A few weeks back I mentioned that one option I’m looking at for the future is being a Humanist Chaplain in the military. There is a lot of work to be done to make such a thing even possible and a few hoops that I would have to jump through to qualify if and when it is even an option. I’ve been in contact with Jason Tropy, the President of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, who was featured on the front page of the New York Times yesterday:

In the military, there are more than 3,000 chaplains who minister to the spiritual and emotional needs of active duty troops, regardless of their faiths. The vast majority are Christians, a few are Jews or Muslims, one is a Buddhist. A Hindu, possibly even a Wiccan may join their ranks soon.

But an atheist?

Strange as it sounds, groups representing atheists and secular humanists are pushing for the appointment of one of their own to the chaplaincy, hoping to give voice to what they say is a large — and largely underground — population of nonbelievers in the military.

I highly recommend checking out the full article, it brings up a lot of the issues facing atheists in the military as well as some of the possibly legitimate concerns about atheist chaplains.

The idea of being a chaplain is nothing new to me. When I was the in seminary I was about half way through the application process for an appointment as a Chaplain Candidate with the US Army when I halted the process due to my exceedingly high levels of doubt and cognitive dissonance. I was even briefly president of the campus’ chaplains club.

As Jason points out in the article, a humanist chaplain providing support for a Christian would be no different than a Christian chaplain providing support for a Jew or a Jewish chaplain providing support for a Muslim. So I think serving in that capacity would certainly be doable. More important, it would be beneficial for the atheists that are currently serving in the military. Imagine a flood of atheist…er…Humanist chaplains being commissioned into the chaplain corps of our Armed Forces, advising commanders, influencing policy, and winning over their colleagues to providing actual support and equality to the atheists in the ranks. Wouldn’t that be awesome!

Where it get’s tricky is that the requirement is that a chaplain must belong to a faith group. Atheists and Humanists certainly don’t meet that requirement. The problem isn’t with atheists though, it’s with the antiquated requirement. It could easily be argued that Buddhists and Unitarians aren’t actually part of “faith groups,” but both have chaplains. The requirement should be updated to a more inclusive “faith group or philosophical tradition.” Odds are that such a change would require an act of congress. As strange as it sounds, it would be a lot easier to get Humanism recognized as a “faith group.” This rubs me the wrong way, but I think I could live with it.

I’m not the only one on Jason’s list of “candidates.” Fortunately many are much closer to qualifying. For me, a commission as a Chaplain Candidate would be at least three years off, as a full fledged chaplain, we’re looking at more like five or six years. Fortunately I have some primary and secondary contacts that could be of use in getting the ball rolling, including a retired US Army Colonel who is a denominational enforcer, and two retired flag officers (US Navy Rear Admirals) all from various chaplain corps. Hopefully Adventists, as champions of religious liberty and the separation of church and state, would also support this.

At this point, this kind of press is certainly a step in the right direction.