Chaplains Under Fire
The Cape Ann Forum will screen “Chaplains Under Fire,” an inside look at the lives and work of Christian, Muslim and Jewish chaplains in Iraq and Afghanistan at the Cape Ann Community Cinema, 21 Main Street, Gloucester. The event, featuring a discussion by the filmmakers, is free and open to the public.
For some, the presence of chaplains in war spells comfort—for others, it raises questions about church-state relations. Should the military be hiring clergy? Can the military tell them how to act? How does a Christian chaplain minister to a Buddhist? A Muslim? An atheist? And what about the growing number of fundamentalist, evangelical chaplains?
To explore these and other issues, filmmakers Lee Lawrence and Terry Nickelson went to Iraq and Afghanistan to examine the world of military chaplains through the lens of the troops they serve in combat and the controversies they trigger at home and on the battlefield. The filmmakers will lead a question-and-answer session after the 90-minute film.
“We spent three months in Afghanistan and Iraq, where troops let us into their lives,” say the filmmakers on their blog. “We joined them on patrols and missions, hung out with them in guard towers, flew on medevacs with the wounded, and attended memorials. It was there, where troops deal with boredom, anger, loneliness, fear, death and grief, that we shadowed chaplains, learned why they are crucial, and how they sometimes become controversial.”
The award-winning documentary premiered at New York’s Lincoln Center before special screenings at the Newseum and the National Press Club in Washington.
Mr. Nickelson has been involved in several film projects, contributing to a PBS series on preventive diplomacy and filming a documentary on Rwandan refugees. Ms Lawrence is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor and other publications. She wrote an award-winning series on military chaplains in 2007 for the Christian Science Monitor.
For more information, go to http://web.me.com/lalawrence/Chaplains_Under_Fire/Home.html.