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The Australian Army has removed a controversial Christian “Crusader” emblem from the uniform of its chaplaincy branch, according to the Rationalist Society of Australia.
The Royal Australian Army Chaplains Department has replaced its longstanding Christian and Jewish badges with a newly designed single badge and has displayed the new one on its website.
The Christian badge that was previously used and worn by Christian Army chaplains featured the motto “In this Sign Conquer” inlaid over a Maltese Cross, while the Jewish version featured the Star of David.
The Army Chaplains Department’s new badge depicts a shepherd’s hook, book and globe.
The change comes more than 10 years since Defence initially said it would remove the emblem from Christian chaplains’ uniforms due to its connotations with the Crusades, only for the then coalition government to block the move in response to media reports.
In 2023, the RSA questioned the Albanese government’s Defence ministers about the appropriateness of Army chaplains continuing to wear these badges as part of their formal uniform. In a letter to ministers Richard Marles and Matt Keogh, the Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA) argued the wearing of such emblems also raised potential security threats to Army personnel operating in foreign countries, especially in the Middle East.
In 2021, Army Colonel Phillip Hoglin wrote that the Defence Force needed to undertake secular reform, highlighting among his reasons the risks of the Australian Defence Force being perceived as a Christian military when operating in conflict zones.
RSA executive director Si Gladman said the change was a step in the right direction for the Army.
However, he said the Army and the wider Defence Force needed to undertake much more secular reform in order to reflect modern Australia and to meet the wellbeing needs of its majority non-religious workforce.
“This is a welcome step in the right direction for the military. But we are urging the Defence Force to undertake much-needed, broader secular reform,” he said.
The Army and Air Force still do not provide a non-religious front-line wellbeing support/pastoral care option for its personnel, opting instead to rely on exclusively religious chaplains who are sourced increasingly from Pentecostal and evangelical churches and are required to have theology degrees.
The most recent Defence census data, released in late 2024, show that 61 percent of Defence personnel identify as not religious.
Last year, the RSA, supported by a number of other organisations, raised this issue as an example of discrimination against non-religious people in a submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (fourth cycle) into Australia’s human rights.
The Rationalist Society of Australia is actively lobbying and advocating for secular reform of the Defence Force
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