The Navy Went Too Far': Military Move That's Being Dubbed a 'Major' Constitutional Violation Just Spawned the Most Stunning Alliance

There's a religious liberty battle raging at the Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois, that has two men who almost never agree on the most contentious of First Amendment debates coming together like never before.

Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and Dr. Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, released a joint statement last week claiming that the "Navy went too far and is clearly in violation of the Constitutional religious liberty rights" by telling a civilian faith leader that he could no longer lead religious services on the premises.

That leader, John Chantry, 72, a Druid, appeared along with Weinstein on The Church Boys podcast recently, where Chantry described his removal from the Navy boot camp, and both men expressed fears that minority faith adherents aren't having their spiritual needs met.

"The problem … is that this is a major violation of at least three parts of the U.S. Constitution … the Equal Protection of the Fifth Amendment, no Establishment of the First amendment and creating a religious test of Clause Three, Article Six," Weinstein proclaimed, adding that Buddhists, Unitarian Universalists and Christian Scientists, among others, are also impacted by the new-found "unconstitutional" regulations.

Listen to Chantry and Weinstein below (segment starts at 38:40):

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Chantry added, "Our concern is for the recruits who want to practice any religion they choose for themselves." 

At the heart of the matter are minority religions like Chantry's that do not have faith leaders readily available within the ranks. As a Druid, he said that his faith espouses "a love of nature," going on to briefly explain what he believes.

"[We seek] to recapture the sense of sacredness and holiness that there is in nature that our ancient ancestors once had," Chantry said of Druids. "There is no set of doctrines and so people are free to conceptualize and worship divinity in their own manner, so that I — as a Christian Druid — [am] able to worship our Lord in the same way as other Christians do, but our Lord also in nature, having a sense when I go out into the woods … that I am walking with God."

Chantry said that he received notification on April 3, that the religious gatherings he has hosted for between 75 and 250 recruits over the past three years would no longer be allowed under his leadership, though this was reportedly not the first time that the rules recently changed.

He said that his relationship with the Navy boot camp was first altered last May when he was told that he would no longer be running religious education courses and would have a shorter period to conduct services.

"Initially, when we began we provided services about an hour and a half or two hours on Friday evenings, and we also were involved in providing a religious education class on Sunday morning," he said. "That changed to being restricted as of last May to providing only the Earth-centered service for 50 minutes on Sunday morning and no more religious education."

As TheBlaze previously reported, the issue hinged on the fact that Chantry was a civilian volunteer. Chantry said that the military made it known that they preferred chaplains, contracted personnel or uniform active duty members to be leading services, officially implementing that change with the April 3 email.

"[They told us] we were being relieved of our responsibilities … and that the Navy was at that time going to be seeking out uniformed personnel to lead those services," he said. 

So far, though, the Druid leader said that relevant faith leaders haven't yet been found, and that he’s worried that the amended rules that seemingly take aim at volunteers from outside of the military will harm followers of his faith who — before heading to Recruit Training Command — didn’t have others to speak with about their beliefs.

If a uniformed chaplain is not available, Navy regulations call for a registered military member, a contracted chaplain or, at last resort, a civilian volunteer; the recent changes at the Recruit Training Command were apparently taken to more closely comply with this mandate.

The base's commanding officer Capt. Douglas Pfeifle shared this sentiment in an April 30 letter to Weinstein, claiming that there have been no complaints from recruits over the newfound policy and that the unit is working to find faith leaders as requested.

But Weinstein — who is joined by Crews as an unlikely partner — isn't backing down.

"Professionally [Crews and me] are always at odds, but not this time," Weinstein told The Church Boys. "I'm getting some amazing emails and calls … saying, 'Is this actually happening? Are you guys actually together on this?'" 

Read more about the story here.

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