The South Dakota National Guard published a press release celebrating a “historic ceremony” in which Chaplain (Capt) Kelley Thury became the SDNG’s first female chaplain:

Thury is now the chaplain for the largest battalion in the SDARNG, the 153rd Engineer Battalion.

“Having the first female chaplain is really awesome, especially in the Engineer Corps where having females in the Engineer Corps hasn’t been a long-standing policy in the U.S. military,” said Lt. Col. Trent Bruce, former 153rd commander. “Integrating females into the Engineer Corps in itself is historic, but as a chaplain as well, is amazing.”

Several units have now made “headlines” with female chaplains. But what’s more interesting about Chaplain Thury is her attitude toward her fellow chaplains.

It seems Thury is connected to the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy, the homosexual advocacy group run by Tom Carpenter. Almost precisely a year ago, Carpenter took issue with this comment expressing “nervousness” about female pastors/chaplains, which Carpenter attributed to a military chaplain. Thury took the bait, commenting:

That chaplain should choose another career outside of military chaplaincy…And if not…I would promote a woman ahead of him to be his boss!

So Chaplain Thury believes someone who has reservations about female religious leaders shouldn’t be a military chaplain?  That just ruled out most of the known world, given that she just demeaned the beliefs of Jews, Muslims, Catholics, and traditional Protestant Christians.

Would that make Chaplain Thury anti-Semitic, an Islamophobe, anti-Catholic, or just foolish in her wanton denigration of her fellow troops’ religious beliefs?

Hopefully, Chaplain Thury has tempered her disgust in the year since. Hopefully, she now realizes her role is to help protect the religious liberties of the troops she serves — even if she doesn’t agree with those beliefs. Presumably, Chaplain Thury will work with her fellow Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, and traditional Christian chaplains without secretly thinking they should all be booted from the military due to their religious beliefs.

It’s easy — it’s fashionable, even — to attack religious beliefs when people assume they’re Christian beliefs. It’s so easy, in fact, that people sometimes fail to realize the breadth of their bigotry. The hatred spewed toward those ‘evangelical Christians’ spills over so easily to Jews, Muslims, and others.

Besides, Chaplain Thury: Remember those troops’ religious freedom is protected by the same Constitution that protects yours.

If chaplains with religious beliefs you didn’t like were kicked out, what would stop them from coming around to get rid of you?

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