Atheist sues to become military's first humanist chaplain

A federal district court judge in Alexandria, Va., heard arguments on Thursday in a lawsuit that may influence whether the U.S. Navy must admit secular atheists as chaplains.

Jason Heap, a member of the Humanist Society and a former Baptist minister, sued the U.S. Navy in November 2014, challenging its rejection of his application to serve as the military’s first humanist chaplain. The lawsuit, which lists both Heap and the Humanist Society as plaintiffs, also seeks to require the Navy to recognize the Humanist Society as a religious body qualified to endorse military chaplains.

“The purpose of the chaplaincy is to provide religious ministry,” said Eric Baxter, senior counsel with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, who attended the hearing but is not officially representing the Navy. “Atheists, militant atheists, they have the same right to be in the military as everyone else and we defend that. But that doesn’t mean they are qualified to serve in every position in the military, and especially as people who mock and reject and ridicule religion, they’re not qualified to provide religious ministry.”

The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which is defending the Navy in the lawsuit, moved for dismissal of the case on the grounds that the military cannot be sued over whom it chooses to fill a particular position.

“You can’t sue the military over who it chooses to be a fighter pilot and who it rejects as a fighter pilot, and it’s the same with the chaplaincy,” Baxter said.

But Heap and the Humanist Society argue in their 62-page complaint that Heap’s sincere belief in the tenets of secular humanism is no different than belief in “traditionally recognized religious views.” They claim he is being discriminated against because of those religious views. The complaint further argues the Humanist Society, as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization “qualified as a church under the Internal Revenue Code,” is a valid religious organization capable of endorsing military chaplains.

The law firm representing Heap and the Humanist Society declined to comment for this story, citing the pending motion for dismissal.

The central issue in the case, according to Baxter, revolves around the definition of what constitutes “religion.”

“They want to define religion so broadly that, in their words, it includes anything that ‘contributes to human fulfillment,’” he said, arguing that under such a scenario almost any activity could qualify as religious. “If the establishment clause and the free exercise clause are to mean anything, you have to defend the definition of religion.”

Judge James C. Cacheris, appointed to the federal bench in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan, expects to make a ruling in the case by the fall. If the government’s motion to dismiss is not granted, Baxter sees two other possible rulings. One might be the dismissal of the long list of defendants in the lawsuit, which names not only the Navy but individual members of the military in their specific capacities, subjecting them to potential liability for monetary damages.

The judge could also defer a final ruling pending what is called a “limited discovery.”

“[This would] give the parties a limited amount of time to look into, for example, whether the Navy actually has a policy that it will not accept humanists into the chaplaincy, and then from there, decide whether the Humanist Society has actually stated a claim sufficient to go forward,” Baxter said.