Pagans and the Military

[nacho_cheese]

I'm doing a paper on Paganism in the Military for my Legal Studies program, and I'm looking for additional information. So far I'm focusing on military chaplaincy with Don Larsen, the Pentacle Quest (for which I am still trying to find the Supreme Court case number, if one exists -- I did find one for Wisconsin on the same page), and DFGL with

Comments

[moonwolf23]

Don Larsen was not discrimination. His Baptist sponsor removed their sponsorship, thereby negating his chaplaincy. It's out of the military's hands until he gets a new sponsor and they get their paperwork in.

You may also not find what your looking for in civilian court cases. You may have to look at Jag and the Umcj.

[nacho_cheese]

I beg to differ. :) Everyone is going to interpret this differently, but [o]n July 6, he applied to become the first Wiccan chaplain in the U.S. armed forces. By year's end, his superiors not only denied his request but withdrew him from Iraq and the chaplain corps, despite an unblemished service record (taken from the article above).

Thanks! I'll see if I can get my hands on some JAG and UMCJ records.

[moonwolf23]

Ummm

I googled this, on non Pagan sources. He was withdrawn from Iraq, because when he applied to be a Wiccan Chaplain the military called as is the procedure his sponsor(a Baptist church) and they called him going are we hearing what we think we are hearing? He told them yes he has converted to Wicca but he is still acting in compliance with the Church until he gets his new sponsor in order. They revoked their sponsorship, as is their right.

In order to be a Chaplain you need to be sponsored by a religious org.

REad the bottom of the the seattle times article.

============================
Once chaplains are accepted into the military, they are paid, trained and deployed by the government. But they remain subservient to their endorsers, who can cancel their endorsements at any time. That is what happened to Larsen, according to unclassified military e-mail messages.
================

It was pentecostal, sorry. This btw should have been on the first few paragraphs not buried on the bottom. Grumbles about sensationalist

[nacho_cheese]

Issue with all this is, the Sacred Well Congregation has been trying to become a sponsor for several years, both for Larsen and for Drewry, mentioned above. Their paperwork has taken several years to "process" while other chaplains from a wide variety of faiths are approved.

Comparatively, there are approximately twenty Jewish chaplains to accommodate its 4,000 adherents, and about a dozen Imam chaplains for approximately 3,500 Muslim servicemen and women. On a smaller scale, some faiths with smaller numbers do have chaplains, including six teachers for around 650 Christian Scientists, forty-one Mormon chaplains for the 17,500 Mormons in uniform, and one Buddhist chaplain for around 4,500 Buddhists. (I'm still searching the internetz for where I found this particular information!)

Oh, if you could have your husband look into it, that'd be great. :) This is really the only question I have (in the OP), so feel free to pass it along to him.

[moonwolf23]

The issue may not be discrimination but something else entirely.

http://www.pca-mna.org/chaplainministries/recruitNavy.php

Here you may want to contact these people to ask about that issue.

[sara_super_id]

Sounds like definitely worth writing a paper about, sounds like you have stuff to explore in a paper. Its even better with contrasting views because you can get more length for your paper. Also, if discrimination is only historical, and not current you can still cover that aspect.

[moonwolf23]

The other thing(Navy Wife and Army brat here) Chaplains serve every denomination in the military. Also when you talk to one you aren't guaranteed that it will be kept secret either.

Lj message me, if you want to know more about the military chaplaincy stuff, I'll ask my hubby the navy vet to think on it.

[pierceheart]

What you don't know is half of them browse porn on work computers and the other half gets drunk and cheats on their wives.

citation needed.