Conservative groups predict tight restrictions on chaplains’ religious speech if the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” law is overturned, with some evangelical Christian groups contemplating pulling their ministers out of the ranks.

“The approved gospel will be a politically correct gospel,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a Christian lobbying group that deals with marriage and family issues. “If chaplains are limited in the moral teachings they can present [because of a repeal], you will see orthodox Christian chaplains leaving the military.”

Religious leaders in and outside the military doubted those predictions.

Air Force Chief of Chaplains Maj. Gen. Cecil Richardson said he thinks a repeal will be a “difficult transition,” but “I don’t know a single chaplain who wants to get out because of that issue.”

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The careers of many if not most military chaplains will end if the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy against open homosexual service is overturned, more than 40 retired military chaplains contend in an April 28 letter to President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The letter warned that reversing the policy will negatively impact religious freedom and could even affect military readiness and troop levels because the military would be marginalizing “deeply held” religious beliefs.

Military chaplains, the retired chaplains said, “are integral to maintaining high morale.”

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