Theorizing Desecularization of the Military: The United States and Israel

• Published date: 01 January 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/0095327X18806516
• Date: 01 January 2020
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Theorizing

Desecularization of the

Military: The United

States and Israel

Yagil Levy

1

Abstract

This article addresses scholarly deficiencies in identifying the conditions under which

the desecularization of militaries takes place. To theorize this process, two militaries

are studied, the United States and Israel. Arguably, six drivers sequentially generate

the desecularization of the militaries: (1) Militaries largely mirror the growing

influence of religion in the broader society. However, intramilitary drivers play their

role in promoting/mitigating the extra-military mechanisms of desecularization.

Thus, (2) organizational interests along with external constraints drive militaries to

promote religious diversity, which may (3) lead to the empowerment of religious

actors, and thereby to further desecularization through religious intolerance, and to

(4) reliance on the spiritual and religious services provided by military chaplains, and

jointly stimulate (5) the use of religion to motivate military sacrifice. By religiously

increasing the symbolic value of military sacrifice, (6) religiosity becomes more

naturally associated with good soldiering, thereby reshaping intramilitary hierarchies

and, hence, further triggering desecularization.

Keywords

deprivatization, desecularization, religious diversity, military religious

1

Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication, The Open University of Israel, Raanana,

Israel

Corresponding Author:

Yagil Levy, Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication, The Open University of Israel,

P.O. Box 808, Raanana 43107, Israel.

Emails: yagille@openu.ac.il; yagil.levy@gmail.com

Armed Forces & Society

2020, Vol. 46(1) 92-115

ªThe Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X18806516

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Introduction

In the post–Cold War era, there are indications that religious authorities (chaplains,

rabbis, and churches) have expanded their influence within specific militaries, lead-

ing to growing interference in military affairs and provoking political debates. In the

United States, for example, in contrast to declining religiosity during the Vietnam

War Era (Hassner, 2016b, pp. 2548–2785), evangelical chaplains are now wielding

significant power within the military and are challenging the norms of religious

diversity (Hansen, 2012, p. 199). This reached a peak during the Iraq War, and in

2005, allegations were voiced against religious intolerance at the U.S. Air Force

Academy. Indeed, a formal group, tasked to investigate this issue, found “a religious

climate that does not involve overt religious discrimination, but a failure to fully

accommodate all members’ needs and a lack of awareness over where the line is

drawn between permissible and impermissible expression of beliefs” (U.S. Depart-

ment of the Air Force, 2005, p. i).

In Israel, growing religiosity in the armed forces, promoted by the increasing

presence of religious soldiers (Libel & Gal, 2015), has led to increased involvement

by external religious authorities in the management of military affairs (Levy, 2016).

Acknowledging this process, in 2011, the Head of the Manpower Directorate warned

against allowing the empowerment of religiosity within the ranks to erode the joint

service of religious and secular soldiers (Harel, 2011).

Indeed, students of civil–military relations have acknowledged that at the very

least this new issue deserves scholarly attention. In the introduction to his book

comparing the religious environment in which various militaries function, Hassner

(2014) lamented, “ ...scholars of the military have yet to assemble the tools required

for understanding the roots, characteristics, or consequences of religious practices in

the armed forces” (p. 14). Attempting to remedy this lacuna, Hassner’s collection

analyzed military-religious relations from different perspectives. Thereafter, Hass-

ner (2016a) offered several hypotheses about the role of religion in the military but

still left several significant gaps.

As Hassner (2014) and Patterson (2014) indicate, the military reflects and repli-

cates the relations between religious and nonreligious groups and institutions in

civilian society. Nevertheless, in assessing this reflection and the diffusion of reli-

gious values in the military, we should consider variations in their level and extent.

For example, alongside its task to defend national sovereignty, the military is the

most prominent tool for promoting national socialization, and this distinguishes it

from society at large. In this regard, it may socialize its soldiers toward sacrifice in

ways which are imbued with nationalist and religious sentiment. Another example

pertains when the military’s organizational needs, related mainly to human

resources, constrain its policies and lead it to diverge from its broader society (see

Michalowski, 2015, on the case of the French Armed Forces, in which shortfalls in

human resources led it to accommodate the needs of religious soldiers to a greater

extent than in the public sphere).

Levy 93