How Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved: Allegiance and Idolatry in the US Military

Abstract

Idolatry, considered a moral danger for early Christians serving in the Roman military, is often neglected as a potential problem for American soldiers today. These soldiers express their allegiance formally, swearing loyalty to an entity that is not God, and participate in an institution that some say has a religion all its own. Given this situation, American Christians need to consider the nature and extent of allegiance soldiers should have to the military. Military sociologists argue that all soldiers face a similar dilemma in that they consider whether what they are doing is "just a job" or something more profoundly connected to their deepest values and commitments. After surveying classical and contemporary Christian thought, as well as the work of the sociologists, I argue that though swearing formal allegiance to the military does not necessarily constitute idolatry, some common conceptions of military allegiance are problematic.