Rick: It has been always my understanding that a military chaplin
serves the military and all military personnel; in WWI and WWII there
were cases of Jewish and Protestant chaplins giving last rites to
Catholic soldiers; and Catholic priests helping Jews have a sedar or
helping them be relieved of duty to fast. It, as it seems here, an
evangelical will not do this sort of work, will not perform as a
soldier first, whose job is to help provide for the spiritual needs of
other soldiers, then the evangelical chaplin is not doing his duty.
The Navy, for example, cannot have ten different (or even perhaps 2
different) chaplins on each ship; so if someone is a chaplin he or she
must be prepared to serve the soldiers and sailors, not to serve their
own denominational needs. A chaplin should not be trying to evangelize
anyone. This is not a bias against evangelical ministers; it is a bias
against anyone in the chaplin corps who does not understand that his or
her first duty is to all the soldiers and sailors and to help them in
*their* faith.
Paul Finkelman
Rick Duncan wrote:
I am far less concerned about the chaplins' free speech rights
than I am about the EC and the government branding certain religious
doctrines as verboten in the program.
I don't think the government has power under the EC to
discriminate among religious doctrines, permitting the _expression_ of
some and forbidding the _expression_ of others. Maybe the remedy is to
dramatically expand the chaplin program to ensure that all (or at least
the great majority) of service men and women have a chaplin who is a
fellow believer. When a Catholic needs a chaplin, he should get a
priest. An evangelical should get an evangelical. A Jew should get a
rabbi. And so on.
By the way, am I too sensitive or do I perceive a certain animus
toward evangelicals in this discussion?
Rick
A
larger problem is that while people like us fret about the chaplains'
free-speech rights, at least some evangelical chaplains care little
about the
letter or spirit of the rules within which their position is intended to
operate. Some, it is becoming clear, have their own agenda, and, when
confronted with concerns, respond indignantly that they answer to a
higher
authority. The same chaplain who made the offensive comments at the
Catholic
sailor's funeral went on the tell the Times: "The Navy wants to impose
its
religion on me. Religious pluralism is a religion. It's a theology all
by
itself."
The reality is that many in this debate will play dishonest semantic
games --
twisting the issues, claiming victim status, and propounding
non-sequitors that
will be loudly repeated from pulpits, on cable shoutfests, and no doubt
sooner
or l! ater from the floor of Congress. So, setting aside my conviction
that this
sort of thing is exactly why it's ill-advised to fund religious
ministry with
public funds, I would add to the agenda for discussion: how do we talk
to the
public and relevant decisionmakers about the delicate balances that are
necessary if a program like this is to have constitutional integrity?
_________________________________
Steve Sanders
University of Michigan Law School
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Wed: http://www.stevesanders.net
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Rick Duncan
Welpton Professor of Law
University of Nebraska College of Law
Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
Red State Lawblog: www.redstatelaw.blogspot.com
"When the Round Table is broken every man must follow either Galahad or
Mordred: middle things are gone." C.S.Lewis, Grand Miracle
"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or
numbered." --The Prisoner
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--
Paul Finkelman
Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 East 4th Place
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