There’s a huge take-out on the conflicts and controversies in the military over chaplains in the Washington Post today. I’m ignorant about too much to offer much by way of analysis, except to say it sounds like the Pentagon is taking the issue(s) seriously and responding responsibly.

But there are two items I found particularly interesting. First, there’s a sidebar on a Rabbi who has been charged with desertion. He claims he went to Canada becaue of the rabidly anti-Semitic environment he was subjected to. Read it yourself, but it seems pretty clear to me that he’s lying. His story just doesn’t scan and the way the story is written, it seems the author doesn’t buy it either. The Rabbi claims that he was told by a superior chaplain, “Rabbi, if you want to survive down here, this is the South, and you’d better forget you are a [expletive] Yankee rabbi from up north.” Sorry, but that sounds just a bit too Hollywood for me. He also says another chaplain showed off Nazi uniforms for his benefit. Seems to me that’s a checkable assertion.

Second, there’s a chart (I couldn’t find it on the web) in which they show the breakdown of the various denominations among chaplains. At the bottom it lists the faiths which have no chaplains. It includes Buddhists, Wicca and atheists. Does anyone know what an atheist chaplain would, like, be? Do psychiatrists not count?