What does the Donatist heresy of the 4th and 5th century Christian church have to do with the trappings of military respect? I mean salutes, sir/ma'am, attention on deck, and so on. Answer (this is not a joke): both address the difference between the individual and his or her rank or function. And this means there are two kinds of respect: respect for the uniform, and respect for the person. The first is the bare minimum, but the second is better. As the Marines say, it's “earned, never given.” And that takes work.

You salute someone with more bars or stars than you who's coming down the walkway, even if you don't know that person. You aren't being called upon to render a judgment about whether that person is a good person or a good officer. Even if you think your superior is incompetent or a sadist, you still say “sir” or “ma'am.”

The Donatist heresy, as it later came to be called -- all “heresies” seemed perfectly mainstream to those who espoused them; calling them a heresy is a clear example of what we call “victor's justice" -- held that priests who were personally unworthy or sinful invalidated the sacraments they administered, such as baptism or communion. In effect, the Donatists believed that you have to read into the heart of the person wearing the cassock to see whether his actions were administratively binding. In military terms, following the Donatists, an unworthy superior wouldn't be entitled to a salute. Nor would he or she be able to issue orders.

It's clear what problems adopting this view this would cause an organization. How can you ever really know what's going on in people's hearts? For the Church, it meant people could never be sure whether they'd been properly baptized (what if it came out that you'd been baptized by a person whose baptism was invalid?). It could also mean that the wafer that, in Church doctrine, literally turned to the body of Christ in the hands of the priest, had in fact been unable to do so. Far better merely to say that personal foibles or even sins are irrelevant to the office. And this in fact was the position that the Catholic Church, influenced by St. Augustine, ultimately adopted. This is the military's position as well. You don't get to disregard an order in the military even if the person giving it is spiteful or mean. If your superior gives a lawful order, you have to follow it.

Yet at the same time the military wants to keep some purchase on the Donatist notion that people in uniform have to be good, not just effective, people. The Donatist position is found in the UCMJ, which details all sorts of things unrelated to battle orders that officers aren't allowed to do on pain of demotion and discharge.

Respect goes in two directions, up and down the chain of command. In an earlier column, I suggested that respect up the chain is at least partly based on believing that your superior is making the best decision he or she can make, not merely throwing his or her weight around, saying anything he or she wants. In the heat of battle, of course there's not time to explain your reasoning to those you're giving the orders to. But before and after, it's the most important thing you can do. Respect is based too on things like appropriate tones of voice, not publicly humiliating subordinates for minor offenses, and (also an earlier column) whether they look “sharp” in their uniform.

All together this adds up to what I've called the “aura” of leadership. Do you want to be around this person? Do you feel taken care of? Do you feel motivated? Superiors need to be clear that the “yes sir” or “yes ma'am” comes because of what's on their collar. But they shouldn't think this is the same as real respect. Real respect is earned. Their biggest job every day is to set about earning it.

Superiors show respect down the chain in that they acknowledge to subordinates their responsibility for sharing as much information as possible, for explaining decisions, and for always acknowledging that subordinates are independent individuals who have chosen to give up some degree of their autonomy for the greater good of the whole. That is the greatest gift an individual can give. Superiors need to cherish this gift, speak about it, and celebrate it. It's the daily miracle that makes the military, or any organization, possible.

Oh, and by the way, Happy Holidays to military.com's loyal members and, more importantly, those serving overseas.