The increasing number of evangelical Christians in the military chaplain corps is once again creating controversy. On Tuesday the New York Times published a feature story on the trend and evangelical Navy chaplains have filed a lawsuit claiming they've been discriminated against.
From 1994 to 2005, Air Force chaplains from the Full Gospel Fellowship of Churches and Ministries International rose from none to 10, and the Church of the Nazarene's chaplains went from 6 to 12.
At the same time, Roman Catholic chaplains declined from 167 to 94, while more liberal, mainline Protestant churches also saw a decrease – for example, Methodist chaplains dipped from 64 to 50.
Religious leaders attribute the change in the chaplain corps to various factors, including a shortage of Catholic priests, the liberal denominations' unease regarding military interventions overseas, and evangelicals' general support for the military.
Out of 280,000 men and women in the Air Force, there are 1,794 members of the Assemblies of God, 597 from the Church of the Nazarene and 108 from the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
But there are about 60,000 Roman Catholics, 1,600 who say they are atheists, 50,000 who have no religious preference – and even 3,500 who say they are either Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, pagans, druids or shamans.
In fact, some evangelical chaplains in the Navy say they are the ones being discriminated against. Fifty of them have filed a class action suit against the Navy charging they were dismissed or denied promotions.
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