Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. FLEMING. Madam Chairman, the amendment before you today holds the Department of Defense to current accepted DOD policy and standards when appointing military chaplains. It maintains the status quo, which has been well accepted for decades, if not centuries. My amendment affirms the spiritual role of chaplains in the U.S. armed services, preserving the integrity of the U.S. Chaplain Corps.

I want to thank Representatives Jim Bridenstine and James Lankford for their cosponsorship of this amendment. This amendment was adopted last year during the House's consideration of DOD appropriations on a bipartisan basis, although it was ultimately dropped from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014. I would urge my colleagues to support its passage again today.

Chaplains by definition are ministers for spiritual needs to people of secular institutions. They are equipped to do so because, like many other professionals requiring a certain skill set, chaplains possess a belief in God or a spiritual world view. Chaplains are experienced in their field, educationally qualified, and are willing to serve and attend to the spiritual needs of all members of the armed services, regardless of whether or not that soldier, sailor, airman, or marine shares the same faith as that of the chaplain.

Current DOD guidelines requires that the candidates be endorsed by a ``qualified religious organization'' whose primary function is to perform religious ministries to a nonmilitary lay constituency and which holds tax-exempt status as a church.

Faith and spiritual leadership are integral and inseparable from the institution of the Chaplain Corps. It would be difficult for an individual lacking in any faith to be appointed as a military chaplain without first dismantling the purpose of the chaplaincy and making significant changes to the DOD policy.

Madam Chairman, it is an oxymoron to have a secular person attached to a secular institution as a chaplain. How can that person minister to the spiritual needs of others? Even so, there continues to be a movement to appoint atheist chaplains in the military. Such individuals reject the very existence of God, a deity, or even a spiritual world view, and thus an atheist chaplain would not serve any identifiable need for servicemembers that is not already currently being met with the Armed Forces.

There are a host of other nonspiritual services available to support people in a nonfaith context, including social workers, psychologists, and counselors. Through Military OneSource and the Military and Family Life Counselor Programs, servicemembers can receive temporary and confidential counseling services from a licensed professional without any attachment to their records. In addition to these services, military chaplains can stand ready to faithfully and respectfully serve all servicemembers with any resources they might need, regardless of whether the individual shares the chaplain's faith.

My amendment would prevent DOD from making changes to its longstanding appointment process that could undermine the integrity of the chaplaincy and interfere with the chaplain's responsibility to meet the religious needs of our brave men and women in uniform.

I would like to thank the Family Research Council and the Chaplain Alliance for their support of this amendment, and urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this amendment.

Madam Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. FLEMING. It is interesting. The gentleman argues that--amazingly--somehow a chaplain is not going to be open to serving the spiritual needs of all, whether they be gay or otherwise.

There is nothing in this amendment that says anything about the choice of one's sexual partner whatsoever. In fact, remember that we already have in our chaplaincy Wiccans, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Many of those accept same-sex marriages.

This argument that the gentleman makes is for another debate, not for this one. This deals purely with atheism. It is very interesting because the scene is that, on the battlefield, you have a chaplain who is serving the spiritual needs of a dying soldier and the soldier asks the chaplain: What happens now? What happens after my death?

The answer from the atheist chaplain is: There is nothing for you after death.

That is really a very disturbing thought, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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