The battle for a Pagan chaplain recalls an earlier effort to make the chaplaincy more inclusive. The story dates back to 1861, during the early months of the Civil War.
The military chaplaincy law, passed in that year, stipulated that a regimental chaplain be a “regularly ordained minister of some Christian denomination.” Interestingly, the parallel Confederate law was more inclusive, requiring simply that the chaplain be a “minister of religion.”
The chaplaincy bill effectively barred Jewish chaplains from the field in the North – this in a war where some 8,000-10,000 Jews were fighting in the field. At least two elected Jewish chaplains were rejected on account of the discriminatory law, placing Jewish soldiers at a great disadvantage to Christian ones, and in effect rendering the Jewish faith illegitimate.
Jewish leaders naturally sought to make the chaplaincy more inclusive. Many Americans, including Abraham Lincoln, supported a change in the law, but some did not. Their reasons are relevant to the current debate.
One Evangelical paper, for example, complained that if the law were broadened, the government would be agreeing that “one might despise and reject the Savior of men . . . and yet be a fit minister of religion.” It warned, significantly, that “Mormon debauchees, Chinese priests, and Indian conjurors” would stand next in line for government recognition.
The issue, it plainly understood, concerned the religious rights of non-Christians.
After months of wrangling, a revised bill that construed “some Christian denomination” in the original language to read “some religious denomination” became law on July 17, 1862. Since then Jewish chaplains have been part of the chaplaincy.
The same logic that broadened the original chaplaincy bill to ensure that it embraced Jews now requires broadening it further to embrace Pagans. Pagans too have spiritual needs, and in mustering them into the military, the United States government assumes the responsibility for meeting those needs.
Religious Free Exercise is not just guaranteed by the Constitution to those religions that the majority of Americans happen to like and approve of. It is an absolute right guaranteed to Jews, Mormons, Chinese, Indians – and, yes, to Pagans too.
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