ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 3, 2009  

Lutheran Chaplain Ministers to Military Serving Guantanamo Detainees
09-081-SH

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- As a military chaplain, the Rev. Clint A.
Pickett's role is to embody God's love at a site that once
symbolized America's post-9/11 global war on terrorism.
     Pickett serves with the Joint Task Force-Guantanamo, the
military unit charged with interrogation and oversight of
prisoners from Afghanistan and Iraq wars brought to the U.S.
Naval Base in southeastern Cuba.
     "It is clearly a unique mission here at Guantanamo, a part
of history," said Pickett, 54, Groton, Conn., a pastor of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
     The base, nicknamed "Gitmo," is more than 100 years old and
occupies a 45-mile stretch along Guantanamo Bay. Explorer
Christopher Columbus claimed the land for Spain in 1494 during
his second voyage to the "New World."
     Pickett arrived last summer -- long after the prison camps
became an international controversy, and only a few months before
President Barack Obama ordered them shut down by mid-January,
2010. The Naval base will remain open.
     "The plan to close the detainee facility does not impact my
ministry in any substantive way," said Pickett, who expects his
tour of duty in Cuba to end soon.
     "As military personnel, we're not Republican, we're not
Democrat," he said. "We follow the orders of whoever is in
charge. The sense of commitment here is to our country."
     The 4.7-million-member ELCA, the nation's largest Lutheran
denomination, endorses military chaplains through its Bureau for
Federal Chaplaincy Ministries, Washington, D.C. Roughly 220
pastors serve, the bureau said.
     "Military ministry is pastoral ministry on steroids," said
the Rev. Darrell D. Morton, who heads the ELCA bureau. "These
chaplains are providing Word and Sacrament ministry at all hours
and in the most unlikely settings."
     Pickett ministers to military and civilian personnel serving
the prison camps. Other chaplains assist the estimated 240
detainees on site. More than 800 detainees have been through the
camps, according to the Pentagon.
     "What I've seen and experienced here is a pride for folks
doing their jobs 10 to 12 hours a day," he said.  "The majority
of those I serve do not look at me as a Lutheran necessarily, but
simply as their chaplain."
     Pickett became a U.S. Navy chaplain in 1996. He'd previously
served the U.S. Air Force for several years as a civil engineer.
     "Being a chaplain gives one so many opportunities to touch
people's lives," he said. "Relationship and family issues are
common themes, as in any family, but accentuated by the
separation of deployments."
     About 2,000 military personnel from the five military
branches are on the task force overseeing the prisons, the
military said.
     "We are truly a joint mission here, with Navy, Marines,
Army, Air Force and Coast Guard, in addition to a number of
different government agencies," said Pickett, one of three task
force chaplains.
     "Speaking for the Joint Task Force portion of the mission
down here, I pray for the troopers who do a phenomenal job caring
for the detainees," Pickett said, "and endure abuse from the
detainees in an extremely professional manner on a daily basis."
     Detainees, human rights groups and FBI reports alleged that
some past prisoners were tortured. The claim was disputed by the
Bush administration, which classified the detainees as "enemy
combatants." The status denied them prisoner of war protections
outlined in the Geneva Conventions.
     Obama reversed the policies, saying the detainees deserve
due process and humane treatment.
     "Our mission here is to provide safe, humane, transparent
care for the detainees," Pickett said. "That mission will
continue until the last detainee leaves."
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     More information on ELCA military chaplaincy is at
http://tinyurl.com/ckyys3 on the Web.
     President Obama's order to close the Gitmo prison camps is
at http://tinyurl.com/ceh2ay on the Web.
     Information about the Joint Task Force--Guantanamo is at
http://www.jtfgtmo.southcom.mil/about.html on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
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