A group of military chaplains is calling for a senior Army chaplain to be disciplined for sharing a book from an evangelical pastor on his military email.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a mission statement supporting a strict separation of church and state in the U.S. military, wrote a letter on Wednesday to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, asking that Col. Moon H. Kim, a senior chaplain, be punished for sharing evangelical pastor John Piper’s latest e-book, Coronavirus and Christ.
“His sending of this book was clearly meant as a full-fledged endorsement and validation of what the book espouses and proclaims. Thus, in CLEAR effect, especially to the recipients of his shocking e-mail, Chaplain (Colonel) Kim is likewise endorsing and validating the very same dictates as established by the author of this book,” wrote Michael Weinstein, the group’s president, on behalf of those chaplains who complained.
The letter takes issue with a specific portion of Piper’s book that asserts God issues specific judgments on people for particular sins and references “homosexual intercourse” as an example whereby God gives specific punishment.
“Another example is the sin of homosexual intercourse,” Piper wrote in Chapter 7 of his book. “In Romans 1:27, the apostle Paul says, ‘Men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.’ That ‘due penalty’ is the painful effect ‘in themselves’ of their sin.”
The foundation says Piper, whom it describes as an “ultra conservative/Reformed/evangelical Christian,” puts forward a “deplorable” argument that the coronavirus is being used by God to judge sinners.
“Calamities are God’s previews of what sin deserves and will one day receive in judgment a thousand times worse,” wrote Piper. “They are warnings. They are wake-up calls to see the moral horror and spiritual ugliness of sin against God.”
The foundation argued in the letter that Piper’s views do not represent gay people who believe in mainline or progressive theology, arguing that Kim deserved swift punishment for sharing the book.
“MRFF demands that Army Chaplain (Colonel) Kim be officially, swiftly, aggressively, and visibly investigated and disciplined in punishment for his deplorable actions described above,” the organization wrote.
Though the letter does not mention a specific punishment, Weinstein told the Christian Post that he would like to see Kim subject to court-martial for his sharing of the book.
“The entire world is being ravaged by COVID-19, and he has endorsed a booklet claiming that this is the punishment of God for people who have sinned, which includes gay people,” Weinstein told the outlet. “This not only in violation of the EEO provisions of the Department of Defense, but a ton of other DoD and U.S. Army provisions.”
