Today's Washington Post reports on an army chaplain who was ordered out of Iraq and removed from the chaplain corps -- on a technicality-- as he attempted to change his affiliation from a Pentecostal Christian church to a Wiccan Congregation. Donald M. Larsen entered the chaplain corps under the endorsement of the Full Gospel Churches. When that church learned of Larsen's application to change endorsements to the Wiccan Sacred Well Congregation, it quickly pulled his endorsement. The Sacred Well could not step in immediately because it was still awaiting certification as an official endorser. The gap led the Army to pull Larsen's chaplaincy appointment.
The Post reports: "Jim Ammerman, a retired Army colonel who is president and founder of the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches, acknowledges that there is a longstanding agreement among endorsers not to summarily pull the papers of a chaplain who wants to make a valid switch. 'But if it's not a valid thing, all bets are off,' Ammerman says, adding that Wiccans 'run around naked in the woods' and 'draw blood with a dagger' in their ceremonies. 'You can't do that in the military. It's against good order and discipline.'" [Thanks to Prof. Steven Jamar via Religionlaw listserv for the lead.]
