Stars and Stripes:
WASHINGTON — An atheist Navy chaplain candidate is going to court over the service’s rejection of his application.
Religion scholar and former youth minister Jason Heap filed suit Wednesday along with the organization backing him, the Humanist Society, alleging that the military unfairly passed him over earlier this year not because he lacked qualifications, but because he doesn’t believe in a traditional religion.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., names as defendants Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and a number of other Department of Defense and Navy personnel, including the current and former top Navy chaplains.
DOD officials said they could not comment on the pending litigation.