Chaplaincy’s Christian-Only Entry Policy Stirs Criticism

For going on 25 years, they’ve been this city’s shoulder to cry on.

Through murder, fire and flood, the Law Enforcement Chaplaincy-Sacramento has been there to serve anyone needing calm in a crisis, no matter their race or creed.

So it came as a shock in this government town, which prides itself on a polyglot populace, that the chaplaincy has a rigid, exclusionary entry policy that allows only devout followers of Jesus Christ.

Both the county and city, which help fund the nonprofit group, are threatening to pull financial aid and support for the chaplaincy, which has access to crime scenes and victims not afforded other groups. Religious leaders are also upset, with local Jews and Muslims calling for the group to open up its ranks or get out of the business.

“It’s an embarrassing stain on our otherwise excellent reputation as a community,” said Rabbi Brad Bloom of Congregation B’nai Israel, a venerable temple established in 1849. “This is bad public policy and not good moral policy either. It’s not what America stands for.”

Even the harshest critics of the policy have nothing but good to say about the chaplaincy’s performance on the streets. Last year, the group’s 90 volunteers and two full-time chaplains went on more than 1,200 calls. And although its membership is restricted to Christians, the group has taken pains through the years never to foist religious beliefs on others.

Instead, its role has been to offer comforting words and provide human warmth.

“You can’t even tell what faith we are,” said Mindi Russell, the chaplaincy’s executive director. “We’re out there to help people get through the worst times of their life, not to proselytize.”

So far, the group is noncommittal about making changes. Russell said its board of directors, which includes officers in the Sacramento Police and Sheriff’s departments, is considering whether to make changes or risk ending its quarter-century association with the community’s law enforcement agencies.

“Every board member,” she said, “is basically seeking the direction God wants us to go in.”

Episcopal Priest Ignited Controversy

The controversy erupted because of the moral pangs of a man of God.

The Rev. James Richardson, a priest at the multicultural Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Sacramento, applied for a spot with the chaplaincy a few months ago. When he got the application papers, Richardson was shocked to discover that he would be required to sign two documents that amounted to Christian loyalty oaths.

A “statement of faith” asks that volunteers embrace as a condition of membership the belief that the Bible “fully reveals the will of God concerning man in all things necessary to salvation and Christian living.” The separate “code of ethics” includes among its dozen caveats the stipulation that volunteers accept the program as a Christian ministry and avoid “joining in marriage improper persons,” a reference to gay unions.

To Richardson, it all stood in stark contrast to the unity the community had long demonstrated, from the outpouring of support for Jewish congregations hit by arson fires in 1999 to the multidenominational gathering of Christians, Muslims and Jews after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“It was quite clear: If you were Jewish or Buddhist or Sikh or Muslim, please do not apply,” Richardson said. “But that does not reflect the diversity of our community.”

He wrote the chaplaincy to express his dismay, but made no headway. His worries then percolated onto the front page of the Sacramento Bee, where Richardson had worked as a reporter before quitting to become a priest in the late 1990s.

Local politicians said they were taken aback, professing that they had no notion of the chaplaincy’s Christian-only entry policy.

“The contract they’re asking volunteers to sign is plainly inappropriate,” said Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo. She said the chaplaincy’s entry requirements not only are an insult to non-Christians, but also to gays, a solid presence in Sacramento’s leafy downtown neighborhoods.

Sheriff Lou Blanas, who has in the past called the chaplaincy a “model program” for its tireless efforts, was irked. He essentially gave the group two options: Change its ways or go away.

“We’ve been extremely pleased with the service they’ve provided the community and our officers,” said Sgt. James Lewis, a sheriff’s spokesman. “But we’re an agency that represents every member of the community. They should be too.”

The chaplaincy’s covenants run counter to the ecumenical entry requirements in most departments, according to David DeRevere, executive director of the International Conference of Police Chaplains. The dispute has undermined the credibility of a program that had been well-respected nationally, he said, adding: “This could jeopardize their whole effort.”

In Los Angeles, the Police Department’s in-house chaplaincy features members who are Catholic, Protestant and Jewish. The multiethnic Orange County city of Garden Grove is a picture of diversity, featuring Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish and Christian police chaplains.

Aside from appearances, Sacramento officials worried about the legality of the group’s restrictive entry policy. Both the city and county have antidiscrimination provisions with all providers of contract services, but somehow the chaplaincy had slipped under the radar.

The Sacramento chaplaincy gets $16,000 annually from the city and $32,000 from the county, as well as a pair of cars. More than half the group’s $300,000 annual budget comes from payroll donations from local law enforcement officers.

Typically, Russell said, the chaplains use their own vehicles to go on emergency calls in off hours while working a normal 40-hour week in another profession. She said the volunteers “pay for their own pagers, pay for their own gas, take time away from their families to do this.”

Comforting Survivors of Mass Murders

When the city was jolted recently by two incidents of mass murder in a matter of weeks, the chaplains were out in force. About 18 chaplains helped survivors after Nikolay Soltys’ arrest on suspicion of a knife-wielding rampage that claimed the lives of six family members. Just days later, they were soothing the raw nerves of survivors of a 24-hour shooting spree by 20-year-old Joseph Ferguson that claimed half a dozen victims.

Rabbi Bloom has seen the chaplains at work, and has been impressed. After the arson fires, which hit Congregation B’nai Israel and two other temples, the chaplains helped salve nerves for congregants, he said.

But in a pluralistic society, government “cannot ever endorse an organization that discriminates based on religion,” he added.

Russell said the group’s membership requirements have been part of its charter since its start in 1977. She said it was a way “to get started with people having the same values and foundation. Obviously, in the 21st century, those things now are concerns and they have to be addressed.”

On the street, she said, the group has already taken pains to bring in other religious leaders when needed. It sought out a Buddhist monk, for instance, when helping crime victims among the community’s large Southeast Asian population.

“They’ve done a superb job of caring for people in some of the worst traumas,” said the Rev. Dexter McNamara of Sacramento’s Interfaith Service Bureau. “But they need to be more inclusive. There’s a little sand in that oyster right now.”