Moral Injury Symposium
by the Gulf Coast Veterans Coordination Council (CVEB)
A calling to our faith leaders!
Moral Injury is a topic that many veterans struggle to understand themselves. When you grow up under our morals in the U.S., how do you reconcile from these difficult decisions made during war?
As a Faith Leader and Veteran Services Provider, how can you prepare to help veterans struggling with Moral Injury?
What is Moral Injury?
...regarding the experience of war [and military service], “moral injury” refers to the lasting emotional, psychological, social, behavioral, and spiritual impacts of actions that violate a service member’s core moral values and behavioral expectations of self or others (Litz et al., 2009).
The Taliban would pay families to strap suicide bombs onto their children (especially those mentally impaired) to blow up U.S. and Coalition Soldiers and Marines.
The idea was that the children could get in closer to the bomb’s effective range when it forced the Soldier or Marine to pause before shooting a child.
U.S. Soldiers and Marines would have to shoot those child suicide bombers as they approached.
Aviators dropped a napalm bomb on a village that had been attacked and occupied by North Vietnamese forces.
The aviators mistook a group of friendly forces and civilians as enemy troops, burning the little girl in the image, and killing four civilians (two of which were the girl's cousins)
As a trained combat aviator, you just dropped dangerous ordnance to kill and maim innocent civilians.
The Symposium
Who: Faith Leaders, Veteran Service Professionals.
What: Define Moral Injury, prepare each other to help veterans who struggle with Moral Injury.
When: Thursday, October 20, 2022, 10am to 3:45pm
Where: United Way, 50 Waugh Drive, Houston, Tx, 77007
Through our nation’s history of war, men and women have proudly raised their right hands to serve. What happens when they come home from going against the morals they knew… for survival, for the mission, or to save the lives of their friends?
If a veteran opened up to you, would you know the difference between a Moral Injury and PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)?
The GCV CVEB is proudly hosting a Moral Injury Symposium to specifically work with our faith-leaders in the Harris County area, and Texas Gulf Coast Region. As the home to the largest veteran population in Texas, there is a significant chance you will help guide a veteran with moral injuries from the decades of warfare..
We invite you to join us, and work together to collaborate on learning together about moral injury, and how our local faith and veteran communities can better take care of each other.
Guest Speakers
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Zachary Moon
Professor of Theology and Psychology, University of Chicago
Special Guest Speaker
Conrad Washington
Director, VA Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (CFBNP), Washington DC
Host
Colonel Dave Lewis,
USAF Ret.
Director, Harris County Veterans Services Department (VSD)
Our expert speaker Dr. Moon will define Moral Injury and how it can affect us. Additionally, we will hear from other experts in the field and those that have experienced a Moral Injury. Finally, we will learn how the Faith Based Community can play their part in combating Moral Injury in their own organizations and beyond.
RSVP now! Only 100 seats!
Thursday, October 20, 2022,
10:00 AM to 3:45 PM
United Way
50 Waugh Drive, Houston, Tx. 77007
RSVP Here!
*Limited seats available, first come first serve.
