WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (RNS) -- A former chaplain with the U.S. Navy who charges that
military supervisors discriminated against him for theological reasons
is hoping an upcoming federal court decision will lead to his
reinstatement.
Lawyers for Phil Veitch of Jacksonville, N.C., say he was accused by
Roman Catholic and Episcopal chaplains overseeing his work of preaching
"nonpluralism" in a Navy chapel in Naples, Italy, and charge he was
forced to resign because he refused to stop preaching about his
conservative Christian beliefs.
"Pluralism means you respect all other faith groups ... but your own
constitutional rights are not abridged in your own forum," Veitch, an
evangelical Christian who left the Navy in September, said in an
interview. "They surely were in mine. And a devious and slippery notion
of pluralism has arisen which in effect ends up neutering and defanging
constitutional privileges."
His case is one of several in an ongoing controversy that pits the
U.S. Navy against evangelical and mostly nonliturgical members of its
chaplain corps.
On Feb. 9, a District of Columbia federal judge heard arguments in
the case. Veitch's lawyers are hoping to obtain a preliminary injunction
that will lead to Veitch's reinstatement pending a full trial.
The Navy is not commenting on the specifics of the cases against it
by the chaplains.
"It's pending resolution and it would be inappropriate to comment on
it at this time," Cmdr. Betsy Bird, spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy said
when asked about the Veitch case.
Since the court hearing, Veitch's lawyers have begun collecting
statements from those who attended chapel services at naval facilities
in Naples.
"When Phil Veitch was removed from the pulpit for failure to preach
pluralism among religions ... it didn't just impact him, it impacted the
hundreds of members of the Protestant chapel congregation at Naples,"
said Steve Aden, one of Veitch's lawyers and chief litigation counsel at
the Rutherford Institute in Charlottesville, Va.
"They lost their leader, their spiritual leader. They lost their
pastor."
He hopes the court will decide about Veitch's reinstatement within a
month.
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