If a chaplain preaches against homosexuality, he could conceivably be disciplined as a bigot under the military’s nondiscrimination policy, the retired chaplains say. The Pentagon, however, says chaplains’ religious beliefs and their need to express them will be respected.

Clergy would be ineligible to serve as chaplains if their churches withdraw their endorsements, as some have threatened to do if “don’t ask, don’t tell” ends. Critics of allowing openly gay troops fear that clergy will leave the service or be forced to find other jobs in the military that don’t involve their faiths.

“The bottom line is religious freedom,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. Douglas Lee, one of 65 former chaplains who signed a letter urging President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to keep “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

[…]

Opponents of the ban argue that military chaplains have a different job than ministering to a parish where everyone shares the same beliefs. They must respect all faiths and counsel all service members, from devout Muslims to atheists.

“My heart doesn’t bleed for these chaplains,” said Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. “If you don’t like it, there’s a very simple solution: Fold your uniform, file the paperwork and find something else to do.”

[…]

The Orthodox Church in America, for example, condemns homosexuality and mandates that the appropriate action its ministers should take toward gay people who seek counseling is to steer them to repent and renounce the gay lifestyle.

“If such an attitude were regarded as ‘prejudice’ or the denunciation of homosexuality as ‘hate language,’ or the like, we would be forced to pull out our chaplains from military service,” the church informed the Pentagon in May.

The Catholic Church likewise deems homosexual behavior a sin.

[…]

 Retired Navy chaplain Capt. John Gundlach, a United Church of Christ pastor, supports repealing the policy and doesn’t foresee the problems envisioned by some of his conservative colleagues.

“They may run into some difficulties in not being able to speak out against those who are gay or lesbian in the military, because that would be counter to good order and discipline,” he said. “But chaplains have the right to preach according to their tradition in worship services they hold for those of their own denomination.”

A good military chaplain must minister to everyone, said Diane Mazur, a retired Air Force captain and University of Florida Law Professor who specializes in interaction between civilian and military law. “It’s really very different than in the civilian world, and repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ doesn’t really change that basic difference.”

yes yes, because if military chaplains aren’t allowed to discriminate against gay soldiers, then they’d be living under a sort of don’t ask, don’t tell policy themselves regarding that particular aspect of their faith, and that would just be inhuman and unamerican, wouldn’t it?  WOULDN’T IT?!  meanwhile, all those godless fags can go hang, amirite?

seriously, last i checked, christ’s primary message to mankind was not ‘dudes shall not lie with dudes because EEWWWWW’, it was something more like ‘don’t kill people’.  if chaplains can get past that little hurdle, that their flock is a group of trained killers, they ought to be able to deal with a few gay soldiers who, let’s be honest, probably aren’t going to be expecting much consolation from the church anyways.

never mind the hard right ultra-christian mission that’s attempting to turn the american military into some kind of crusade legion.  they must be apoplectic right now.