See #37.
I will challenge the fact that the majority were liberals from liberal denominations. Most Chiefs of Chaplains will have been Catholic, due to their greater proportion of the force.
The only denomination I would describe as a liberal denomination that is over-represented in the chaplaincy for no good reason that I can see is ELCA, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.
It is possible that the ELCA filters their candidates so well that they send forward only the smartest and most physically fit in the entire denomination. That would mean that the other prong of promotion is affected: how you get rated by your NON-RELIGIOUS, military commanders.
They rate you on work efficiency, ability, physical fitness, military knowledge, etc.
The military commander, and not a chaplain, is generally the rater and senior rater of any chaplain. If they can’t perform with distinction at the unit level, then any discussion of doctrinal distinctives is ABSOLUTELY MOOT. They would be failing at military skills in the eyes of people like Schwarzkopf, Thompson, etc. If you have bad paper in your file from your commanders, then hang it up. You are yesterday’s news.
We can get into semantics and spend 50 posts defining terms. I used the term because that is how they defined the different denominations in the article.
Also, from the article:
"The fact is this success rate … is statistically significantly higher [by two standard deviations using a simple binomial test] than the … success rate which was experienced by the candidates who differed from the chief of chaplains," said Leuba, who has performed statistical analysis for a dozen businesses and agencies, including the Navy and the plaintiffs.
I am not a statistician by trade, but from a layman's perspective it does seem that there has been discrimination.
If a chaplain is passed over for promotion how does that affect his career and benefits?
Again, thank you so much for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!