To file under stray thoughts, but with regard to the Georgia pastor, I don't think I can necessarily feel confident that the person was indeed a pastor, in the sense that he/she graduated from a divinity school or otherwise followed a religious institution's prescribed guidelines for leading a flock. Maybe the person did. Might have been a great advisor. But it's also possible the individual could have been a mail order pastor that can perform weddings. Or a lay pastor. Or a legit pastor 'with issues'.
The reason this thought crosses my mind is that the Georgia pastor speaking to Travis every day for whatever time period those conversations spanned, and sometimes for several hours in succession, has always seemed a little excessive to me ever since I first read about it.
Travis could have used that much good help and then some, to put it mildly, but what clergyperson, unless retired, has that kind of time? It made me wonder ife the frequent and sometimes lengthy pastoral counseling sessions over the phone were also about the pastor's needs. To win a soul, form a bond with a vet, push an ideology---maybe even a macho one---or some such thing. A kind of symbiotic arrangement? If so, the quality professional support we might have hoped was being provided to Travis at least in that arena could have fallen short. Best case, though, the pastor allotted that much time repeatedly because of a good spidey sense and a strong desire to help.
