1 Boring Old Man

Pentagon ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ report: Chaplains’ views on gays strong, varied
Washington Post
By Sandhya Somashekhar
December 1, 2010

In the Pentagon’s 300-plus-page report on the proposed repeal of its "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy, the authors singled out one group whose strong views merited special attention: the chaplains. The report found that 70 percent of service members thought there would be little or no negative impact to military readiness and unit cohesion if the government were to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military. But no group had such strong – or sharply divergent – views as the military’s 3,000 chaplains, who provide spiritual guidance to the men and women in uniform…

Officials say they did not encounter objections from chaplains during past efforts to integrate African Americans and women into the military. But homosexuality presents a particular difficulty because many religions object to it on moral grounds. The authors of the report noted that only three out of the 145 chaplains who participated in focus groups suggested that they would quit or retire if the law were changed. Many chaplains expressed opposition to a repeal, while many others said they would not object, according to the report.

"In the course of our review, we heard some chaplains condemn in the strongest possible terms homosexuality as a sin and an abomination, and inform us that they would refuse to in any way support, comfort, or assist someone they knew to be homosexual," the report stated. "In equally strong terms, other chaplains, including those who also believe homosexuality is a sin, informed us that ‘we are all sinners,’ and that it is a chaplain’s duty to care for all Service members."

The Rev. Dennis Camp, a retired Army colonel, said it pained him when gay soldiers came to him to complain of the burden they felt from keeping their sexuality a secret. They could not display pictures of their loved ones or talk freely about their personal lives, he recalled. But he could not encourage them to be honest about their orientation, he said. "They were forced by the situation, the system, to be dishonest, and that took its toll on them. And me," said Camp, a United Methodist minister who retired in 1996 after 27 years of service. "It was horrible. Right from the beginning, I was saying, ‘This is bad. This is wrong. It really has no place in our military community’ "…

The report’s authors wrote that the opposition was not insurmountable, arguing that "the reality is that in today’s U.S. military, people of sharply different moral values and religious convictions – including those who believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and those who do not – and those who have no religious convictions at all, already co-exist, work, live and fight together on a daily basis."

The assertion drew a sharp rebuke from Christian groups, including the Family Research Council, which on Wednesday held a news conference to highlight findings in the report that they say argue against changing the policy. Many conservatives worry that lifting the policy would muzzle chaplains whose religions require them to preach against homosexuality. The Rev. Douglas E. Lee, a retired Presbyterian Air Force chaplain and brigadier general who now counsels and credentials chaplains, said chaplains generally point out their views on homosexuality before counseling a service member on that issue. He worried that military policies may prohibit even that level of conversation if "don’t ask, don’t tell" is repealed, even though Pentagon officials have not recommended any change to the policy governing chaplains’ behavior…

"The U.S. military is not a religious institution. It is a civilian government organization," said the Rev. John Gundlach, a retired captain and Navy chaplain. "My position on this is, if they can’t handle this change, they’re in the wrong ministry setting."

Hate under cloak of religion
^{The Southern Poverty Law Center rightly calls out the Family Research Council’s anti-gay rhetoric.}
Los AngelesTimes
By Tim Rutten
December 1, 2010

The Southern Poverty Law Center is an organization with deep roots in the civil rights movement. Its ingenious lawsuits helped break the back of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist factions, and in recent years, it has joined the Anti-Defamation League as a reliable monitor of hate groups.

The Family Research Council is an influential Washington-based advocacy group with deep roots in the religious right. Its annual political forum, the Values Voter Summit, has become a nearly obligatory stop for ambitious Republican office-seekers hoping to win the support of so-called values voters. In recent years, the council has given an increasing share of its attention to opposing marriage equality and open military service by gays and lesbians.

Now, the two groups are locked in a sharp confrontation that raises crucial questions about where the expression of religiously based views on social issues ends and hate speech begins.

Last week, the law center added the Family Research Council to its list of more than 930 active hate groups, citing the anti-gay rhetoric of its leaders and researchers, which have included calls to re-criminalize consensual sex between individuals of the same gender. The Southern Poverty Law Center defines a hate group as one with "beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics."

The council’s president, former Louisiana lawmaker Tony Perkins, reacted angrily to the designation, calling it "slanderous" and demanding an apology. "The left is losing the debate over ideas and the direction of public policy, so all that is left for them is character assassination," Perkins said, insisting that his group "will continue to champion marriage and family as the foundation of our society and will not acquiesce to those seeking to silence the Judeo-Christian views held by millions of Americans"…

So when I read "we heard some chaplains condemn in the strongest possible terms homosexuality as a sin and an abomination, and inform us that they would refuse to in any way support, comfort, or assist someone they knew to be homosexual," I say take down their names and muster them out of the service today, DADT or not. And when I read "The Southern Poverty Law Center defines a hate group as one with ‘beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics’," I say "put them on the hate group list. It’s where they belong.