April 10, 2000
Navy chaplains allege discrimination
___By Adelle Banks
___Religion News Service
___WASHINGTON (RNS)--The U.S. Navy is under fire from members of an evangelical segment of its chaplains corps who claim they have been discriminated against in favor of liturgical chaplains such as Roman Catholics and Lutherans and been treated as "second class" citizens.
___Eleven "non-liturgical Christian" Navy chaplains filed a class-action suit March 17 against the Navy alleging a range of discrimination, including "illegal religious quotas" for promotions and career opportunities for chaplains and a "pervasive climate of bias, animosity and deceit toward non-liturgical Christian Navy chaplains."
___The lawsuit is one of three filed since October 1999, escalating complaints by evangelical Christian chaplains into the legal arena. In the past five years, chaplains have sent anonymous and signed memos to top naval officials voicing their concerns.
___Meanwhile, the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention has begun its own investigation of the way non-liturgal Protestants are treated in the Navy chaplaincy.
___NAMB's executives and chaplaincy team have not alleged any wrongdoing in promotions within the Navy Chaplain Corps. "However, in response to requests from several Southern Baptist-endorsed Navy chaplains, NAMB is reviewing both statistical and anecdotal information concerning promotion opportunities for Southern Baptist active-duty chaplains," a statement from the mission board said.
___"The Navy has basically ignored the complaints and the concerns that have been raised by chaplains as to the perception of religious discrimination," said Art Schulcz, an attorney representing chaplains in both the class-action suit and a previous suit filed in November by the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches.
___Cmdr. Frank Thorp, spokesman for the Navy's Personnel Command, declined comment on the particulars of the suit filed in March.
___"I can't speak to the specific lawsuit because I haven't seen it," he said. "But I can tell you that the Navy has chaplains from more than 110 different faith groups whose responsibility is to provide spiritual leadership to sailors around the world in fair fashion."
___The March suit estimates the class involved in the suit could represent as many as 600 current and former chaplains, some of whom were passed over for promotions or forced to retire. Among those bringing the most recent suit are chaplains endorsed by the Southern Baptist Convention, Church of the Nazarene, Church of Christ and the National Association of Evangelicals.
___The suit cites specific instances where non-liturgical chaplains believe they were harassed for their support of non-traditional worship.
___For example, it alleges that Lt. Michael Belt, a California-based plaintiff affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene, was told by a ranking liturgical chaplain that a reformatted Protestant worship service he and another non-liturgical chaplain oversaw was "hogwash." The suit says the service was reverted back to its traditional liturgical style.
___Two of the 11 plaintiffs filed under pseudonymns, fearing retaliation for suing the Navy.
___Schulcz, a Washington environmental lawyer, said his clients are not concerned with any one particular faith group, but rather what they view as disparate treatment of different kinds of Christian chaplains.
___"We're not picking on any denomination," he said. "What we are trying to eliminate is a dual system in the Navy Chaplains Corps. There are liturgicals and there are non-liturgicals, and it seems that there are different rules."
___As an example of their claim of domination by "high church" chaplains in the corps, the suing chaplains said three of the last four and four of the last seven chiefs of chaplains have been Lutheran.
___The plaintiffs argue that an "irrational and arbitrary thirds policy" has existed in the Navy in which one-third of chaplain positions are reserved for Catholics, one-third for liturgical Protestants and one-third for non-liturgical Christians and non-Christians. Yet an Armed Forces Religious Preference Report from 1998 found 24 percent of sailors and Marines are Catholic and more than 50 percent of the Navy's religious population is affiliated with non-liturgical faith groups. The Navy provides chaplains for both the Navy and Marine Corps.
___The suing chaplains said the "thirds" policy permits liturgical Protestant chaplains to unfairly maintain liturgical control of the corps and excludes non-liturgical chaplains from influence and representation.
___Thorp responded to general concerns about liturgical Christian influence by pointing out that Deputy Chief of Chaplains Barry Black is a non-liturgical Protestant.
___The chaplains in the suit filed in March are not seeking any financial compensation.
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