The Navy posted an article about 21 chaplains graduating from the entry-level Basic Leadership Course at the US military’s combined chaplains school at Fort Jackson, SC. The article was relatively unnotable, with one exception:

Lt. j.g. Mercedes Speller is a Southern Baptist chaplain heading to Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation (CREDO) at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, as a staff chaplain. She completed a bachelor’s degree in political science at Hampton University and a master’s in divinity from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

That’s interesting because the Southern Baptist Convention doesn’t endorse female chaplains. Presumably, Lt (JG) Speller comes from a Southern Baptist tradition but is endorsed by another denomination. (She’s previously been associated with the Virginia Baptist State Convention.)

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