Military Chaplains Honor Restored
Rocky Malloy, writes about Pete Hegseth’s newly released video - Make the Chaplain Corps Great Again
Since the founding of the United States, military chaplaincy has been one of the nation’s most enduring and constitutionally affirmed expressions of spiritual care.
Chaplains were present with George Washington’s Continental Army before the First Amendment was ratified, establishing a clear precedent: the government may not coerce religion, but it may, and must, protect the free exercise of faith, especially among those under its care. For more than two centuries, military chaplains have stood as trusted, non-combatant guardians of morale, conscience, and spiritual resilience in times of national crisis.
December 17, 2025 video announcement by the Secretary of War marks the most significant reaffirmation and modernization of that legacy in a generation. By redefining and refreshing the role of chaplains to meet contemporary cultural, moral, and mental-health challenges, the Department has clarified what chaplaincy is and what it is not. Chaplains are not proselytizers, political actors, or ideological agents. They are constitutionally protected providers of voluntary spiritual care, operating under clear standards of endorsement, training, and accountability.
This announcement has immediate and far-reaching implications beyond the military. It has a powerful downstream impact on civilian chaplaincy, notably the National School Chaplain Association. For the first time in decades, the standards governing military chaplains are being explicitly aligned with a broader, scalable civilian framework. NSCA stands uniquely positioned to translate this clarified federal understanding of chaplaincy into K-12 education communities across the United States.
As a result, school chaplains are no longer perceived as novel or legally uncertain. They are recognized as mission-ready professionals, endorsed, trained, and deployed under constitutional guardrails that mirror those long upheld in military service. This alignment accelerates nationwide deployment, strengthens state and federal partnerships, and establishes school chaplaincy as a legitimate, durable solution to the moral, emotional, and spiritual crisis facing America’s schools.
In many ways, what began on the battlefield is now returning home to serve America’s children, educators, and families.
- Rocky J Malloy / CEO NSCA