DADT: Chaplains Fear, Training Begins, Repeal “Easy”
Recent DADT news:
- Chaplains concerned over future restrictions
- Army begins training, summarizing key points
- “Heroes” call for reinstatement
- CNO describes task ahead as “easy”
More below the fold.
According to a local Pittsburgh paper, some Chaplains continue to fear they will ultimately face opposition should they continue to preach and teach in accordance with their values; that is, their theological belief that homosexuality is wrong.
The article contains two interesting quotes:
“The fundamental issue for us is morality, but the debate is being purposely framed as a civil rights or a discrimination issue,” he said.
Homosexuality is “just another sin that affects soldiers, airmen, guardians and Marines. However no other category that we would declare as sin is … claiming civil rights to be a serial adulterer.”
Retired Brig. Gen. Douglas E. Lee, a former Army chaplain who endorses for six conservative Presbyterian bodies…cited two federal court cases that upheld the expulsion of Christian students from graduate counseling programs because they had sought to refer gay clients to other therapists who could affirm their sexuality. He believes the precedents could eventually apply to chaplains.
The US Army noted the beginning of its required training leading up to the implementation of repeal. In their top 10:
4. Moral and Religious Concerns: There will be no changes regarding any Soldier’s free exercise of religious beliefs, nor are there any changes to policies concerning the Chaplain Corps and its duties. The Chaplain Corps’ First Amendment freedoms and its duty to care for all will not change. Soldiers will continue to respect and serve with others who may hold different views and beliefs.
6. Equal Opportunity: Sexual orientation will not be placed alongside race, color, religion, sex and national origin as a class under the Military Equal Opportunity Program and therefore will not be dealt with through the MEO complaint process.
9. Release and Service Commitments: There will be no new policy to allow for release from service commitments for Soldiers opposed to repeal of DADT or to serving with gay or lesbian Soldiers.
The WorldNetDaily — a sometimes hyperbolic paper in its own right — reports that retired Admiral Jeremiah Denton, a former long term Vietnam POW, and retired Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady, recipient of the Medal of Honor, have written a letter to Congress calling for the reinstatement of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Meanwhile, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead had this to say about the implementation of the repeal of DADT:
I think the change is going to be easy.
I agree with the post-gazette article that “Ms. Coye tells those on both sides to be patient with each other”. However “Service members must not be required to change their personal views and religious beliefs,” which in itself is another issue.
Chaplains can “preach” the homosexual life style is a sin, but can service members do the same thing at the office or say, in a foxhole without repercussions? If not, why not and how is this fair? Lt James has a gay member in his flight and doesn’t trust him/her because he believes a gay person lives an immoral life style. Can Lt James tell the gay soldier how he feels without being accused of “hate speech” or disrespect or go as far as giving them a lessor rating on their performance report even though the troop in otherwise a model soldier? Are we asking our troops for too much?
The bottom-line here seem to me there are going to be double standards, conflicting guidance, preferred treatment, and a special status for chaplains others probably won’t be authorized “preach”.
carmine,
while your concerns are accurate, in a practical sense there isn’t much difference between how I would guide a promiscuous troop with how I would guide a gay troop. There is a lot of difference in the magnitude of distance between my lifestyle and the two others. That said, my job in life is not to make everyone around me perfect. My desire is to help people around me become better than who they are now, as I hope to be better tomorrow than I was today. We can discuss what ‘better’ means for the rest of our live, but while I’m at work I use the AF core values.
Job performance should never be about a person’s lifestyle, just about how they do the job. Of my two best AF leaders I had one who was divorced, freely spent his independent wealth, and was promiscuous; the other was a model family man. I’d follow both into combat, but only one into the rest of my life.