WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy is under fire from members of an evangelical segment of its chaplains corps who claim in a recent lawsuit they have been discriminated against in favor of liturgical chaplains such as Roman Catholics and Lutherans and have been treated as “second class” citizens within the military service.
Eleven “non-liturgical Christian” Navy chaplains filed the class-action suit March 17 against he 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 Nave 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 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.
Share with others: