After 21 religious denominations that provide chaplains to the military complained over a lack of “religious liberty protections” now that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is under repeal, one might think most chaplains in the military are anti-gay. It’s not so.
In response to the letter sent to the military’s chiefs of chaplains and the Alliance Defense Fund's threat to sue if same-sex marriages are allowed in the military, Capt. John F. Gundlach, a retired Navy chaplain and member of the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy, has spoken up for the religious liberty of chaplains who aren’t anti-gay.
It’s a fair question, and one the ADF and anti-gay chaplains plainly don’t want asked. Instead, they want military chiefs and Congress to believe that chaplains are united in their desire to continue to preach against homosexuality as a sin. If they have to grant more liberal chaplains (and even gay or lesbian Christian soldiers) their right to religious liberty, then it defeats their entire purpose; which is to stall, or kill outright, the ultimate repeal of DADT.
ADF legal counsel Daniel Blomberg has said that “service members should not be denied the very constitutional liberties they volunteered to defend,” completely disregarding the fact that many gay and lesbian soldiers who profess a faith, Christian or otherwise, should also have their religious liberty protected—which means not having to bear being insulted or demonized by anyone in the military, chaplain or otherwise.
This is a point not lost on Gundlach, who writes:
which seems to be what is happening, every Bible-beliver should resign from the military. When the sodomizing becomes final, I am going to assume that everyone still in the military is in favor of the policy change. My support for the military has already stopped. It stopped when the Commander in Chief, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff endorsed homosexuality.
Candace Chellew-Hodge is the founder/editor of Whosoever: An Online Magazine for GLBT Christians and currently serves as the pastor of Jubilee! Circle United Church of Christ in Columbia, S.C. She is also the author of Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians (Jossey-Bass, 2008).
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