A proposed policy change would give a Veterans Affairs supervisor the ‘ability to silence chaplains who preach sermons she disagrees with,’ lawyers say.
Lawyers for a Pennsylvania Veterans Affairs medical center chaplain are calling on the Trump administration to protect the religious rights of their client and other chaplains after they say his supervisor threatened to censor sermons of “divisive” content.
The First Liberty Institute and the Independence Law Center, who represent chaplain Russell Trubey, sent a letter Tuesday to VA Secretary Doug Collins urging him to “take immediate action to protect” Trubey and other chaplains from religious discrimination.
According to the letter, chaplain Brynn White, Trubey’s supervisor at the Coatesville VA Medical Center west of Philadelphia, had him investigated for “inappropriate conduct” and proposed that he be reprimanded for “conduct unbecoming” after he preached a sermon last year and read a Bible passage critical of homosexuality. In response to the sermon, White also proposed a policy change that would prohibit sermons that include “divisive, cultural, or political issues,” the letter states.
The threatened reprimand and proposed policy change violate Trubey’s rights to speak freely and to freely exercise his religion, according to the chaplain’s lawyers.
“The proposed changes target Chaplain Trubey and would prevent him from preaching what Chaplain White subjectively considers to be ‘divisive’ biblical texts,” the letter states. “Put another way, the proposed changes would give Chaplain White, or anyone else with an ire towards certain religious beliefs, the ability to silence chaplains who preach sermons she disagrees with.”
When reached on her cell phone Tuesday, White said she was unaware of the letter to Collins and referred questions to the Coatesville VA’s public affairs department. National Review has reached out to a department spokesman for comment.
Trubey, whose duties include providing a protestant worship service on Sundays, delivered the sermon that drew complaints in June. It was the second in a two-part series titled “When a Culture Excludes God,” according to the letter.
During the sermon, Trubey read a passage from Romans 1, which condemns “shameful” homosexual acts. Before reading the passage, Trubey warned attendees that it could be hard for them, but said it was important in order to also hear God’s good news of hope and redemption, according to the letter.
Some people walked out after Trubey read the passage, the letter states. After the service, a VA police officer told Trubey people had complained about his sermon.
When Trubey informed White about the concerns, she told him that Romans 1 was a “very charged and divisive text,” the letter states. The next morning, she transferred Trubey out of chaplain services while he was investigated for “inappropriate conduct.” Trubey was relegated to logistics duties — stocking shelves, counting inventory — a status the letter describes as “nurse jail.”
White also at that time proposed a policy change that would subject chaplains to discipline for sermons that address “divisive, cultural, or political issues.” Under the proposal, the center’s chaplains would be limited to addressing only “commonly-held religious ideals and values across various denominations and people groups” and barred from preaching sermons that are “specific to one’s own theology/denomination,” the letter states.
In November, White proposed that Trubey receive a letter of reprimand for “conduct unbecoming,” which she rescinded after she learned of his legal representation, the letter states. In an email to her chaplains, White also confirmed her intent to screen their sermons.
Trubey’s lawyers say White is trying to illegally censor his protected religious speech, and the proposed reprimands against him are “because of his religious viewpoints.”
“Implicit in the VA’s decision to punish Chaplain Trubey with [a letter of reprimand] is the presumption that biblical beliefs—and the Bible itself—are not only wrong and inappropriate, but incompatible with and ‘unbecoming’ of honorable and loyal service as a VA chaplain,” the letter to Collins reads.
Erin Smith, a lawyer in First Liberty’s military practice group, described Trubey as a “kind” and “soft spoken” man who is a U.S. Army veteran and a former missionary. Smith said White’s proposed sermon-review policy is a form of content or viewpoint discrimination.
“He’s a chaplain,” Smith said of Trubey. “He has the right to engage in free speech when he’s preaching a sermon.”
Smith said no one is compelled to attend Trubey’s services, but veterans who do “know it’s a protestant chapel service and so you’re going to be presented with a protestant viewpoint of some kind.”
The letter to Collins states that Trubey is not the only chaplain White “has punished for allowing the Bible to be quoted in the presence of veterans.” It also accuses White of having “animosity towards Evangelical Christians,” noting that in October 2022 she was one of more than 70 “Christian leaders” in Pennsylvania who signed an op-ed on a local news website denouncing Christian Nationalism. The letter to Collins said the op-ed was an effort to “make some Evangelical Christians sound dangerous.”
White’s religious background isn’t clear. A profile of her on the Society for Shamanic Practice’s website describes her as an “ordained minister,” a “board-certified (mental health) chaplain,” and a “shamanic practitioner.”
In their letter to Collins, Trubey’s lawyers say they know he will “do the right thing” to protect Trubey and his colleagues from discrimination, but they are “also prepared to litigate if necessary.”