I had requested. There is no sight or sound quite like hearing Baker Theater full of hoarse young Soldiers shouting and singing to Jesus in unity. Hands lifted up singing “Days of Elijah” and “Lord I Lift Your Name on High”; or to see them waving their USA patches in abandoned patriotism and resolve as we’d play Toby Keith’s “American Soldier” on the Theater’s loudspeakers.

Baker Theater Worship Time, 3rd Basic Combat Training Brigade Soldiers, “Fort Wood”, Mo. 2006

I was commissioned September 27, 2006, by COL Chaplain Dan Parker. My Dad led a commissioning prayer. I attended seminary, 2006-2009, at the AoG Seminary, and was mentored closely by COL CH (R) Scott McChrystal. I chose to shift endorsement from the EFCA to the AoG, and moved to East Hartford, CT to pastor and prepare for ordination. I served 29 months at a beautiful large church of 5000 called Crossroads Community Cathedral. Chaplain McChrystal facilitated the opportunity along with the AoG Seminary President, Byron Klaus.  

Special Mentors to Damaris and myself: Scott and Judy McChrystal. Along with my parents and the LaMerthas, there’s no example in our lives of a Chaplaincy couple that’s been more influential. They’ve written a great 6-set devotional: “Daily Strength for the Battle”

As I’m reflecting, I want to say that I didn’t get into chaplaincy ministry or leadership on my own. God used a team of wonderful women and men who mentored me and opened doors for me. And I want to point out to myself, that sustaining ministry in the future is something my wife and I can not do alone either.

Damaris and I were married in April 2010 and spent our first 18 months of marriage in New England. Precious times. From 2009 – 2011, in the spring and fall, I traveled 12 weeks, total, up and down the rivers and dirt roads of the Amazon, near Iquitos, Peru, sharing the Gospel alongside the Senior Pastor at Crossroads, Bishop Terry Wiles.  I translated annual ministry reports, from Spanish to English, of 70 pastors of La Selva, the Jungle, as they sought to grow in pastoral accountability and in God’s Word, through coursework our church offered.

Iquitos, Peru

​During those early years, as a Navy Chaplain Candidate Officer, working in the civilian world from 2006 – 2011, I often did the work of evangelism and discipleship, pioneering and collaborating. I frequently ledworship with guitar and voice. As I neared Active-Duty Chaplaincy I hadmore opportunities for pastoral leadership, leading a wedding, funeral, and preaching. From a young age I had been drawn to missions work,especially to the “10-40 Window” where many live with no near-neighbor witness of Jesus Christ as Savior. Through Chaplaincy, I wanted to serve the country the best way my gifts allowed. I wanted to do my part during the global war on Terror, and grow in leadership, discipline, and firm up my financial foundation for the future.  A deep part of me wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps and to make him proud. I believed it was a tremendous mission field all its own.

Having served in the Navy, now for nearly 19 years, I have been given so much by the Service and from my shipmates. Tours have taken me across the world to Cambodia, mainland Japan & Okinawa, Australia, Saipan, Guam, Hawaii, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, Djibouti, UAE, Iraq, Germany, and France. I’ve served three years with Marines (MCIPAC), had 2 deployments and spent 330 days, often on the high seas, aboard the Guided Missile Cruiser, USS Bunker Hill. 

Missile Launch from aboard Guided Missile Cruiser. Life changing experience being ship’s company for 3 years aboard CG-52. Love that crew.

Leading those 300 nightly Evening Prayers from the warship Bridge 1MC (intercom), I count a treasured gift. Most recently, I pursued the advanced education program, and earned a second Masters, ThM, fully funded, while in residence at Duke University. Following that I reported to “the Quarterdeck of Navy Medicine” the Hospital Corpsman Schoolhouse in San Antonio, Texas. Here, our command serves 5,500 Sailors a year, and trains 26 officer and enlisted medical specialties.

The stories of the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps is nothing short of incredible. Courage. Grit. Sacrifice. And love. John 15:13.

Growing up as a Chaplain’s son, and with a strongly Christ-honoring mother, ministry was the norm I knew in life. In that way, Navy Chaplaincy has not surprised me. But the sea-services cultures and mission have offered a thrilling ride–very different from my upbringing at Army bases across the US. During these 5 decades I have observed a precious commonality, how no matter the uniform, there’s something compelling about the humility, human needs, and yet valor of Americans who serve. They are heroes. They’ve committed their health, lives, and often their best years to war, defense of the weak, living in spartan environments, for marginal pay while enduring frequent family separation.

Many wonder if Chaplaincy is a “sell-out.” Perhaps a deal with the Devil because of pluralism. But I would answer that numerous chaplains and lay ministers of divergent beliefs, LDS, Muslim, Jewish, & Roman Catholic have refreshed and sharpened me. We have truly become friends, while all the time I continued to pray for their salvation in Christ. Dad taught me that in the United States, each of us, in Pluralism, has a right to a seat at the table. We respect those at the table, but also “own” who we are.  I have found that rather than barriers or constraints in the military, the doors have flung open, to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ.

At the same time, I’ve faithfully fulfilled my oath to our Constitution and my fellow Americans as a naval officer.  An aspect of Chaplaincy I love is the Pauline example to “be all things to all men” and to enculturate myself at each Command.  Practically it means I have worked to earn their respect and trust, by being with them, suffering through the good times and bad.  This Immanuel Factor ministry has opened many doors to naturally sharing my hope in Jesus Christ.

I will admit that I have suffered more in the Navy than I expected when I joined. I have known spiritual and emotional valleys very deep.  The separation from my wife on deployments, the missing of the birth and pregnancy of our first child; sending Americans home in body bags from Iraq; and witnessing war-ravaged parts of the world…these experiences have “seasoned me” and I feel changed.  

Pray for Scott & “Said’s” families & battle brothers. Brothers we lost in Iraq. Had the honor to lead their plane-side “dignified transfer” ceremony in Erbil & their memorial service, August 2019. I think about their sacrificial lives & stories so often.

If the Assemblies of God’s Chaplaincy Endorser leadership gave me window to speak to prospective Chaplains and families, I would tell them, “Look at the Fields. They are White unto the Harvest. Pray the Lord of the Harvest to send Laborers.”  I would also be honest with them, that the call, if they can avoid pitfalls of ego and careerism, will likely allow much suffering to affect their soul, both from the counseling space, and from our mission in war. But that Jesus Christ, is the Faithful Friend, familiar with grief. And as they walk out “Vocati Ad Servitium” ministry, that He will see them through.         

Written March 2025 at Newport Naval Station, Rhode Island. Assignment #1 from CDR, Dr. Ed Erwin, for Professional Naval Chaplaincy, Intermediate Leadership Class-25020. Letter to Your Religious Endorser, CAPT (R) James Denley.

If you have questions about Navy Chaplaincy contact me at striderk@yahoo.com. I will gladly put you in touch with multiple Chaplain Recruiter friends, and answer whatever questions I can.

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Falling Out of Love: The Military & Marriage

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church & gave himself up for her”

“οἱ ἄνδρες, ἀγαπᾶτε τὰς γυναῖκας ἑαυτῶν, καθὼς καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς ἠγάπησε τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ ἑαυτὸν παρέδωκεν ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς”

Paul to the Church in Ephesus, 62 CE

C4 Foundation Ranch Lodge
Family Retreat, near Julian, CA

One of the toughest sets of phone calls I ever received was from my best friend & his wife. He was deployed to Afghanistan with SPECWAR units doing HUMINT & counterinsurgency. They had been married a few years, and had an adorable little one. His wife was clearly shaken on the phone and in pain. She explained that my friend wanted a divorce. I had been in their wedding & grown up with him. They named a child after me. We were close. They were close. She had patched him back together and stayed by his side after traumatic injuries. She hoped I could talk to him & help.

I rang his phone, when we spoke, he was direct, “Kit, I fell out of love with Deb here in Kunar.”

C-130 on Mission, CENTCOM AOR. Thanks USAF.

Inside I was sad, stunned, grieved to my core. He had been honest, but I questioned his thinking. His emotions had shifted, but was love, & marriage itself, a feeling to be fallen out of?

Emotions can grow cold in relationships. Studies show that after about two years of marriage, the feeling of “newness” wears off. Physically the chemicals spiking our infatuation & all the butterflies recede. It is in this time that life with its dynamics, its “heavies” kicks in. It’s normal to ‘lose that lovin’ feeling’. But it’s not forever.

Another Day on the job. Marriage is dynamic. Nurturing it is harder and more rewarding than most of our work forward. CENTCOM AOR.

This is the moment to roll up our sleeves & really dig into the work -the wonder- of loving someone. The butterflies and excitement come back. A Team Guy recently told me, “the best part of marriage, Chaps, is companionship. I had to learn to give more of myself. I had to let myself depend on my wife—allowing that emotional closeness.”

They are twenty years into this adventure. You know what’s awesome? God cares a lot about the outcome, and is close in to help them, & all of us, to succeed.

The Carlson family connecting from Iraq to Virginia via FaceTime. Nurturing our love, one phone call , one letter, & email at a time.

Paul’s words to the Ephesian Church lift Christ’s supremacy above all competitors. He urges Christians to be different. In the early 60s CE, the Apostle wrote from a Roman prison to young believers in Ephesus. It was a wealthy, influential, west coast port city in Rome’s province of Asia—modern day Turkey. Home to the 7th Wonder of the World, the great Temple of Artemis was a bustling center of learning, which supported many outlying towns. The Ephesian theater seated 20,000!

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul told them, “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church & gave Himself up for her.” He laid out a way of relating that must have felt foreign to them. To the men, a challenging word, ‘your love should mirror Jesus Christ’s for the Church. For the church is His body. Love your wife as you love yourself. Sacrifice your will, your desires for her best. All the time, no matter what.’ He explained that wives were to respect their husbands & submit to their authority as husbands. For women, from a city dedicated to the feared goddess of the hunt, this was likely a hard pill to swallow.

‘Respect and submit to this man? How can I trust his decision-making & intentions?’

Honestly, this dynamic cannot work in the world. But among Christians it can. Why? Because both want what is best for the other. They both recognize they are equals made in God’s image. The wife, seeking to honor the Lord, yields place to her husband, to protect, honor & cherish her & the family, as Jesus would. The godly husband is locked-on to serve his family & seek his wife’s best & her counsel in all things. But he also ‘owns’ the moment with critical decisions affecting the family’s spiritual & physical well-being.

Think back to times you were deployed or separated from your partner due to operational requirements. Many of us were married, some engaged, many single. Today I share these thoughts with you, because I believe God wants each of us to elevate our belief about marriage, to align our covenantal promises with His truth. Ultimately He’s calling us to deepen our resolve to faithfully love our spouse for the long haul. The journey is an adventure, & the destination’s outcome: enduring love, trust, and half a century of memories & wins. Totally worth it.

Near Saipan en route to Arabian Gulf & 5th Fleet. We were 7 months pregnant with our child #1

For those considering marriage. I am excited for you. It’s also a great time to look UP, look ahead, & to God for discernment. Check in with wise older friends for counsel that’s specific to your life.

Marriage & family life is quite the Trip! With the Lord in the Center, you will make it!
Praying for you today. -Chaps KC

Follow On

• Go to a Marriage Retreat annually. Weekend to Remember does a great job. They hold retreats across the country. https://www.familylife.com/weekend-to-remember/

Most Pastors of churches would love a call or text asking them what local workshops or retreats might be good for you.

• Marriage coaching or counseling is a gamechanger! Check in with your Unit Chaplain, Family Life Chaplain (Army) or CREDO Chaplain (USMC, NAVY, Coast Guard), or Base Chaplain (USAF/Space Force). You can also look for a Christian Counselor with an LPC, LCSW, LMFT license or a Biblical Counselor via Focus on the Families Network: https://www.focusonthefamily.com/get-help/counseling-services-and-referrals/

• If you want to listen to podcasts check out material from the Gottman Institute https://www.gottman.com , Love & Respect, with Dr. Emerson Eggerichs has excellent webinars & regular content updates, https://www.loveandrespect.com also TWJ.org features a podcast with my sister and her husband a retired Marine, Nora White and LtCol. Danny White. They are a blended family who overcame the traumatic auto accident death of Danny’s previous spouse & two children: https://thewarriorsjourney.org/podcast/episode-75/

• 4 Book Recommendations:

The 5 Love Languages Military Edition

Sacred Marriage

His Needs, Her Needs: Building an Affair Proof Marriage

Daily Strength for the Battle (Vol. 3): Building Resilient Marriages & Families

**Names & Locations were altered to protect confidentiality

With my “Chilena”, Dámaris. Pray for us, 14 years, 7 months, 10 days married! We’re praying for y’all.

About Blog Author:

Kit Carlson has served alongside Marines, Sailors, Soldiers & Special Forces, and has completed three deployments. In 2020, the Navy assigned him to Duke University’s Divinity School to earn a specialized Master’s Degree, ThM, in Pastoral Care, where he focused his studies on challenges to Active Duty personnel, Veterans and their families. His specific areas of interest include care for persons with Complex Trauma, strategies for healing from PTSD, Moral Injury, & mild TBI. A key personal mission of his is to leverage the strengths of faith-based Veteran Service Organizations as strategic partners to chaplains, the VA, and the DoD in their ongoing resiliency & suicide prevention initiatives. He is married to his Chilean sweetheart, Damaris. They have two young children, who are the delight of their hearts.

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Trauma Healing for Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD): Pastoral Perspective

Author: Chaplain Kristian Carlson, M.Div. (Assemblies of God Theological Seminary), Th.M. (Duke Divinity School)

“God brings healing in pastoral care through friendship.”   Dr. Anna Kate Shurley

Liz Carlson, The Author’s Sister, who lives with IDD

The Views of this Post are the Author’s and Do Not Reflect Endorsement by the Department of
Defense

PART 1: The Prevalence of Trauma Among Those with IDD and a Faith-Based Healing Paradigm

In this post I want to talk about the prevalence of trauma among those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and share a healing model which draws insights from theologian, and elementary school teacher, Dr. Anna Kate Shurley. Her paradigm is called the pastoral friendship group model.

Christine Kelly, a Canadian disabilities scholar, writes about the ethics of accessible care. In one of her articles, the reality of abusive care caught my attention.[i] She supported a disabled man without IDD, Killian. [ii] As Kelly shared about Killian’s vulnerability of needing daily support for living, to include help going to the restroom, she wrote, “the potential for daily practices of ‘care’ to veer into pain and oppression is high… the abusive side of care cannot be removed from academic and public understandings.”[iii] Sadly, studies show that abuse of those with IDD is common.[iv] Shelly Rambo, a trauma theologian, explains the complexities of trauma, how it continues and “persists in the present.” In the aftermath some feel “sad all the time.” Trauma is like “an encounter with death…a radical event, or events, that shatters all that one knows about the world and the familiar ways of operating in it.” [v] Trauma’s serious impacts and its prevalence lead me to wonder if churches are ready to be agents of healing alongside traumatized persons with IDD.

I know firsthand a little bit of how trauma and abuse are commonly experienced by those with IDD. In high school at age 17, my sister Liz’s beloved special education teacher, Linda Baisch, died by suicide.[vi] I will never forget hearing the shocking announcement that came that October morning over the school intercom of her death and then seeing my sister’s tears, red face, and swollen eyes, full of inexpressible anguish. Trauma may arise in those with IDD from indirect sources, like the sudden death of loved ones, it may also come directly from abusive behavior of family or care providers.

My sister Liz has chosen not to marry. She has someone special to her heart, Michael, an autistic man from Virginia Beach. Twenty-five years after they attended school together and youth group, he still calls her and sends flowers on occasion (via his mother). But Liz has also received unwanted attention from people which has scared her. She loves to be dropped off at the Post Exchange Shopping Center in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. She will shop, buy a drink or lunch snack, wander the stores and relax enjoying some autonomy.  One day, a man approached Liz and acted inappropriately to her, rubbing her shoulders and asking her to come to his home. My mother could tell when she picked up Liz, that something was wrong. Liz, with effort, explained what had happened. Thankfully, she was never a victim of worse abuse. But many children and adults with IDD are.[vii]  In the next section I want to explore some excellent clinical therapies for IDD persons who have suffered trauma and discuss ways that pastors and Christians can minister in Christ-honoring, trauma-informed ways to IDD persons.

Part 2: Exploration OF Trauma among those with IDD and a Call to Respond to Their Needs

              The prevalence of trauma is likely much higher than most pastors understand. The issue presents a justice issue that Christians should consider. The National Child Trauma Support Network (NCTSN) cites a report that, “Children with developmental disabilities are twice as likely as those without IDD to experience emotional neglect and physical or sexual abuse; twice as likely to be bullied; and three times as likely to be in families where domestic violence is present.” [viii] Not only are such individuals more dependent, but they are likely to be more physically and emotionally vulnerable. A leading disabilities researcher, Dr. John Keesler, warns that incidences of trauma are being missed among those with IDD. They may lack verbal speech. They may appear behaviorally to act out in disruptive ways. They may feel ashamed, or uncertain of the words to use to describe their experience. He advocates for “trauma-informed-care” due to the “prevalence of trauma” across the IDD population and the potential that it is the “root cause of an individual’s distress.” [ix]  

Thankfully, first line trauma-specific treatments for persons with IDD exist and have been shown to be effective. They include Trauma-Focused CBT, child–parent psychotherapy, exposure therapy, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapies. [x] In addition, clinics are emerging around the country with specific focus on treating IDD children with trauma. NCTSN has released a tool kit engineered specifically to help “clinicians disentangle what might be symptoms of trauma from behaviors related to IDD.” [xi]  But Dr. Keesler cautions that ineffective therapies–medication and behavior supports– have been predominately used among the IDD population to address trauma.[xii] 

The availability of trauma-informed care for children and adults with IDD is a justice and access issue for the Church. [xiii] Scholar and Rabbi Julia Watts Belser mourns the frequent subjugation of the bodies of the disabled and warns that too often the church hasn’t been “physically accessible or socially hospitable”: the healing site that God intended. [xiv] Perhaps what inhibits pastors and Christians from ministering to traumatized individuals with IDD is fear from lack of training, but also a subtle ableism, which perhaps unconsciously, has a low estimation of such persons’ ability to experience healing.[xv] Trauma Theologian Kathy Black urges us to action, “Where are the leaders today who are willing to stop and model attention to and respect for those on the margins?” [xvi] Dr. Barton concurs, adding that the Bible’s call for justice motivates Christian communities to “confront injustices related to access and disability.” [xvii]  In the concluding section I envision a model which could help advance traumatic healing resources at churches that is widespread and easily accessed by those with IDD and their family in Christ. [xviii]

Part 3: a Path Forward

Dr. Judith Herman, a foundational thinker in complex trauma care, explains the trauma recovery steps. They begin with a healing relationship and safety, then progress to remembrance and mourning, and into reconnection. Dr. Keesler advocates that providers learn trauma-informed care (TIC) to “reduce further harm and begin the healing process.” [xix]  The foundations of such care—safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment—are nourished in “positive human relationships.” [xx] While Keesler wrote not for churches but for the therapeutic community, the foundations of TIC he encourages match well with insights from disability theologian Anna Kate Shurley’s pastoral friendship model. Her model adapts well to trauma-informed ministry settings.

Her description of intentional small groups within a congregation called “Pastoral Friendship Groups” (PFG) seems ideal for the healing and safety needed by traumatized IDD adults. She explains that in pastoral friendship, “Christians engage one another gladly in the practices of mutual sharing, listening, and assisting. They do so… [from] the koinonia that is central to Christian care.” [xxi] In these groups, “members may acknowledge losses, traumas, or grief they have suffered and share what they need in order to experience healing.” [xxii] Other practices of the PFG meetings might include, “lament, intercession, reciting the Lord’s prayer, and singing together.” [xxiii] Shurley argues that, “Not even the most profound intellectual disability can keep a person from participating in a loving, caring, pastoral friendship.” [xxiv]

Insights from other disabilities theologians could be incorporated into Shurley’s friendship group model. PFG “leaders” could weave into the ethos of their ministry alongside IDD brothers and sisters the ability to “remain” in the difficult in-between spaces of trauma.[xxv] Please see Appendix 1 for trauma-informed principles which might support pastoral-friendship groups led among those with IDD who have survived trauma.

It is important that pastors not just refer out persons with IDD who experience trauma. If all therapeutic care for IDD adults with trauma flows from medical and social work providers but not from Christian community, significant spiritual needs will be unmet. Having a fantastic therapist, or participating in a 12-week trauma small group, cannot replace life-long Christian community. [xxvi]

Conclusion: The Witness of our IDD Sisters and Brothers

I would like to close with a story of a traumatic incident which happened to my sister Liz.  I share the story to illustrate how beautiful prophetic insights, needed by the Church, can arise after trauma is experienced by those with IDD. These people of God brighten the witness of the Church and underscore the mutuality of pastoral friendships. Shurley explains, “People with intellectual disabilities…need to hear the good news that God has equipped all of God’s saints for ministry-including them.” [xxvii] A scholar and parent of a child with IDD, Jill Ruth Harshaw, writes in accord: “Persons with intellectual disabilities (must be) recognized as those who have something important, even vital, to say to the church and to individual believers who seek to live an authentically Christian corporate and personal life in an increasingly volatile world.” [xxviii]

My sister Liz experiences significant mobility problems due to large motor skill difficulties and the heavier weight of her body. When my parents were away from home one day, she tripped on a rug when the flooring bowed under her.  She fell and hit her face on a wooden end table. The fall was so hard that it broke a piece of the table. In this traumatic event, as her face was bleeding profusely, her tooth jammed deep in her gum, and her upper lip severely cut, she felt God’s near presence. Privately she later told my mother that God said to her, “Do you trust me Liz?” She answered, “Yes.” She then told my mom that she felt an angel help her get up from the floor. What a witness to my family of God’s healing, constant presence! This is the kind of rare testimony that will edify the Church.

There seems to be the possibility for truer witness in the Church if we will love well the persons with IDD in our midst who have experienced trauma. This witness will act with the compassion of the Samaritan; it will use the healing hands of the Great Physician; it will speak with the tenderness of the Lord who called his own, “friends.” Pastors, who are trauma-informed in this way, will help churches to “think trauma”[xxix] as they engage those with IDD and equip Christians to minister with these beloved fellow women and men of God.

Auntie Liz, beloved by 28 nieces and nephews–is also a woman admired by many for her faith, joy and wisdom

Bibliography

*Barton, Sarah Jean. 2021 “Access and Disability Justice in Theological Education.” (Article currently in    

pre-publication.)

*Barton, Sarah. “Discipleship and Disability Class: Pastoral Care and Practical Reflections Mini Lecture.”

PDF, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC, March 1st, 2021.

*Barton, Sarah. “Discipleship and Disability Class: Implications for Christian Ethics Mini Lecture.”

PDF, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC, March 15th, 2021.

*Berne, Patricia. “Ten Principles of Disability Justice 1.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 46, no. 1 (Spring,

2018): 227-230.

*Belser, Julia Watts. 2015. “Violence, Disability, and the Politics of Healing: The Inaugural Nancy Eiesland

Endowment Lecture”. Journal of Disability & Religion. 19 (3): 177-197.

*Black, Kathy. 1996. A healing homiletic: preaching and disability. Nashville: Abingdon Press.

*Harshaw, Jill Ruth. 2010. “Prophetic Voices, Silent Words: The Prophetic Role of Persons with Profound

Intellectual Disabilities in Contemporary Christianity.” Practical Theology 3 (3): 311–29.

*Herman, Judith Lewis. 1997. Trauma and recovery. New York: Basic Books.

*Keesler, J.M. 2020. “Trauma‐Specific Treatment for Individuals With Intellectual and Developmental

Disabilities: A Review of the Literature From 2008 to 2018.” Journal of Policy and Practice in

Intellectual Disabilities, 17: 332-345.

*Kelly, Christine. 2013. “Building Bridges with Accessible Care: Disability Studies, Feminist Care

Scholarship, and Beyond”. Hypatia. 28 (4): 784-800.

*Novsima, Isabella. “A Nonverbal Mission: An Apophatic Missiology from the Trauma Experience of

Women with Intellectual Disabilities in Indonesia.” International Review of Mission, vol. 108, no.

1, June 2019, p. 78+. Accessed 5 Apr. 2021.

*Rambo, Shelly. Spirit and trauma: theology of remaining. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press,

2010.

*Shurley, Anna Katherine Ellerman. 2017. Pastoral care and intellectual disability: a person-centered

approach. Waco: Baylor University Press.

*Swinton, John, and Bethany McKinney Fox. 2019. Disability and the Way of Jesus: Holistic Healing in the

Gospels and the Church. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.

*Trauma and Intellectual/Developmental Disability Collaborative Group. “The impact of trauma on

youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities: A fact sheet for providers.” 2020. Los

Angeles, CA, and Durham, NC: National Center for Child Traumatic Stress.               https://www.nctsn.org/resources/the-impact-of-trauma-on-youth-with-intellectual-and-

developmental-disabilities-a-fact-sheet-for-providers Accessed April 5, 2021.

*The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. “Intersection of Trauma and Disabilities: A New Toolkit for

Providers.” Spring 2016. “Spotlight on Culture NCTSN Factsheet.”

https://www.nctsn.org/resources/intersection-trauma-and-disabilities-new-toolkit-providers

Accessed April 5, 2021.

*The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. “Facts on Traumatic Stress and Children with

Developmental Disabilities.” Adapted from Trauma Treatment Standards Work Group. https://www.nctsn.org/resources/facts-traumatic-stress-and-children-developmental-disabilities Accessed April 5, 2021.

*Wong, Alice. 2020. Disability Visibility. New York, NY: Vintage Books.

APPENDIX 1:  Trauma-Informed Care Principles for Pastoral Friendship Group’s among Traumatized Persons with Individual and Developmental Disabilities

Interdependent Community

Kathy Black explains how healing emerges from “interdependent Christian Community” and happens when the well-being God offers is experienced.” [xxx] She notes how healing of inner wounds leads to well-being and peace.

Each Person is a Gift [xxxi]

Being in friendship groups with traumatized persons with IDD will likely be a long-term healing process. Dr. Barton writes that “it can become easy in stressful or serious situations to focus on problems or deficits.” [xxxii] She advocates a ‘strengths-based approach’ in disabilities work. Pastoral friendship groups could take Barton’s idea and apply it in healing ways to traumatized persons with IDD. Focus on each person as a gift! One must persevere to see their strengths in the midst of their loss, confusion, and perhaps non-verbal cues of pain.

Appropriate Physical Touch Can be Healing [xxxiii]

Black writes, “God can transform our lives through the healing touch of an interdependent community of faith.” This reminds me of my friend Michael’s question to me, “Will I ever get a hug again before Jesus comes.” Michael has moderate to severe autism. The restrictions of the pandemic have kept him from the physical touch at church and in public that sustain him. Bethany Fox explains that at her church, each person has different levels of touch with which they feel comfortable. Attendees wear corresponding color name tags to explain this. In a trauma-informed group, sensitivity to need for appropriate touch or no touch would be very important. But given that so many adults with IDD are especially sensory in communication, there is no doubt that touch be healing in the safety and koinonia of Pastoral Friendship groups.

Healing is Possible

“Recognizing wholeness”, a principle of disability justice points to such healing and seems crucial to developing a trauma-informed pastoral care model for those with IDD. [xxxiv] Jill Ruth Harshaw’s thought pushes us to consider how even those with profound IDD can experience healing. She explains, “The crucial factor here is not human ability or disability but the accompanying presence of God.” [xxxv]

The Beauty of Each Person

Another principle of disability justice is “Collective Liberation”: “A world in which every body and mind is known as beautiful.” [xxxvi]  How broken and isolated must be the hearts and minds of those with IDD who have experienced complex trauma, especially from attendants and family members whom they trusted and depended upon. What courage and difficulty to voice, or show without words, their pain, and hope for healing.  

Compassion and Empathy

Kathy Black writes, “Whenever we struggle in life, God sits beside us & helps us cry.” [xxxvii] Fox, who pastors among persons with IDD, advocates for “presence with compassion.”

Respect

What does the traumatized person with IDD want? How do they perceive healing?  Bethany Fox reminds us that Jesus asked those to be healed what they desired.[xxxviii]  Fox offers seven principles for healing which could inform Pastoral-Friendship care being developed by a church.[xxxix]  Her reminders are insightful: attend to the body in healing and transformation,   remember how healing will impact and open doors to transformation of the larger community, clarify identity, and finally, enlarge imagination.

END NOTES

[i] Kelly, Christine. 2013. “Building Bridges with Accessible Care: Disability Studies, Feminist Care

Scholarship, and Beyond”. Hypatia. 28 (4): 784-800. Dr. Kelly writes from a Feminist and Disabilities perspective.

[ii] Kelly, Christine. “Building Bridges.” 786. Kelly writes about the “about entangling quality of the gendered politics of care.”

[iii] Ibid, 790-91. Kelly writes further, “These moments are awkward because they make us acutely aware of the layered power dynamics inherent in our female/male, disabled/ nondisabled, and clothed/unclothed embodiment that we more typically prefer to ignore, as it brings the abusive potential of care uncomfortably close to the surface.”

[iv] Trauma and Intellectual/Developmental Disability Collaborative Group. “The impact of trauma on

youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities: A fact sheet for providers.” 2020. 2. Los

Angeles, CA, and Durham, NC: National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. https://www.nctsn.org/resources/the-impact-of-trauma-on-youth-with-intellectual-and-developmental-disabilities-a-fact-sheet-for-providers

[v] Rambo, Shelly. Spirit and trauma: theology of remaining. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press,

2010. 2-4.

[vi] I have mentioned my sister Elizabeth “Liz” Carlson in a previous paper. She has significant intellectual and development disabilities likely stemming from partial paralysis of her brain at birth due to a lack of oxygen. Her teacher, Linda, was a compassionate friend, and light to the young people she served at Cox High School.

[vii] Rambo, Shelly. “Spirit and trauma.” 2-4.

[viii] The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. “Intersection of Trauma and Disabilities: A New Toolkit for

Providers.” Spring 2016. “Spotlight on Culture NCTSN Factsheet.” 1. https://www.nctsn.org/resources/intersection-trauma-and-disabilities-new-toolkit-providers

[ix] Keesler, J.M. 2020. “Trauma‐Specific Treatment for Individuals With Intellectual and Developmental

Disabilities: A Review of the Literature From 2008 to 2018.” Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities. 343.

[x] Keesler, J.M. “Trauma‐Specific Treatment.” Keesler goes on to explain specifically what these first line treatments involve.

[xi] The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. “Intersection of Trauma and Disabilities: A New Toolkit for Providers.” Spring 2016. “Spotlight on Culture NCTSN Factsheet.” https://www.nctsn.org/resources/intersection-trauma-and-disabilities-new-toolkit-providers  Diane M. Jacobstein (Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist/Senior Policy Associate, Georgetown University) explained that “until this year, no tools existed to help clinicians disentangle what might be symptoms of trauma from behaviors related to intellectual and developmental disabilities. The toolkit for providers is called, ‘The Road to Recovery: Sup porting Children with IDD Who Have Experienced Trauma’.

[xii] Keesler, J.M. “Trauma‐Specific Treatment.”  Keesler cites two studies, “Furthermore, despite a lack of evidence, psychopharmacology and behavior supports have been the dominant modes of treating trauma sequelae within this population due to a lack of trauma-specific treatments (Barol & Seubert, 2010; Fuld, 2018; Willner, 2015).

[xiii] Barton, Sarah Jean. 2021. “Access and Disability Justice in Theological Education.” 1. Barton notes access as a disability justice issue, “Accessibility proves a pressing area of needed investigation and intervention.” 

 

[xiv] Belser, Julia Watts. 2015. “Violence, Disability, and the Politics of Healing: The Inaugural Nancy Eiesland

Endowment Lecture”. Journal of Disability & Religion. 19 (3). Quoting Eisland Belser writes, “The history of the church’s interaction with the disabled is at best an ambiguous one. Rather than being a structure for empowerment, the church has more often supported societal structures and attitudes that have treated people with disabilities as objects of pity and paternalism. For many disabled persons, the church has been a “city on the hill”—physically inaccessible and socially inhospitable.” 185.  She shares the thought of Jasbir Puar that, “Bodies bear the consequences of ethnic, gender, and class marginality…a pervasive experience of subjugated bodies. Disability is central to the corporeal architecture of domination.” 191.

[xv]  Belser, Julia Watts. “Violence, Disability.” 194.  Belser addresses that “ableist notions of disability as a pitiable state overwrite the resilience, the grit, the agency of disabled bodies.”

[xvi] Black, Kathy. 1996. A healing homiletic: preaching and disability. Nashville: Abingdon Press. 186.

[xvii] Barton, Sarah Jean. “Access and Disability Justice” 7. Barton cites Jennie Weiss Block.

 

[xviii] Belser, Julia Watts. “Violence, Disability.” 187. “But this is the power of eschatology: to dare us to dream, to unmoor our hope from the fetters of the feasible.”

[xix] Keesler, J.M. “Trauma‐Specific Treatment.” 343. He explains that professional licensing and graduate level training is not required to learn trauma-informed care principles.  It is something that “all…providers” can provide.

[xx] Ibid, 344.

[xxi] Shurley, Anna Katherine Ellerman. 2017. Pastoral care and intellectual disability: a person-centered

approach. Waco: Baylor University Press. 95.

[xxii] Shurley, Anna Katherine Ellerman. “Pastoral care”, 100-101.

[xxiii]  Ibid, 102.

[xxiv]  Ibid, 94.

[xxv] Rambo, Shelly. Spirit and trauma: theology of remaining. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press,

2010. “Remaining” is a key idea of Rambo’s in ministering to those who have experienced complex trauma.

[xxvi] Wong, Alice. 2020. Disability visibility. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Part Two of Wong’s book (85-89) features Ricardo Thornton. Thornton (a man with IDD) testified to the Senate after growing up in a state-run home, “There’s no such thing as a good institution.” Many persons with IDD are all too familiar with the deficits of institutional care.

[xxvii] Shurley, Anna Katherine Ellerman. “Pastoral care”, 100-101.

[xxviii] Harshaw, Jill Ruth. 2010. “Prophetic Voices, Silent Words: The Prophetic Role of Persons with Profound Intellectual Disabilities in Contemporary Christianity.” Practical Theology. 317.

[xxix] The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. “Intersection of Trauma and Disabilities: Tookit.” 1.

[xxx]  Black, Kathy. 1996. “A healing homiletic.” Black succinctly writes, “God wills our well being.”

[xxxi]  Shurley, Anna Katherine Ellerman. “Pastoral care”, 99.

[xxxii]  Barton, Sarah. “Discipleship and Disability Class: Pastoral Care and Practical Reflections Mini Lecture.” PDF, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC, March 1st, 2021.

[xxxiii]  Black, Kathy. 1996. “A healing homiletic.” 176.

 

[xxxiv]  Barton, Sarah Jean. “Access and Disability Justice” 10. Barton cites Berne et al., “Recognizing wholeness: ‘People who experience access and learning barriers are whole people. This principle of disability justice frames each individual, whether disabled or nondisabled, as ‘full of history and life experience…composed of their own thoughts, sensations, emotions, fantasies, perceptions, and idiosyncrasies.’”

[xxxv] Harshaw, Jill Ruth. “Prophetic Voices” 314, 316.

[xxxvi] Berne, Patricia. “Ten Principles of Disability Justice 1.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 46, no. 1 (Spring, 2018). 229.

[xxxvii] Black, Kathy. 1996. “A healing homiletic.” 186.

[xxxviii] Barton, Sarah. “Discipleship and Disability Class: Implications for Christian Ethics Mini Lecture.”  PDF, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC, March 15th, 2021. Barton cites Dr. Bethany Fox’s Chapter 5 from “Disability and the Way of Jesus.”

[xxxix] Swinton, John, and Bethany McKinney Fox. 2019. Disability and the Way of Jesus: Holistic Healing in the

Gospels and the Church. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. Rev. Dr. Fox, Founder of Beloved Everybody Church, offers this excellent list of “Seven Marks of Healing in the Way of Jesus. 1.“Positive Reception by the Person Receiving Healing 2. “Attention to the Body and its Healing/Transformation.”3.“Presence with Compassion 4.“Impact on and Transformation of the Larger Community.” 5.Clarifying Identities” 6.“Transformation on Multiple Levels 7.“Expanding categories and enlarging imagination.

[i] Shurley, Anna Katherine Ellerman. “Pastoral care”, 90. “Pastoral Caregivers are not healers; they are agents of God’s healing though the power of the Holy Spirit.”