excerpts from Nolta's address   I n evaluating the past and preparing for the future it is always wise to ask two questions: What is our business and how is our business? As to what is our business I take you back to 1973 when our founder Joe Dooley presented to the 10 chaplains present at the initial organizational meeting a fourfold statement of purpose: To develop and recommend standards for the service of police chaplains. To seek the appointment of qualified chaplains to provide spiritual guidance, counseling and assistance to the police officer and his family. To secure proper training and encourage the establishment of a chaplaincy program in every law enforcement agency. To work for the general improvement of police service and to promote such chaplain service internationally. ICPC’s First Obstacle: Lack of a Clear Vision As I look ahead I see a large glass window standing upright in the road, I cannot see through it. It represents obstacle number one: The lack of a clear vision for our future. Now vision for our future relates not only to where we want to go but it also has to do with how we are going to get there, and relates as well to our being prepared to deal with change and opportunity that they might become a part of our future. There is at present not a clear united vision of where we want to go. Therefore, how we are going to get there is in question. We are not truly prepared to deal with change and current opportunities which are presented to United States in the ever dynamic culture in the United States and abroad. Frankly, we have not invested in our future. We have until a couple of years ago limited our office staff to little more than those who could keep the chickens in the coop happy as we have balanced limited funds. Two years ago you enabled more staff by your increase in dues...but it takes more than secretaries. It takes courage to face the future and say, we must change to move on. The old ways were good; now some of them are plainly inadequate. Our growing pains tell us that is true. We must continue to analyze our current structure and program emphasis, not leaving any stone unturned. And then we look to the future and decide what we want the ICPC to be and what we need to be together to meet the challenges. The analysis may mean some change in structure or emphasis that will make us all uncomfortable but enable us to meet the challenges and opportunity before us. ICPC’s Second Obstacle: Lack of Preparation Obstacle Number Two is even now in the road ahead. It is a man. He represents our lack of preparation to be what we say we are, an international organization. His skin is not white. He does not speak English. He points to the badge on his chest and the symbol of the chaplain on his shoulder. I cannot help him. I cannot speak his language; I do not know his culture. A united chaplaincy across the world is my dream. Yet within ICPC today there is a great chasm. A chasm of numbers that by itself creates a huge gap between international in name and being truly international. It is the gap of 2,600 Americans and 100 from other countries. The answer is of course not to reduce the number of American members but to increase those from outside the United States. I desperately want to help that one who stands in the road beckoning for us to come. We have been international in name and now we think we want to be truly international in scope and function. Do we have any idea what that means? Only a little glimpse, only a little hint here and there. I submit to you, we are not ready and it may be that planning and training are not enough to make us ready. We may simply have to move forward, learning as we go. Time is of the essence as the international fields are now ripe, ready for harvest. To meet the needs of the man in the road we must do more than translate language, we must translate culture. Go beyond North America and you find cultures that most of us do not understand and, in part, do not accept. We see it only through our eyes and then only want to make it homogenous with ours. We cannot. I know that the police personality is the police personality wherever it is found but the culture and style of policing can be very different and thus the problems the chaplain faces are very different. We must understand that culture if we are to train and support the chaplain who serves within. Those police officers need chaplains; those chaplains need support and education. Where will it come from? As ICPC, we have the resources and experience to move forward into that arena. We need to do so, learning as we go. Certainly, we will make mistakes but the successes and the victories will far outweigh such mistakes we might make. The support and education for chaplains beyond North America will come from an ICPC that is bold enough and farsighted enough to send their leadership out into those cultures, instead of expecting them to come to the United States. Further, are we prepared to think beyond an ATS in the United States each year? If we are not, we must then be prepared to raise up leaders in other places to conduct national training sessions to rival the United States-held ATS or to completely revamp our structure and schedule of the ATS. If we are not prepared to provide the lead and leadership for training in most countries beyond North America, it will be a long time before the chaplaincies springing up across the world have quality opportunities such as have been afforded us. It is my dream that we will all be united under one banner but we must face the fact that some may not want to come and play with us, especially under our current mode and perhaps attitude of function. Within our ranks are those experienced in cross-cultural communications, travel, and training. I am going to ask that those with such experience make themselves available to the ICPC during this year to originate an action plan as to how this dream might be realized with the greatest concern that we become international in personality and practice. International in the sense of Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, Europe and to the four corners of the globe. A truly international ICPC – a dream to be realized, both an obstacle and an opportunity that we must face. ICPC’s Third Obstacle: Lack of a Clearly Defined Identity Obstacle number three is less clearly visible to us but it is nonetheless an obstacle to be reckoned with: it is our lack of clearly defined identity as a non-homogenous organization. This obstacle in the road might be represented by something that we seldom see any more, a bottle of milk with the cream still on the top. It is non homogenous. We drink homogenized milk, all mixed together. The milk at the top of the bottle looks the same as the milk from the bottom of the bottle. There is little about the membership of ICPC that is homogenous. We are a variety of races and ethnic groups and sometimes we don’t know what to do with each other. History and the modern political correctness movement have so super-sensitized us that we are afraid of and suspicious of each other racially. I have no desire to favor white, black, brown or any other because of color alone. That ought to be what we see throughout the ICPC, talk, truth, trust and equal opportunity. We are not there yet. JFK once said, "Let us not be blind to our differences, but let us also direct attention to our common interests and the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity." If we are not homogenous racially or culturally, we certainly are not in matters of faith. In the main, we are Christian but of so many varieties that even among the Christians we are as ignorant of one another as we are in regards to race and culture, and as suspicious and afraid of each other in our religious diversity as we are in issues of race if not more so...yes more so. Multi-Faith Diversity The issue of multi-faith diversity within the ICPC is what got me this assignment of speaking tonight. It is a very decided obstacle to our moving ahead as an organization. I have read evaluations and surveyed dozens of you and I am hearing that this just may be the greatest issue we face in this moment of our existence. It is time to face this issue and to face it head on. As one of our esteemed members put it: "There are those who may not wish to face the matter of diversity because to do so would be "organizational suicide." I suggest that not to do so is organizational homicide. For a group such as ICPC deliberately to shy away from the implications of diversity in this day and age is tantamount to turning the back to the greatest opportunities for professional, spiritual and intellectual growth. Any decision to avoid those areas of growth is a decision to bring a slow and probably painful death to a very worthwhile organization, one which has been very good to me. I have read too many evaluations and hear too many concerns from across the religious spectrum to believe that we can any longer approach multi-faith diversity as we have in the past. To understand our dilemma, we must first look at our membership. It is overwhelmingly Christian, but of every sort. Then we also have some who would describe themselves as Universalist and some who are Jewish, Islamic, and perhaps a Buddhist or two. You might say, well that is not very diverse, and then ask, "What is the problem?" The problem comes on two fronts, each front caused by a separate factor. The first factor is numbers. The majority number of Christians undoubtedly makes some of us feel left out...just by sheer numbers, nothing intentional about the numbers, we do not discriminate as to who can join, but rather the numbers alone do it for the minority. So the minority in numbers feels left out. That is the first front. Religious Pluralism Enter Factor Two and Front Two: The second factor is the doctrine of Religious Pluralism. Religious pluralism suggests that there is not one religion but that there are many religions, which are equally valid. That doctrine or school of thought has permeated American society and we are trying to treat each other in the ICPC as if we believe it. I doubt if any, or at least very few, believe that, yet it is there as a constant pressure upon us. The effect of believing or acting as if we believe religious pluralism has been to destabilize us. Here is why: It is often noted that seeking pluralism or pluralistic behavior results in a spiritual identity crisis. (We have one.) At home we do just fine but we come to the International or Regional ATS and we don’t know how to behave toward one another. Can I be who I really am? Should I not pray like I usually do? What scripture can I use in the morning devotional? Which are safe songs to sing? They don’t believe like I do, Can I trust them? The second effect is noted in the fact that ministry/service actions derive out of the caregiver’s spiritual identity. That is what distinguishes the pastor, priest or rabbi from each other and all of us from the psychologist/psychiatrist. Not to be able to act out of who we really are has the effect of causing us to not be comfortable in the gathered setting. As the old preacher told the young preacher who was seeking spiritual direction, "Be who you is cause if you ain’t who you is, then you will be what you ain’t, and if you is who you ain’t then you won’t be who you is." Thirdly, it is often true that pluralistic leveling does not result in solidarity; in fact it often produces the opposite effect, a feeling of division if not an actual splintering. ICPC has not yet splintered but you can feel the cracks widening. We are reading it in our evaluations and as one member, responding to my survey reported: "I have expressed concern, disappointment, and at times even anger at the way multi-faith diversity has been handled by the ICPC since I became a member in 1990 – that is one of the reasons why I have not been at an ATS for a few years." On the one hand the numerical religious minority among United States feels left out, and on the other, a large segment of the Christian membership feels that they must withhold or not be true to their faith under the pressure of pluralism and political correctness. I do not believe that ICPC was established or today purposely seeks for anyone; minority or majority to feel that way, but that is, I believe, exactly where we are at this point in time. There are two words, which should be our guide in this question. The first is respect. The second is honor. Respect must be mutual, therefore, I must respect you in your beliefs and you must respect me in mine. Respecting you in your beliefs does not mean that I have to accept yours as valid and true, or that I may not question you at some point. However, it does mean that I accept and respect you in spite of the great possibility that you and I will never agree on some points of faith. Second, honor for me means that I will hold those beliefs to which I believe God has brought me. How you may ask? Simply stated, I cannot honor that which I believe by denying it. Equally, I cannot honor that which I believe by using it to beat up others who do not hold my view. There must be balance. The challenge for us to find the way out of what some have come to call "the mush god" approach. We must devise a vision of the way in which we can live together harmoniously in a larger society such as ICPC, while at the same time being able to maintain, rather than dilute or lose, a strong sense of belonging to our particular cultural, ethnic or religious community. In short, how can we live together in a multi faith organization and do so with trust and respect while at the same time each of United States be true to our own faith? Again the words respect and honor come to bear upon the subject. I come to ICPC to be trained to be a police chaplain. At the same time the ICPC gatherings have allowed me a much broader and very wonderful scope of understanding and to meet and know some of you who, if we chose to talk about it, would quickly know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we do not agree theologically and never will. But I want to say, nonetheless, we can love each other, respect each other, trust each other and join together for the education and support of fellow chaplains and for the advancement of law enforcement chaplaincy around the world. We may have to adjust, to do separate devotional hours, to have small group meetings for fellowship, and in our larger joint meetings to trust and respect each other but allow each other our own convictions knowing they are not exercised with "an in your face" attitude. Unity, Not Uniformity An apt appeal for us is "Unity, not Uniformity." Unity in our task to train and support chaplains, in spite of our lack of uniformity in issues of faith. I would add to that, we need to be a multi-faith organization because those we minister to are multi-faith and we recognize those even of no faith. None of our departments can discriminate against someone for their faith or lack of and we, as chaplains serving in public agencies, cannot either. The good thing about a multi-faith organization for me is I learn here at ICPC how to minister to those of a different ethnic or religious background. This is my school to learn much of what I cannot learn within the confines of my own faith group. ICPC – THE Pre-eminent Professional Police Chaplain’s Organization I believe that ICPC should stand as the pre-eminent professional police chaplain’s organization, built upon and guided by the principle the United States Naval Chaplain Corps has adopted, the principle of cooperation without compromise. We must work that principle into every fiber of our gathering together. There is a world waiting for us to come and share with them what we have to offer, training and support for police chaplains. The idea is now worldwide and we are in the forefront. Police officers everywhere need chaplains. That is our impetus to take hard looks and clear obstacles; to do the painful work that change requires. In the context of dealing with the issues our Vice President Craig Hungler wrote, "My family of the badge needs it." They need for us to do it and I promise you, I will do everything in my power and with God’s help, we will do it together, united by trust, respect and common vision. The officers with whom we work observe our every move. We are not as ethical, moral, and spiritual as they think we are. We are above reproach as far as they are concerned. Chaplains are somewhere above the level of most humanity. We don’t put ourselves there, the officers do. If we do it, it is OK. If we say it, it must be true. At least in the eyes of the officers, chaplains are kind of what God must be like. It is an awesome responsibility to serve as a chaplain. No, we are not God. But we represent Him. United we will stand – united we will serve.