Military chaplains not recognizing same-sex partners: okay or church-state violation?

From here:

I understand not witnessing or blessing the marriages, but not to offer marriage counseling? That seems to cross a line in my head. And the refusing to acknowledge a spouse at a retirement, promotion, or funeral feels spiteful and vicious, not a matter of theology.

These churches argue that they are trying to protect a separation of church and state:

But I would assume (please correct me if I’m wrong) that there aren’t enough chaplains of all religions and denominations to make it so that every service person has access 24/7 to a chaplain of their own religions or denominations. If so, do chaplains owe something to the non-followers of their own religions?

What do you think?

If a Catholic Priest has to provide spiritual counselling to a buddhist them I don’t see how they can refuse to provide counselling to a gay couple.

Are military chaplains allowed to discriminate like that? I was under the impression that they were there for all who served.

I’m a veteran, and I think the existence of military chaplains as service personnel does not jive with the 1st amendment and the establishment clause.

And this situation is why. If military chaplains counsel couples, then they should counsel ALL couples. If acknowledging gay couples violates your religious beliefs, then tough luck. And since this may mean half of all chaplains resigning, then the military should just excise the Chaplain Corps and have more military therapists and psychologists.

I think they should be prepared to do all of it or resign as chaplain.

If an infantry man decides that it is against his religious beliefs to fight on Saturday, I highly doubt that the army would decide to accommodate him. Similarly the army shouldn’t support a Chaplain that can’t perform all of his duties for religious reasons.

Military chaplains isn’t a subset of the mlitary? Damn, another one who thinks that oral sex isn’t sex… why is it usually the same people who thinks gays shouldn’t have sex with each other, when by their definitions they can’t?

I think the Roman Catholic Church and Southern Baptist Convention are perfectly free to issue such directives. Any military chaplain who follows them is perfectly free to go to their church for all of their pay and benefits instead of the federal government.

You minister to the army you have, not the army you wish you had.

I think this should be a huge problem for military chaplains. Part of the job is providing services to all soldiers. If they aren’t prepared to do that, then they should resign their commissions and pursue other endeavors.

I’ve always found the idea of Catholic priests, who aren’t allowed to be married giving marital advice quite silly.

The actual text of the directive may be found at the following site:
http://www.milarch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=dwJXKgOUJiIaG&b=8486699&ct=13291849

The prohibition on blessing or witnessing of a same sex union is to be expected. A priest acts as the witness for the church while the couple are the actual celebrants of the sacrament of matrimony. Since the church does not recognize same sex marriage, there is no way for a priest to officiate (witness or bless) at such a ceremony.

The actual text regarding promotions, etc., and burials is

So the priest is not prohibited from attending or even participating in such services as long as he does not refer to the spouse as a spouse. I have no idea what portion of promotion or retirement ceremonies actually involve both a priest and a spouse, so I do not know how often the situation even arises.

The rules on burial are harsh.

The military archdiocese is probably the most conservative organization in the U.S. Catholic church (aside from the diocese of Lincoln, NE and the archdiocese of St. Paul, MN), so I am not surprised.

Nope. Never happen. On the other hand, it took some effort, but it was possible to get kosher c-rations.