Spoiler alert: the conservatives were wrong again!
CNN had a brief article the other day about the Army chaplain corps working on training in preparation for DADT repeal to go into effect. I'm sure y'all remember the claims made by anti-gay bigots during the DADT repeal fiasco, that it would cause chaplains to be unable to exercise their religion and thus abandon the service en masse, right? Well, guess how many chaplains have applied for voluntary separation, now that they're actually training them in how to appropriately counsel and help openly LGB soldiers?
None. That's right, not a single one, according to the spokesman for the chaplain corps. Apparently one did ask for separation before the training began, but since it has, not a single one has asked to leave. Further, no endorsing organizations (military chaplains must be endorsed by a religious group in order to qualify for service as a chaplain, it seems) have threatened to pull their endorsements, which would force their endorsed chaplains to leave the service. The Army chaplain corps has some 2,900 members, and out of that, precisely ONE has left since the repeal bill was signed.
The CNN article is sprinkled with quotes about how the chaplains are basically shrugging and going about their business, already being fairly used to counseling and ministering to members of diverse faith groups, and not seeing this as much of an issue.
Looks like FRC underestimated the maturity and coping capacity of military chaplains. But that's not much of a surprise. I'd hope they're used to being wrong by now; they have so much practice at it, after all.
