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New Navy chaplain is a problem fixer

  • Published
  • By Mike W. Ray
  • Staff Writer
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Times change, and military chaplains have had to change with them.

"Most people think chaplains do a lot of ministering," said Cmdr. Timothy White, the new chaplain for Strategic Communications Wing ONE, the Navy tenant unit at Tinker Air Force Base.

"But conventional ministry -- delivering sermons, performing baptisms, presiding at funerals -- is just a fraction of what I do now. Primarily I fix things; sometimes I refer to myself as a mechanic." Naval personnel "come to me with problems: personal, financial, trouble with superiors. I help them resolve those problems."

For example, many Americans, inside and outside the military, don't know how to set up and adhere to a budget, the chaplain said. Besides helping young Sailors develop a budget, he often refers them to the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society and/or other social-service organizations in the local community.

The largest religious preference in the U.S. military today is "no religious preference," and the armed forces have more Muslims today than Episcopalians, Chaplain White said. "Our job is not to proselytize. Our job is to help and to serve."

The Navy's chaplain corps has four core capabilities, Commander White said: facilitate, provide, care, and advise.

Military chaplains are ordained ministers, and initially Chaplain White was disillusioned about the transition in priorities. "However, I've learned that although it's a different style of ministry, it's an important ministry," he asserted. "In the military, a chaplain has an opportunity to have a significant impact on people's lives. In general, chaplains are well-respected and have a lot of credibility with commanders."

Chaplain White grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and said he wanted to be a pastor "for as long as I can remember." He was graduated from the University of Iowa in 1985 with a major in religion and a minor in philosophy.

He was reared in the Catholic Church, "but after I learned about the Lutheran Church I converted," at the age of 20. He attended Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., where he earned a Master of Divinity degree. Afterward, he pastored at a Lutheran church for four years, then joined the Navy.

The commander has been in the U.S. military for 27 years: nine years in the Reserve and the last 18 years on active duty in the U.S. Navy.

He started as a chaplain's assistant, and his first duty assignment was at the Naval Air Station near Fallon, Nev., followed by an assignment with the U.S. Coast Guard in Kodiak, Alaska. Next he served aboard the USS Antietam (CG-54), a guided-missile cruiser berthed at San Diego, Calif. He then was assigned to the 3rd Marine Division in Okinawa, Japan.

Before arriving at Tinker in late June, Chaplain White spent six years in New Orleans, first as program manager for the Navy Reserve Chaplain Corps and then as the District 8 Chaplain for the Coast Guard.