WASHINGTON — The Navy is investigating whether superior officers retaliated against a Southern Baptist chaplain who discussed a religious discrimination lawsuit on a television news show.
Lt. Cmdr. David Wilder’s complaint to the Navy’s inspector general contends a high-ranking officer tried last year to have criminal charges brought against him after he discussed the lawsuit on Fox News Channel in 2002.
Officials never brought charges but did order Wilder not to talk to reporters while in uniform, said his lawyer, Arthur Schulcz.
Wilder’s complaint says he also received a poor job evaluation and a demotion to a junior officer’s assignment months after the interview.
"You put all those things together and it looks like retaliation," said Schulcz, the Virginia lawyer representing Wilder and other plaintiffs in the discrimination case.
Schulcz said Navy investigators have interviewed Wilder as part of their probe of his complaint.
Marine Sgt. Spencer Harris, a spokesman at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where Wilder works, said, "A complaint was initiated and is being looked into." He would not comment on details.
Schulcz contended the officer who demanded a criminal probe of Wilder after his TV appearance was Rear Adm. Louis Iasiello, now the Navy’s chief of chaplains.
Wilder is one of dozens of evangelical Protestant chaplains suing the Navy, claiming the chaplain corps discriminates against evangelicals and in favor of Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant chaplains. The plaintiffs say evangelicals were passed over for promotions, ordered to change their worship services and drummed out of the Navy.
The Navy denies the discrimination claims.
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