After dismissals, naval training center invites back 4 religious volunteers

[rug]

Critics of last month's dismissal praise Navy's decision to invite back religious volunteers

May 14, 2015, 7:08 PM
By Manya Brachear Pashman
Chicago Tribune

Following the sudden dismissal of a half-dozen religious leaders last month, commanders at the Great Lakes naval training center began the process Thursday of inviting back civilian volunteers to serve recruits who are Unitarian Universalists, Baha'is, Buddhists and Christian Scientists..

In the meantime, a spokesman said, the Navy has found active duty uniformed personnel at the nearby base to lead worship for recruits who want to be part of a Church of Christ congregation or earth-centered community at its only boot camp.

Cmdr. Chris Servello, a spokesman for the chief of naval personnel, clarified the intention behind an April 3 letter informing civilian volunteers that their services no longer would be needed. In that letter, Command Chaplain T.L. Williams said the move would give uniformed personnel an opportunity to model spiritual leadership for the more than 40,000 aspiring sailors that pass through Great Lakes every year.

Servello said that remains the goal. What was perceived as a policy change was actually an effort to comply with guidelines that have been in place for several years, he said. If chaplains or clergy are unavailable to serve recruits, active duty uniformed personnel who are qualified to be lay leaders are the next best option. Volunteer civilians are always the last resort.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-great-lakes-religion-policy-reversed-met-20150513-story.html

[Hoppy]

1. "... and Christian Scientists. ...."

Mark Twain:

"Mary Baker Eddy proves that God has a sense of humor."

[cbayer]

2. I'm still not sure what is going here.

Sound like a lot of back room deals to me.

[rug]

3. I think two things are going on.

1) They want to limit access by non-naval personnel to the base as much as possible.

2) All chaplains are also naval officers and subject to naval discipline. These volunteers are not.

So, state security and control of religion. The same rationale behind the blasphemy laws, without the executions.

[cbayer]

4. That all makes sense….

so why are they backing down?

[rug]

5. My guess is the damage from the bad publicity is greater than the risk of keeping them.

It's hard to make a case that UUs and Christian Scientists are undermining naval readiness. OTOH, heavy-handed tactics and potential First amendment lawsuits are a real and present headache.

[cbayer]

6. I love it that they back down in the face of bad publicity.

That's generally really hard for them to do.

[rug]

7. Kudos to Mikey on this one.

[cbayer]

8. Yep. He does some good work.