Army Releases Spiritual Fitness Guide
The Army has released a spiritual fitness guide that encourages soldiers to build inner strength for war and life.
“This guide symbolizes 250 years of the Chaplain Corps standing shoulder to shoulder with you in formations, reaching wherever our soldiers and families are to strengthen the heart, spirit and soul that defends the greatest nation on Earth,” Army Chief of Chaplains Maj. Gen. William Green Jr. wrote in the guide. “Our Army leaders, especially in teams and squads, must be equipped to lead soldiers to success in war and life.”
The guide covers spiritual fitness principles and stages of development and training over nine chapters. It defines spiritual fitness as “the conditioning of a soldier’s spirit towards readiness—to fight and win in war and life.”
Though the guide focuses on spirituality, it is not written with any particular religion or belief system to cater to all soldiers and leaders throughout the service. About 70% of active-duty troops are Christian, 2% are atheist or agnostic, 1% practice “an Eastern religion,” 0.4% are Jewish, 0.4% are Muslim and 24% of troops were “other, unclassified or unknown,” according to a 2019 congressional report.
https://www.ausa.org/news/army-releases-spiritual-fitness-guide