Posted on 08/24/2011 4:27:20 PM PDT by wmfights
I don't know why you keep going back to the RC's. They are not the only liberal denomination that has had a chief of chaplains. The article is arguing that the it is the denomination of the chief of chaplains that is the main factor.
I keep going back to RC’s because they are the prime example of the EXCEPTIONs to strict competition that are allowed by the board.
There are other EXCEPTIONS that the board is permitted to make. If the chief of chaplains is on the board, and his group is permitted an EXCEPTION, then don’t you think it’s likely that he’ll insist on that exception being factored in?
I'm sure there is some deference given to the chief. Are the chief's typically self oriented so a disproportionate number of chaplains of his denomination are promoted?
Your comment suggests to me that I am doing a poor job of explaining the issues to you.
If the Army had 4 people eligible for promotion who had exactly equal records and could only promote 2 of them, because tells them how many they can promote, then one would think it would be entirely random.
However, the board can be told that they can give special consideration to anyone who is fluent in Arabic. Let’s say they can also give special consideration to anyone who is Female.
Let’s say that 1 of the 4 speaks Arabic and a different one of the 4 is female.
Which 2 would you guess will get promoted?
IF the Chief of Chaplains is a Catholic 1 out of 3 times, and a mainline is 1 out of 3, and an evangelical is 1 out of 3, then one would think that would be the end of the story.
But, the board is allowed to give special consideration to anyone who is a priest (because there are so few of them) and to anyone who baptizes babies (because there are so few of them).
Now, iff in a board of 472 chaplains, 28 chaplains are priests, and the Chief if a Catholic, is it UNFAIR that 22 of 28 priests are promoted, given that the board has LEGAL orders to give special consideration to priests?
Not at all. I understand why the military would want to have enough chaplains to service their distinct denominations. Is the chief always of the least represented denomination?
A Catholic chief is not of the least represented denomination. He is of the denomination that should have the most slots but has only a third of them.
If such a person were in my sphere of duty and influence, I would begin teaching that soldier the word of God. I would form Bible studies for this purpose.
You stated that chaplains are "degreed" which can be as much a negative as a positive.
Chaplains are Bible scholars? When I was a three month old Christian I was acquainted with more buck sergeants who were Bible scholars than there were chaplains on Homestead AFB at that time.
What I said was that your chaplain could be a counselor, a bible scholar, etc. It is certainly possible that yours was trained more as a counselor than as a biblical scholar, but I’ll put the biblical chaplain I know against anyone who can be thrown against them.
I realize that you had a bad experience, but that doesn’t make all chaplains bad chaplains. Personally, I think that chaplain was wrong for attempting to get you to consume alcohol in violation of your standards.
At the same time, I recognize that many denominations accept the moderate consumption of alcohol and many don’t.
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