MRFF's Inbox - Army Chaplaincy Forcing Chaplains to Attend Conservative Presbyterian Seminary

MRFF's Inbox

Army Chaplaincy Forcing Chaplains to Attend Conservative Presbyterian Seminary

“…a clear violation of the chaplains',
forced to attend, free-exercise rights.”

January 6, 2010

Dear Mikey,

I am writing to ask you and your organization to look into a current Army Chaplaincy practice. The Army sends a selection of chaplains through a program called Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) each year. This is a non-sectarian method of training chaplains to work in institutional environments. While the graduates primarily fill hospital roles, they are also used for correctional facilities. It is program validated by a civilian organization and can be completed by people from all faith backgrounds without violation of conscience. I commend the Army for having such a professionally esteemed program in place to train its chaplains who will be serving America's servicemen in their most vulnerable moments of life. The problem comes in with the Army's addition to the basic CPE program. With no requirement (or even recommendation) from the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, the Army Chaplaincy has taken it upon itself to add a Doctor of Ministry degree requirement. This professional doctorate could be of great use to chaplains if they had any say in the program, school attended, or doctrine taught. However, all of those matters are out of the chaplain's control. The Army Chaplaincy has, without any regard to the doctrinal difference among Christians (let alone non-Christian chaplains), entered into a contract with Erskine Theological Seminary (Due West, South Carolina). Erskine is an Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP) seminary. The ARP is a very conservative Presbyterian body and their denominational seminary rightfully reflects their denominational stance. This is fine for ARP ministers and others who elect to attend there. The problem with the Army contract in the CPE program is that chaplains are forced to attend there if they are selected for CPE. CPE is considered a very positive boost to one's career. As a result chaplains are being forced to choose. They can receive high quality training suited to the pluralistic Army environment only by compromising their personal faith via attending a very narrowly focused seminary or they can hold to their personal free exercise rights, reject going to a seminary that teaches doctrine foreign to their faith tradition and possibly hinder their own career progression.

The seminary's conservative Presbyterian doctrine is difficult enough for many of the Christian chaplain students forced, without any recourse, to attend. Imagine being a Jewish or Muslim chaplain forced to write essays and engage in classroom discussions about how Jesus is the answer to a person's problems. Again, this is fine as far as the seminary is concerned, they are very clear about who they are and whom they intend to serve — they serve the conservative Reformed/Presbyterian Christian community — their teaching should and does reflect that. The problem is that the Army Chaplaincy is forcing chaplains to attend this seminary or inhibit their own careers. Concerns expressed by Rabbis and Imams are dismissed out of hand. I see this as a clear violation of the chaplains', forced to attend, free-exercise rights. Furthermore, it can easily be seen as a distinct act of establishment. Effectively the Army is saying that a chaplain is only qualified to work with the wounded and incarcerated if they have a doctorate reflecting a very narrow slice of the spectrum of Christian theology.

Please investigate this.

(name and rank withheld)

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