In a major victory for religious liberty, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs has vindicated a chaplain who was wrongly punished for preaching a sermon on a chapter of the Bible his supervisor labeled “divisive”, reversed a Pennsylvania VA hospital’s effort to censor chaplains’ religious speech, and protected the rights of chaplains nationwide.
Chaplain Russell “Rusty” Trubey, a respected Army Reserve and VA hospital chaplain and former missionary, delivered a sermon based on Romans 1 during a chapel service at the Coatesville VA Medical Center, where he had served faithfully for nearly a decade. Shortly afterward, Chaplain Trubey was confronted by VA police because some attendees disagreed with his biblically-based message.
His sermon on Romans 1 would be very familiar to Christians around the world. But his supervisor took issue with the message and labeled Romans 1 a “charged and divisive text.”
For months, he was under investigation and removed from his chaplain duties and reassigned to stock shelves. The supervisor pushed for a reprimand and made concerted attempts to restrict future sermons to only religious ideas shared across religions. In other words, stop preaching the Biblical truth of sin and the need for a savior. The supervisor attempted to implement a new sermon review and approval process, a blatant violation of his rights under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
This alarming attempt to censor chaplains drew national attention as it threatened to set a precedent for silencing religious messages within VA hospitals. Like all chaplains serving in a military capacity, he is required to and did maintain a full and active ecclesiastical endorsement from an eligible faith-based organization. Endorsed by the General Council of the Assemblies of God since he began, he has always faithfully completed his duties consistent with the religious beliefs of the endorsing organization. If allowed to stand, this policy would have had a chilling effect on chaplains throughout the VA system, forcing them to choose between compromising their preaching or facing disciplinary action.
