Stoney Douthitt
After serving eight years as an active duty chaplain in the U.S. Army, Chaplain Capt. Stoney Douthitt G’22 came to Syracuse University in the summer of 2021. During the Last year, he worked steadily toward a dual master’s degree from the Whitman School of Management and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Hendricks Chapel was one of his first stops on campus, where he was warmly welcomed as a Baptist chaplain, working alongside Devon and Kate Bartholomew.
Douthitt had never planned to join the army. Before joining the military, he earned a master’s degree in economics, taught college classes for a time, and then chose to become a minister. After attending Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, he spent time planting new churches, but he knew there was more on his way. As he waited for instructions, his friend said to him, “Why don’t you join the army as a chaplain?”
Initially, Douthitt was not interested. He was pretty sure he was over the age limit, but he inquired, just in case. Stoney discovered that the age requirements had recently been changed from 40 to 42. So, at age 41 and having lost 60 pounds to meet the weight requirement, Stoney passed his physical test. “By the time I was done with this physical examination, I was convinced that this is what God wanted me to do for the next season of my life,” he says.
Douthitt was trained as a soldier, but never carried a weapon. He was paired with a religious affairs specialist, an enlisted soldier, who was there to protect him in the field and help him with chaplaincy items during downtime.
When new soldiers joined the team, they would ask, “Hey, where’s the chapel? and one of the troops was pointing at Douthitt and saying, “He’s over there!” While an ordained Baptist minister, Army chaplains are called upon to serve all enlisted soldiers. The army hires a chaplain for each battalion, so the chaplain can identify as Catholic, Buddhist, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish or Hindu. As a result, he felt right at home at Hendricks Chapel, the spiritual heart of Syracuse University, known as a home for all faiths and a place for all.
As a Protestant chaplain in the army, Douthitt was authorized to perform a wide range of religious services, but his main role was to ensure that soldiers could exercise their right to worship or choose not to worship at all. When the soldiers sought a worship service outside of Douthitt’s Protestant tradition, he ensured that the respective religious representative could visit the troops.
Douthitt speaks during a service at Hendricks Chapel.
Other times, soldiers joined whatever service was offered without compromising their religious principles. “It’s better to do it together than to do nothing at all,” says Douthitt. “Everyone in my unit knows I’m Protestant, but it doesn’t really matter because I’m there, as they say, ‘To bring God to soldiers and soldiers to God.'”
There are approximately 3,000 Army chaplains, of all faiths, at any one time. After serving for eight years, some army chaplains choose to become hospital chaplains, congregational preachers, counselors, teachers, and sometimes defense comptrollers. Very few are chosen to become defense controllers. Each year, only one or two army chaplains are sent to the Defense Comptroller Program (DCP), a cooperative venture between Syracuse University and the U.S. Department of Defense, to earn dual degrees: a Master of Business Administration (MBA) through the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and an Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA) from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
Syracuse University is the only institution in the United States to offer this program. With a background in economics, Douthitt’s new role is a perfect fit. “I will function as the liaison between Congress and our branches of the military to ensure that chaplaincy money is spent properly,” he said. “I will make sure that every dollar allocated by Congress goes directly to the Departments of the Army.”
Douthitt enjoyed his time in Syracuse, finding the Maxwell School very complementary to his pastoral work. “At Maxwell, I learned a lot about communication styles and became introspective about my own communication styles and motivations,” he says. His newfound knowledge of reasoned negotiation and arbitration, paired with the heart strengths of a chaplain, will serve his work both in office and as a pastor.
“A lot of what I do is walk into a room with people of different ranks and different jobs, and they all have a stake in the game,” Douthitt says. “They each want to run the meeting and I’m here to help everyone thrive; sometimes it feels like it’s not possible. Like if one person thrives, they believe the other must fail, you know? I feel like I’m in the middle all the time. I learned so many tools from the Maxwell School to help me thrive so I can help others thrive too.
Soon, Douthitt will graduate from Syracuse and begin his new position in San Antonio, Texas, where his wife and family will join him from Kentucky. He will be missed by many students and other Baptist chaplains at the university, such as Devon Bartholomew, who says, “Stoney has been a real blessing to Syracuse University and the Baptist chaplaincy. He has served in many ways, from preaching at the campus church to encouraging our students and staff. Stoney is a true friend who fully understands what it means to walk alongside others and be a blessing through life’s ups and downs.
If you would like to stay in touch with Douthitt, you can reach him at joseph.s.douthitt.mil@army.mil. For more information on Hendricks Chapel chaplaincies and religious communities, visit chapel.syracuse.edu.
