Accommodating Religious Pluralism in the Military

July 6, 1999

Source: Chicago Tribune

On July 6, 1999, the Chicago Tribune published an article on the difficulties experienced by the military in handling freedom of religious exercise for military personnel. Encountering problems with accommodating Muslims, Sikhs, and Wiccans, the military has to follow a newly issued directive on the accommodation of religious practices (the first since 1988), that widens the scope of acceptable exemptions. Under the new guidelines, the Pentagon will handle exemptions on an individual basis - a commanding officer can grant these requests if they do not undermine military readiness, discipline, safety or a unit's mission. A major challenge to the military in providing adequate religious services is the changing role of the military chaplains. Capt. Russell Gunter, a Navy chaplain who is executive director of the Armed Forces Chaplain Board at the Pentagon, stated: "Chaplains are expected to accommodate the religious exercise of everyone in the military regardless of whether they agree with the theology of that faith group." Jack Williamson, the coordinator of the National Conference on Ministry in the Armed Force in Arlington, Virginia, stated: "In the military it is not uncommon to have a Roman Catholic priest, a rabbi, a Pentecostal preacher and Lutheran pastor all housed in the same facility with offices next door to each other and seeing the same people." Adding to the problem is that certain chaplaincies, particularly Catholic, are in short supply. Of the incoming military personnel who do claim a religious preference, roughly 53% are members of a particular Protestant denomination, 32% are Roman Catholic, and 13% are Christian of no denomination. The remaining 2% claim Eastern Orthodox traditions, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other faiths.