![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Tburke1.jpeg.jpg\")
His path to healing, however, showed Burke that the institutions he credited with making him who he was played a role in his personal crisis to some extent, notably the Catholic Church and the Marine Corps, organizations Burke says he was seeking love, belonging, and validation from, but was coming up short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his rehabilitation, Burke renewed his faith, but also began to question some of the institutional pedagogies of both organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt always seems in terms of any sort of mental health support, spiritual support, they\u2019re serving the command team, rather than serving the Marines,\u201d he said. \u201cI see that in many different ways. I think the way religion is used in the military is to reinforce stereotypes and to reinforce white supremacy and white Protestant hegemony.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Breaking away from the Marine Corps, meanwhile, allowed Burke to find himself outside of the Catholic Church as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was empowered by being kicked out of the Marine Corps, to leave my family of origin, which included that Catholic identity, and look for a more liberated world, a more liberative community that would accept me, love me and affirm me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ideological transition to question these institutions while remaining appreciative of their value has led to Burke\u2019s outspokenness on issues like the lack of diversity within the military, sexual harassment and assault in the ranks, and troop extremism \u2014 Burke condemns each while seeking to explain why they exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are all looking for belonging,\u201d he noted. \u201cIt\u2019s so easy to look at fanatics and extremists and think they\u2019re absolutely batshit crazy, dismiss them, and not recognize their desire to be part of something. It\u2019s the same reason we joined the military \u2014 they want to be part of something bigger than them. If we\u2019re not recognizing that these people are in pain and continue to dismiss them, the problem will only get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, that open approach is a learning process, Burke added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m not the best person in the entire world,\u201d he said. \u201cI make mistakes a lot. I\u2019m very broken, but I\u2019m loved by God. I have gifts that God gave me in order to make the world a better place, just like we all do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
War may have taken a heavy toll on Burke, but God, he says, is unwavering even when he can\u2019t be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBeing so immersed in war, being so immersed in hate and anger and evil, prevented me from accessing my relationship with God,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut God never stops loving us. God never stopped loving me. I\u2019m a little religious on this, but that\u2019s, I guess, just kind of my thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thomas Burke’s faith journey is not that of a typical pastor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":105805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-post-observation-post","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":70,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,24,88,89,70,16,26,17,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3239],"class_list":["post-70512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-middle-column","category-military-culture","category-news","category-newsletters","category-off-duty","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"MMWUCEIFWRERHHVKWLYU4RE65M","arc_canonical_url":"\/off-duty\/military-culture\/2021\/04\/13\/this-ex-marine-is-not-your-average-pastor\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"observation-post","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n