The national organization of Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the Army’s inspector general to investigate a Baptist church’s ministry on Fort Leonard Wood, but the Lebanon pastor who runs the ministry says his church has provided a beneficial service to Fort Leonard Wood for nearly 40 years.
Since 1971, residents of St. Robert have seen buses from Tabernacle Baptist Church of Lebanon driving into the area and picking up soldiers for a church-sponsored retreat. While church leaders say the retreat’s religious purpose is clearly announced, Americans United issued a press release Wednesday describing the program as an “outrage” and stating that they’re supporting an earlier complaint against the ministry filed by the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.
Billed for many years as “Free Day Away,” the program gives enlistees in basic training the opportunity to spend part of a day away from their drill sergeants at a high-intensity religious retreat.
That’s not acceptable, according to Americans United, which argues that giving some trainees the opportunity to get away from the training environment is “coercive” and inappropriate.
“Trainees are given the impression that the event is sponsored by the Army and that they must attend. If they do not attend, they have to remain on the base and continue with training, while those who attend the event have a break for the day,” according to the organization.
That’s not necessarily correct, said Fort Leonard Wood spokeswoman Tiffany Wood.
“The first thing we want to point out is that before any initial entry training soldier attends a local religious organization off-post retreat program, the unit leadership of that soldier briefs the soldier to reinforce the following: attendance is entirely voluntary, the program is religious in nature, and that religious services are a component of that retreat program,” Wood said. “Only after the soldier receives that briefing and indicates a desire to attend then that soldier is permitted to partake in the program.”
Wood emphasized that no Army-appropriated funds are used for the Tabernacle Baptist Church program.
“(The church) provides all the logistical support including the transportation and the meals,” Wood said. “The soldiers who choose to be in this program do it at their own volition.”
The Americans United press release stated that during the church service, soldiers are told that they are all sinners who must repent and that they “must be saved now or go to hell.” Soldiers willing to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior are instructed to step into the aisles of the church and enroll in a six-lesson correspondence course that will lead to their “personal salvation.”
Tabernacle Baptist Church pastor Don Ball said the name of the program has recently changed to be known as the “Tabernacle Baptist Church Retreat Program” to more clearly identify its purpose, but he said there’s never been any question about what it was.
“Nobody is coerced; nobody is made to go,” Ball said. “The soldiers, before they come, have attended their chapel that morning. They have to read the piece of paper with all the rules fully disclosing that they will be attending a religious service by a Baptist church. They have to agree, sign and date that before they go.”
Ball said he received many letters — up to 15 a month — from soldiers thanking his church for its ministry during basic training. The church also offers a correspondence course of Bible study to soldiers and assigns church members to pray for soldiers who request prayer.
Americans United senior litigation counsel Alex J. Luchenitser said that’s not a legitimate part of military chaplaincy work or accommodation of off-post religious worship.
“One reason we object to the free day away program is it does not seem to have a purpose of accommodating the religious needs of trainees,” Luchenitser said. “It seems to be enticing soldiers to attend a day of recreation so a church can take the opportunity to proselytize the trainees.”
Providing religious worship is legitimate in contexts such as deployment to a combat zone when soldiers cannot attend a service of their own faith or for situations such as basic training or prison where soldiers cannot go off post to church, Luchenitser said, but the Tabernacle Baptist program goes far beyond those limited roles, he said.
“One of the key legal principles, we think, is a chaplaincy program should not go beyond what is needed to accommodate the military members needs,” Luchenitser said. “An independent group had tried to resolve this with the commander, but apparently the inspector-general at the base found there was not thing wrong with it. So then this group contacted us, they asked us for help. We thought it would be best to take it to the national level and ask the inspector general to investigate this matter.”
Ball said nothing like the Americans United complaint had happened before.
“The saddest thing for me is these folks don’t want to do anything spiritually to assist the soldier in any way; they just want to take away what we are doing without offering any alternative,” Ball said.
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