Here is what I know about services on military installations:
1. The basic function of the chaplaincy is to provide religious support for the entire military.
2. On any given installation, the commander is responsible for the religious program and that commander’s senior chaplain is responsible for conducting that program.
3. In the US military, there will never be enough chaplains of every denomination to cover all of the troops of every denomination. Therefore, on some installations, the staff chaplain/commander’s chaplain must arrange for other means of support.
4. In the past, that has included contract ministers/priests, and volunteer ministers/priests.
Given the ruling that volunteers are not permitted, that is a blatant violation of the commander’s responsibility to provide a religious program. There can be no requirement that a commander must provide a financial contract if financial resources are not available. Commanders are not permitted to deficit spend
That requirement to provide a religious program, though, is a matter of military regulation and the US Code.
My experience says that this is an unlawful directive by the president.
WOW! Thanks for your input. He never has minded breaking the law.
I might have even used my assets to provide security for the priests who wanted to say mass.
Thanks for your post and ping.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all that this CinC would issue an unlawful directive, even knowing full well it is unlawful.
[xzinx wrote: “My experience says that this is an unlawful directive by the president.”]
I fully agree. The problem is this “character” (trying to be nice) makes up the rules as he goes along, or so it seems to me!
Sadly, the news media is making it sound like it is military chaplains, when, in reality, it is the civilian contractors!