Critical intercession for non-religious Canadian Veterans on the intersections of moral injury, religion, and spirituality

Abstract

LAY SUMMARY With the concept of moral injury being adopted as a way of understanding psychological distress experienced by Veterans, there is a growing interest in what role religion or spirituality might play as a factor in the risk of, or resilience against, experiencing this form of trauma. There is also interest in how religion and spirituality might be used to help treat moral injuries. However, most of the research to date has been conducted with American Christian Veterans and military service members. What is in question is whether these ideas work in the context of Veterans and service members of the Canadian Armed Forces. This article presents a critical warning about how the use of religion and spirituality might possibly cause harm instead of helping as intended.