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Conspiracy Theorist Military Chaplains Promote Anti-American Militia Activity
For those who don't remember the story of Gordon Klingenschmitt, he's the ex-chaplain who made headlines a few years ago for his publicity stunts for Jesus, such as holding a hunger strike over military chaplains being able to pray in Jesus' name. Klingenschmitt claimed, and continues to claim, that he was booted out of the Navy because of the form of his prayers, when, in reality, he deliberately got himself court-martialed by disobeying a direct order not to appear in uniform at a political rally, an activity that is strictly prohibited by military regulations. But, Klingenschmitt needed to get himself court-martialed in order to embark on his new career as a martyr, and seizing the opportunity to disobey this direct order would do the trick, so he did it. So, here's how Gordon Klingenschmitt led MRFF into the astonishing story that follows. About a month ago, both MRFF and Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) began receiving a lot of emails about Klingenscmitt using a photo of himself in his Navy uniform and identifying himself as "Chaplain" in order to promote political causes and solicit money, a perceivable violation of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, so MRFF and AU decided to issue a joint letter to the Chief of Naval Operations requesting an investigation into Klingenschmitt's current activities. This letter led Klingenschmitt to do two things. One was to issue an imprecatory prayer calling on his followers to essentially pray for the deaths of AU's Barry Lynn and MRFF's Mikey Weinstein and their families. The other was to post a very strange disclaimer on his website, in which he called Lynn and Weinstein "bone-heads," and defended his right to call himself "Chaplain," stating that he has a current endorsement as a "Chaplain and Evangelist to America" from the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (CFGC). It was this statement that led MRFF to take a closer look at the CFGC, a chaplain endorsing agency headed by retired Army colonel and chaplain Jim Ammerman, and authorized by the Department of Defense to provide the ecclesiastical endorsement required by the military for all military chaplains, with several hundred of its chaplains currently serving in all branches of the military. Right off the bat, MRFF found the expected stuff -- which alone provides ample reason to demand that the DoD to revoke the chaplain endorsing authority of Jim Ammerman and the CFGC. CFGC should be disqualified as an endorsing agency because of its repeated denigration of all other religions and Christian denominations that aren't Charismatic or Pentecostal, which is completely contrary to Department of Defense Instruction Number 1304.28. They go after Muslims, Wiccans, and other minority religions, of course. For example, the CFGC's September 2006 newsletter included an article titled "Can a Good Muslim be a Good American?," which gave 10 reasons why the answer is "no," including:
Based on reasons such as these, the article concludes that: "Therefore after much study and deliberation, perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. They obviously cannot be both 'good' Muslims and good Americans." And, Jim Ammerman was also the chaplain endorser who revoked the CFGC endorsement of Don Larsen, the chaplain who converted from Christianity to Wicca. Endorsing agencies have an agreement to keep the current endorsement of a chaplain who is converting to another religion in effect while the chaplain is in the process of obtaining their endorsement from their new religion or denomination, but CFGC refused to extend this courtesy in the case of Chaplain Larsen. This is what Ammerman said about Wicca and Chaplain Larsen, from a Washington Post article by Alan Cooperman.
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