{"id":31512,"date":"2015-05-14T00:30:12","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T03:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=31512"},"modified":"2016-11-25T00:20:36","modified_gmt":"2016-11-25T03:20:36","slug":"mrff-military-required-to-have-chaplains-for-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/14\/mrff-military-required-to-have-chaplains-for-everyone\/","title":{"rendered":"MRFF: Military Required to Have Chaplains for Everyone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein was recently interviewed<\/a> about the Navy’s decision to ban civilian volunteers from leading religious services<\/a> during boot camp. In the course of the interview, he was asked:<\/p>\n

Host<\/strong>: Is the military required to provide a leader of some sort, to make sure that whatever somebody’s faith is, there’s somebody there — a chaplain, a volunteer, there — is that something that’s required…?<\/p>\n

Weinstein<\/strong>: Yes, yes. That is a requirement from the chaplain’s corps.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Weinstein’s response digressed into converting people from one faith to another, so the hosts asked the question again:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Host<\/strong>: For clarification, the chaplaincy, or the chaplain program is supposed to provide a chaplain of some kind or allow the provision of a chaplain of some kind for any faith regardless of the number of people in it…?<\/p>\n

Weinstein<\/strong>: The answer is a resounding yes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The answer is a resounding no<\/em>, actually. There is no<\/em> requirement for the military to provide a faith leader for any<\/em> particular faith, in fact, much less a leader for every<\/em> one. In point of fact, there are many<\/em> people in the US military who don’t have access to leaders of their faiths.\u00a0 It is a simple, logistical fact of life.<\/p>\n

Weinstein’s very assertive answer was completely wrong — but he continued the discussion in a way that was completely correct<\/em>:<\/p>\n

If someone…is requesting accommodation, it is a requirement that the chaplaincy help them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That<\/em> is correct. Chaplains “perform or provide” for all<\/em> service members.\u00a0 It seems Weinstein was so intent on giving an “absolute” initial answer to the question (a public relations technique) that he didn’t give them the correct<\/em> answer.<\/p>\n

It is regrettable that Weinstein gave his host and their listeners the wrong answer — twice — but, to be fair, he’s somewhat out of his element. His normal talking points, which are generally attacks on Christians, simply don’t fit the conversation in which he is currently engaged — though he did start to digress to those talking points both times.\u00a0 (It seems Weinstein is a little out of practice talking about military religious freedom.)<\/p>\n

The military generally — though not universally — does an admirable job of providing for the religious rights of those in uniform.\u00a0 In this particular case — that of the Navy RTC — there are significant concerns the Navy isn’t performing to that normal standard.\u00a0\u00a0 The Navy RTC does have the ability to provide faith leaders for many groups — but, contrary to Weinstein’s initial curt answer, the Navy is not required<\/em> to provide a chaplain or chaplain equivalent for each and every faith represented in the organization.<\/p>\n

Of course, if the Navy is going to preemptively ban available faith leaders so that some recruits have no one<\/em>, they’re going to justifiably raise concerns among a great many religious liberty organizations — organizations that will call the Navy to task to demand an explanation and a compelling government interest for the imposition on religious liberty.<\/p>\n

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