Ensign Sean Cruz is Denied a Humanist Wedding Ceremony at the Naval Academy’s Chapel
An attorney for the American Humanist Association said Tuesday the organization will consider taking legal action after the U.S. Naval Academy denied a request for a humanist wedding ceremony in the academy’s main chapel.
The group released a letter Tuesday describing a request to use the chapel by Ensign Sean Cruz, a 2012 graduate and an active duty naval officer. He applied in May to be married by a legally recognized wedding officiant in the chapel.
“It appears that he has been denied this request because the Naval Academy wishes to confer the benefit of the chapel’s beautiful architecture and capacious interior solely on Christians, to the exclusion of other religions and the nonreligious,” William Burgess and Monica Miller, legal consultants for the association, wrote in a letter to Vice Adm. Michael Miller, the academy’s superintendent, and Cmdr. Michael Gore, the senior chaplain.
Jennifer Erickson, an academy spokeswoman, said in an email that the Naval Academy Chapel is a religious venue that has been used for Protestant and Catholic services since its dedication in 1908.
“The chapel contains permanent Christian architectural features that make it inappropriate for non-Christian or non-religious wedding ceremonies,” Erickson wrote in response to questions about the request. “For requests involving non-Christian and non-religious wedding ceremonies, the Naval Academy offers alternative venues, such as the non-denominational chapel and the Naval Academy Club.”
But Burgess said the alternative venues do not have the same grandeur of the main chapel, whose large dome is a major part of the Maryland capital’s skyline. The chapel also stands on top of a crypt for John Paul Jones, who is known as the father of the U.S. Navy. Burgess said in an interview that he believes the policy is unconstitutional discrimination.