LGBT Advisers Appointed for Canadian Military’s Chaplain Service to Promote ‘Diversity and Inclusion’

A Canadian flag is seen on a Canadian Armed Forces member’s uniform in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Lars Hagberg

The Canadian military has appointed LGBT advisers to serve in its chaplain service to promote “diversity and inclusion” within the armed forces, says a federal briefing note on Dec. 6.

“We have established senior advisor positions including an indigenous and LGBTQ advisor to Chaplain General to raise awareness, education and innovate,” said the note “Military Chaplains,” obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.

The advisers were to “further provide diversity and inclusion within the Chaplain Service,” said the note, according to the media outlet.

“Chaplains provide a ‘safe place’ for members to be themselves,” the note added. “The Royal Canadian Chaplain Service’s primary goal is the care of all our members and their families. Canadian Armed Forces chaplains work for the person in front of them at any given moment.”

The appointment came shortly after a report announced on April 25, 2022 by a cabinet-appointed panel that proposed to ban the hiring of “spiritual guides or multi-faith representatives Chaplaincy applicants affiliated with religious groups whose values are not aligned with those of the Defence Team.”

“Some chaplains represent or are affiliated with organized religions whose beliefs are not synonymous with those of a diverse and inclusive workplace,” said the Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination in their “Final Report,” written in January 2022.

“Some of the affiliated religions of these chaplains do not subscribe to an open attitude and the promotion of diversity.”

The report said churches which practice the “exclusion of women from their priesthoods” violate the principles of “equality and social justice.” It went on to say “sexist notions” were embedded in their dogmas.

“The same scrutiny should be applied to those religions that forbid women to serve within their ranks or are against equal rights for same-sex couples,” the report said.

The federal government had withheld the report for months before publishing it. “Work is underway to assess the implications of the Advisory Panel’s recommendations including those on the Canadian Armed Forces chaplaincy,” the briefing note said.

Specifically, the panel report proposed “re-defining chaplaincy,” which among its several recommendations, includes ensuring that the chaplains selected have an “intrinsic appreciation for diversity and a willingness to challenge one’s beliefs.”

The four-member panel said in the report that “religion can be a source of suffering,” particularly to “many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and two-spirited members of Canadian society.”

“There are varying degrees of misogyny, sexism and discrimination woven into the philosophies and beliefs of some mainstream religions currently represented in the cadre of chaplains in the CAF [Canadian Armed Forces],” the panel wrote.

“The Defence Team cannot consider itself supportive of inclusivity when it employs as chaplains members of organizations whose values are not consistent with National Defence’s ethics and values—even if those members express non-adherence to the policies of their chosen religion.”

Responses

Cardus, a Canadian Christian think tank, responded to the federal announcement four days later, calling the panel’s recommendations “extremely troubling” and “explicitly prejudiced.”

Referring to the comment that the belief of certain religions “are not synonymous with those of a diverse and inclusive workplace,” the think tank said the panel members showed “thinly veiled hostility” to Abrahamic religions.

“It shows gross ignorance of the teachings of these faiths and presents caricatures of their adherents as violators of equality and social justice,” said Cardus’ letter addressed to Defence Minister Anita Anand on April 29, 2022.

“This defamatory language goes so far as to equate adherents of monotheistic religions with racism. In a constitutional democracy, it is wholly outside the scope of the state to make judgements on the truth claims of any religion or the attitudes of their adherents.”

On the claim that “misogyny, sexism and discrimination” were ingrained in the “philosophies and beliefs” of particular religions, Cardus said it displayed “a deep ignorance and unfounded prejudice” of various religious traditions.

“The state’s role is to ensure that all religious communities are protected from this kind of intrusion, not to engage in such intrusion themselves,” the letter said.

Cardus is not the only organization that expressed its concerns. Marvin Rotrand, national director of the League of Human Rights at B’nai Brith Canada, the country’s oldest independent Jewish organization, told Christianity Today last July that the panel report “is pushing a form of intolerance and bigotry.”

“It’s not up to the authors of this report to tell the Jewish community what it should believe and how it should believe that,” he said in the interview. “We don’t need their approval.”