Chaplain Convicted of … Acting Like a Chaplain

When a Christian prays “in Jesus name”, he’s just practicing his faith. When an Army Chaplain does it, at what he considers a religious event, he gets fined.

A jury of U.S. Naval officers has recommended a reprimand and a $250 fine per month for a year for a Christian chaplain who was convicted of disobeying an order not to wear his military uniform for media appearances.

Fortunately, this may not be enforced.

However, the jury also recommended the fine be suspended.

But apparently the jury wanted to send a chilling message about religious speech in the military. Is this a shot across the bow?

UPDATE:  See the comment section for this post on Stones Cry Out, where this was cross-posted, for a lot more information about this, including from someone who says they’re close to the case.  This case may not be as much a freedom of religion question as it has been painted by some (including me).

The details of the case give one pause as to why there was a guilty verdict in the first place.

Chaplain Lt. Gordon James Klingenschmitt was convicted of the count, even though he charged that the White House appearance at which he prayed “in Jesus’ name” was a bona fide religious event and he had written permission from his commander to wear his uniform at such events.

It could have been much worse.

Klingenschmitt had faced a maximum punishment of a reprimand, restriction to base for two months and fines or forfeiture of pay of nearly $42,000 – two-thirds of his annual salary, officials said.

Klingenschmitt’s military lawyer, Lt. Tiffany Hansen, had told the jury that a conviction was enough.

“There was no financial gain as a result of him doing what he did,” she said.

“Doing what he did,” was to appear at a news conference at the White House with former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, a WND columnist, to protest a new Naval directive that called for all prayers to be “nonsectarian.”

Klingenschmitt told WND that he had been given written permission to wear his uniform at bona fide religious events, and that’s what he considered the March 30 appearance. He said he took off his uniform before answering media questions that day.

According to the Navy, you can express your religion freely, for restrictive definitions of the word “freely”.

The judge, refusing Klingenschmitt’s motion earlier this month to drop the case, concluded chaplains are protected only inside the chapel on Sunday morning. If ordered not to worship in public, and they disobey, chaplains can be punished at a criminal court martial.

“There is no more fundamental right than the inalienable right to worship our creator, and I pray in Jesus name,” Klingenschmitt said. “For any government official to require non-sectarian prayers is for him to enforce his government religion upon me, to censor, exclude and punish me for my participation”

Several dozen other chaplains also have joined in a civilian lawsuit that alleges the Navy hierarchy allows only those Christian ministers who advocate only non-sectarian blandishments to be promoted. Those with evangelical beliefs, they say, are routinely drummed from the Navy.

And Klingenschmitt, even though he may get a suspended sentence, could still face repercussions.

“That letter of reprimand will be used in two or three months at an administrative separation board to kick me out of the Navy,” Klingenschmitt said Thursday. He estimated he would lose $1.8 million in pension and retirement benefits if he’s dismissed.

The military does have to have wide latitude when it comes constitutional rights and privileges, I understand that. But restricting religious speech doesn’t appear to me to make much sense. If a Navy officer in uniform were to appear, for instance, at a protest rally, that could be construed as some sort of official position being taken by the military. But when a chaplain gets all religious at a religious event, well, that’s what chaplains do. And not all religious events take place inside a church (much to the consternation of church-state extremists). He was asked to pray because he’s a chaplain, and a Navy chaplain specifically. And I find it entirely appropriate that he took off his uniform before taking questions that were most likely not going to be religious in nature. He was not necessarily representing his profession at that point.

The fear of religion in this land is certainly not something the guys who wrote the First Amendment would recognize.

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Filed under: Christianity • Culture • Military • Religion

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