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Volume CXXXII, Number 13 |
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Remembering the Four Chaplains
TODD BUELL
COLUMNIST
"Tolerance" is a fairly common word today. Educational and civic leaders often admonish their charges or citizens to "tolerate" those that differ from them in race, religion, or creed. This message is especially important today as we face uncertainty and violence in various parts of the globe, such as Iraq and the Middle East.
In times such as these, it is tempting to embrace narrow worldviews that respect only those who share our pigmentation or piety. Thankfully, we approach the anniversary of a monumental act of both courage and tolerance onboard a United States military ship during World War II, from which we can obtain guidance in these troubled times.
On February 3, 1943, a German torpedo nailed the American troopship U.S.S. Dorchester as she traversed waters about 100 miles off Greenland. As oil and ammonia began gushing from the ship's side, the sailors could sense the ship's demise and their likely death.
According to the website of the Immortal Chaplains Foundation, the ship's four chaplains, Father John Washington (Catholic), Reverend Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed), Rabbi Alexander Goode (Jewish), and Reverend George Fox (Methodist), were the "first on deck" and began to comfort the men and distribute lifejackets.
Soon after the torpedo blast, the chaplains ran out of lifejackets. In a selfless and courageous act of love and tolerance, all four of the chaplains removed their own lifejackets and gave them to waiting sailors. They performed this act "without regard to faith or race." The courageous chaplains died along with nearly 700 other men on the ship. An eyewitness describes the chaplains as all "standing arm-in-arm on the hull of the ship, each praying in his own way for the care of the men." The attack became the third deadliest U.S. Naval disaster during World War II.
These four courageous men of God were not forgotten after their deaths. The U.S. Post Office issued a "Four Chaplains" stamp in 1948. In 1960, Congress awarded a medal of honor to the families of the four "Immortal Chaplains" that commemorated their valor. Their faces adorn stained-glass windows at chapels both in Fort Snelling, Minnesota and the Pentagon.
Their legacies of both courage and tolerance are still remembered today through the Immortal Chaplains Foundation. The foundation began in 1997 as a way of spreading the message of tolerance and compassion toward people of all religions, races, and creeds. The Foundation's board has dignitaries such as Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmund Tutu and former Vice President Walter Mondale, along with descendents of the Four Chaplains and surviving members of both the Dorchester and the German U-Boat that sank the Dorchester.
Each year, the Foundation awards the Prize for Humanity to those who "risked all to protect others of a different faith or race." Last year's prize went to Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain of the New York Fire Department who died while comforting a fallen firefighter in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The other recipient was a Palestinian man named Omri Abdel-Halim Al-Jada who drowned while saving the life of a Jewish child in Lake Tiberius. This year's prize will go to "the courageous villagers of Le Chambon, France" who sheltered many Jewish refugees during World War II and to the "service volunteers of World War II" who drove ambulances and provided other forms of "non-combative support" to fighting soldiers.
Archbishop Tutu, himself a recipient of the prize, commends the Foundation and its goal. "I am proud to be associated with the Foundation established to recognize [the chaplains'] sacrifice and to promote a culture of tolerance and understanding….In acknowledging our common humanity, we can build a better world."
In this time of global trouble and uncertainty, it behooves us all to remember the Four Chaplains and their extraordinary display of courage, compassion, and tolerance in the face of death.
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