Dear Christian leader: Why are you really doing that?

Matters of Conscience, Part 2:

In Part 2 of this two-part series, CH(CPT) Chris Erickson and West Point professor LTC Lee Robinson join host Josh Jackson to continue their candid conversation on matters of conscience for Christian military leaders. 

Together, they unpack a practical three-step framework for navigating the gray areas where faith and military service intersect—know your boundaries, check your motives, discern your impact. 

Drawing from their own experiences serving together, including a deployed Easter sunrise service and counseling soldiers from different faith backgrounds, Erickson and Robinson offer honest, sometimes disagreeing perspectives on prayer in formation, sharing faith with subordinates, and what it means to develop a personal "theology of approach." 

This episode is essential listening for any Christian officer wrestling with how to faithfully and effectively lead in a pluralistic military environment.

ICYMI: Listen to Part 1 of this conversation here or on your favorite podcast app. 

 

Questions answered and themes covered in this interview include:
 
What is a practical framework Christian military leaders can use when navigating gray areas of faith and profession?

Robinson and Erickson offer a three-step process for Christian military leaders facing situations where the rules don't give a clear answer. 

Step one: know your boundaries—understand what's legally and professionally allowed, but recognize that many situations fall in a gray area where the legal framework won't resolve the question. 

Step two: check your motives—ask honestly why you're doing what you're doing. Is it springing authentically from your faith, or is there pride or another agenda mixed in? 

Step three: discern the impact—consider how your action might affect others, including whether it could be perceived as using your position to compel religious participation or as giving subordinates a green light to impose their own beliefs. As Robinson summarized: "It is permissible, but should I?"
 

How should a Christian officer think about praying with or in front of subordinates?

This question surfaces real, productive disagreement between the two guests. Robinson, reflecting on his time as a battalion commander, chose not to pray publicly with his unit—not because it was forbidden, but because of the weight of authority the position carries. 

"Battalion commander in the Army is just a monster position," Erickson noted, affirming the delicacy required. 
Robinson also shared a counterexample: he led a prayer with his team on a flight line in Iraq and said it was motivated by love and a desire to share comfort, not to signal his faith or compel agreement. 

Erickson, as chaplain, pushes back gently, arguing that commanders have just as much right to pray as chaplains do, but he also challenges chaplains themselves to stop and ask what they're trying to accomplish before praying. 

Both agree: the motive behind the prayer matters enormously.
 

How should Christian officers approach praying at official military events like a change of command?

Erickson draws a sharp distinction between the invocation he gave at a recent change of command and the prayer he led at a Christian worship service the next morning: "Those were two very different approaches." 

At the change of command, more than 60 soldiers were required to attend. He deliberately did not offer an exclusively Christian prayer. His reasoning: soldiers are compelled to be present, and a chaplain's effectiveness across an entire battalion depends on being seen as someone who serves the spiritual fitness of all soldiers—not only those who share his faith. 

This doesn't compromise his personal beliefs; it reflects a considered theology of approach to a setting where the context is institutional, not devotional.

 
What does it mean for a Christian military leader to develop a "theology of approach"?

At its core, it means going back to what you actually believe about God and what you believe God is directing, especially before entering complex situations involving faith and leadership. 

Erickson references Romans 14, which he argues reminds Christians that each person "will give an account of himself to God"—meaning subordinates are ultimately accountable to God, not to their commander's faith convictions. 

For Erickson, this shapes everything: it frees him to minister to soldiers of all backgrounds by engaging universal human needs, such as comfort, wisdom, counsel, leadership, without leading first with his denominational perspective. 

He describes counseling a Muslim soldier and a Jewish family both from his Christian faith, and both expressed genuine gratitude. "All truth is God's truth," he said, "and so I can share truth with you when the time is right."

 
How can Christian military leaders check whether they're sharing faith out of genuine love versus pride or self-promotion?

Both guests return repeatedly to the question of motive, and both connect it to authenticity. Erickson references the account of Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4, noting that her testimony was compelling because it was personal and genuinely transformational: "She went back and told others about that." 

The contrast he draws is a faith expression that's forced—slamming a Bible on a desk, tacking a gospel message onto a wedding—versus one that flows naturally from who you are. 

Robinson frames it as a binary: "Is that motive out of pride or is it out of love?" He applies it directly to his own flight line prayer in Iraq: "That was out of love." 

Erickson's challenge to listeners: "If your religious belief is something worth anything, then it should come out in those personal moments. It should be a part of who you are and why you live."

 
OCF Crosspoint is produced by Officers' Christian Fellowship and is a podcast for Christian military officers at every stage of service. Learn more about OCF at www.ocfusa.org/learnmore.