`Nonliturgical' chaplains file suit against Navy

Christian Century, April 12, 2000

The U.S. Navy is under fire from members of an evangelical segment of its chaplains corps who claim in a recent lawsuit that they have been discriminated against in favor of liturgical chaplains such as Roman Catholics and Lutherans and been treated as "second class" citizens within the military service. Filing the class-action suit March 17, 11 "nonliturgical Christian" navy chaplains alleged 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 nonliturgical 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.

The March suit estimates that 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, the Church of the Nazarene, the Church of Christ and the National Association of Evangelicals. The suit cites specific instances in which nonliturgical chaplains believe they were harassed for their support of nontraditional worship. For example, it alleges that Lieutenant 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 nonliturgical chaplain oversaw was "hogwash." The suit says the service was changed back to its traditional liturgical style. Two of the 11 plaintiffs filed under pseudonyms, fearing retaliation for suing the navy.

The suing chaplains are among those in the corps who frequently use the term "baby baptizers" to describe Roman Catholic and liturgical Protestant chaplains such as Lutherans, Presbyterians and Methodists.

Those that don't fit into that category include chaplains from charismatic and other evangelical churches. The plaintiffs argue that an "irrational and arbitrary thirds policy" has existed in the navy in which one-third of the chaplain positions are reserved for Catholics, one-third for liturgical Protestants and one-third for nonliturgical Christians and non-Christians. Under such a policy, they say, liturgical Protestant chaplains may be given one-third of the positions when navy personnel of such faiths represent only 9 percent of the military service.

The suing chaplains said the "thirds" policy permits liturgical Protestant chaplains to unfairly maintain liturgical control of the corps and excludes nonliturgical chaplains from influence and representation.