Source: Religion New Service
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 16, 2002: A U.S. District Court judge has determined that two suits by chaplains alleging religious discrimination in the U.S. Navy should continue. Judge Ricardo M. Urbina has denied in part the Navy’s motion to dismiss the cases, which accuse the military service of discriminating against evangelical Christian groups. The chaplains allege second-class treatment by the Navy, which they say has “illegal religious quotas” for chaplain promotions and a tendency for bias against nonliturgical Christian Navy chaplains. HPI adds: A “nonliturgical” chaplain is an evangelical Christian who performs no rituals as do, for example, Catholic or Episcopalian ministers. What they do instead, and this is the issue for the Navy, is to preach, appealing to their listeners to adopt their particular form of Christianity. But because one chaplain often ministers to a mixed group and not to just followers of his own denomination, such preaching amounts to a conversion campaign within the ranks. The Navy and other armed forces believe such conversion efforts to be potentially destabilizing and a threat to morale. It is compounded by the fact the ministers are officers and their charges are enlisted personnel. For decades, the military chaplain corps has enforced a ban on conversion attempts, and as a result been been exemplars of religious tolerance and harmony. Should this suit succeed, all the unfortunate consequences of conversion activities that Hindus are familiar with may occur within the US military, and Hindu servicemen and women may find themselves targets of evangelists.