Gordon James Klingenschmitt (born 1968) is an American religious figure, former chaplain in the US Navy, and former politician.
A 1991 graduate of the US Air Force Academy, Klingenschmitt spent eleven years as an officer and missileer before accepting a demotion and transferring to the US Navy in 2002 to become a chaplain. There, his strong evangelical drive repeatedly conflicted with the military's religious pluralism, and he received rebuttals from Navy leadership, including his immediate supervisor, his captain, and the commander of Navy Region Mid-Atlantic. This led to his receiving lowered evaluations and reprimands, against which he protested by hunger striking in front of the White House. In 2006, Klingenschmitt was court-martialed for refusing to obey explicit orders prohibiting wearing his uniform "at media events or political protests"; he was issued a formal reprimand. After switching churches that same year, he automatically triggered a review of his professional qualifications which ultimately led to his dismissal from the military after a 15.8-year career.
Klingenschmitt's religious career is centered around his two organizations: the for-profit Pray in Jesus Name Project and the non-profit Pray in Jesus Name Ministries. The latter is designated as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and also publishes Klingenschmitt's TV show, Pray in Jesus Name. He was also the target of an unsuccessful lawsuit in 2009 after praying for the cursing and deaths of two men, who subsequently were targeted by harassment and vandalism.
He was elected into the Colorado House of Representatives for District 15 for the 2015–2017 term with 69.88 percent of the vote. There, he caused controversy and was briefly removed from his house committees by both suggesting that the Boy Scouts of America were inviting molestation by allowing homosexual leaders, and for repeatedly suggesting a woman's killing and the theft of her fetus was a punishment by his god for abortion in the United States. Legislatively, he opposed the prohibition of conversion therapy, opposed legal penalties for defendants guilty of religious discrimination, and sponsored one successful bill (about educational testing). Since his single two-year term in office, Klingenschmitt has failed to be elected into the Colorado Senate (2016), the vice-chairship of the El Paso County Republican Party (2017), and the Colorado Springs city council, twice (2019 and 2023).
Personal life
Gordon James Klingenschmitt was born in Buffalo, New York in 1968 to a single mother. At age three, he was adopted by Carl and Joanne Klingenschmitt. In a ceremony officiated by Ted Haggard, Klingenschmitt married Mary Elaine Keifert (born 1965) on 1 June 1991 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Klingenschmitt's adoptive parents were devout members of the Catholic Church, and had their son baptized immediately. Despite this, and growing up in a community suffused with Christianity, he was not a practitioner. In his freshman year at the Air Force Academy, several Pentecostal ceremonies led Klingenschmitt to want "to be a preacher and missionary, [...] I wanted to tell the world about Jesus. This was my personal calling."
In 1986, Klingenschmitt was a senior at Clarence Central School in Clarence, New York. Upon his 1991 graduation from the United States Air Force Academy, Klingenschmitt received a Bachelor of Science in political science. In 1999, he was a recent divinity school graduate, and by April 2007, he was pursuing a Doctor of Theology at Regent University. In 2012, he received a Doctor of Philosophy from Regent.
US military
Klingenschmitt entered active duty with the United States Air Force on 29 May 1991. For the next eleven years, he served as an officer and missileer, including an assignment to NORAD. Klingenschmitt left the Air Force as a major on 2 September 2002, accepting a demotion (to lieutenant) to become a military chaplain in the United States Navy.
Klingenschmitt was quickly disillusioned at Chaplaincy School, finding that the military's religious pluralism for servicemembers of all faiths ran contrary to his evangelism, despite the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces' code of ethics stating that chaplains must "function in a pluralistic environment". With an ecclesiastical endorsement from the Evangelical Episcopal Church, Klingenschmitt graduated from Naval Chaplaincy School in late November 2002. His first assignment was aboard under commanding officer (CO) Captain James M. Carr.
USS Anzio
When Anzio participated in Fleet Week 2004 in New York City, Klingenschmitt complained to his superiors about holding Fleet Week services at Marble Collegiate Church—as had been done for many years—because the church provided outreach to homosexual people and "endorses homosexual sin". Captain Carr later wrote that Klingenschmitt had and improperly) created an impression in the highest levels of the U.S. Navy that Anzio and our Religious Ministries program were in contention with Navy policy to support Fleet Week obligations."
On 26 June 2004, Klingenschmitt spoke at the memorial service for a recently deceased Anzio sailor and preached about faith in Jesus "and the certainty of being 'cast into hell' if one did not". Over a dozen complaints were relayed to Captain Carr, who again counseled Klingenschmitt about inappropriate proselytization.
That July, Anzio sailors were surveyed about the ship's chaplaincy, and about 70% of written comments were negative about Klingenschmitt (including "worst CHAP I have seen in 17 years", "would never seek counsel from CHAPS", and "he is one of the worst CHAPs I have seen"). After receiving a from Carr on his periodic Fitness Report, Klingenschmitt declined to provide a formal statement in response, instead submitting an Article 138 complaint against Carr, accusing the CO of religious persecution for lower markings than previously given; commander of Navy Region Mid-Atlantic (CNRMA) dismissed the complaint as meritless and endorsed Carr's report.
Klingenschmitt told the media that he had been unduly reprimanded for preaching about his religion. The Navy responded that he had "not received any punishment for language used in public forums". Furthermore, United States Department of Defense spokesman William J. Marks explained that chaplains were encouraged to evoke Jesus' name during actual Christian services; while non-religious events like promotion ceremonies or memorial services should be pluralistically sensitive, a prayer to Jesus at such a gathering would not warrant discipline or trouble for the chaplain.
In March 2005, Carr recommended that Navy Personnel Command not extend Klingenschmitt's active-duty tour, saying the lieutenant "demonstrated recurring confusion concerning a chaplain's role within a military organization." Klingenschmitt was transferred from Anzio to Naval Station Norfolk in April 2005, a move he characterized as punitive and foreshadowing the end of his career.
Naval Station Norfolk After his assignment to Norfolk, in protest of the Navy's position on his religious proselytization, Klingenschmitt collaborated with US Representative Walter B. Jones Jr. to pressure President George W. Bush to issue a military–religious executive order that would guarantee "the right of chaplains to pray 'in the name of Jesus.
Invited onto Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor for 19 December 2005, Klingenschmitt wrote to President Bush on 15 December and said, "I'm scheduled to appear on Bill O'Reilly's TV show, and I plan to appear in uniform, unless you order me to wear civilian attire". On 16 December, Captain Lloyd Pyle, Jr.—CO of Naval Station Norfolk—issued the chaplain an explicit order: "pursuant to paragraph 1401.3(b) of the Navy Uniform Regulations, [Lieutenant] Klingenschmitt was prohibited from wearing his uniform for this appearance or for any other media appearance without Captain Pyle's 'express prior permission.
While on official leave in late December 2005, in an effort to prevent his anticipated dismissal from the Navy, and hoping to force President Bush's hand, Klingenschmitt began an 18-day hunger strike in front of the White House to protest the Navy "mandating nonspecific language in public, nondenominational events, and an order from superior officers prohibiting him from wearing his uniform during television appearances related to his protest". The Navy responded to Klingenschmitt's event by releasing a memorandum affirming their position "that sailors cannot wear their uniforms for media appearances without prior approval from command, but are permitted to do so for any legitimate worship services". Despite having declared he would only consume water "until the president of the United States gives me back my uniform and lets me pray publicly in Jesus' name", Klingenschmitt pointed to this Navy memo as his victory on 7 January 2006. He told the assembled press that "Today the Navy has reluctantly obeyed the law, to grant me the religious liberty I always should've had"; the military elaborated that there had been no changes in policy, and had not given Klingenschmitt carte blanche permission to publicly wear his uniform.
By February, Klingenschmitt was repeating the very same complaints about the Navy's policy of pluralistic inclusion at non-religious events, and William Marks reiterated the Navy's still-unchanged policies to the press. People for the American Way reported from a Vision America conference—called "The War on Christians and Values Voters in 2006"—that on 27 March, Klingenschmitt was the opening speaker; he reiterated his claims about the Navy's guidelines and policies, and ended by comparing himself to Abdul Rahman, who faced capital punishment in Afghanistan for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity.
After verifying that Pyle's orders restricted uniform-wear to "attending or participating in a bona fide religious service or observance", Klingenschmitt led prayers in uniform for a clergy lobbyist group's demonstration in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C. before immediately removing parts of his uniform, replacing them with a clerical collar, and making statements to the assembled press. For these acts of disrespect to the uniform, plus a lack of military bearing and professionalism, and openly challenging his chain of command (by claiming to only answer to the president and using intemperate language to describe his leadership to the media), Klingenschmitt's 3 February 2006 Fitness Report was a lower , with "Military Bearing/Character" rated at .
Captain Pyle issued a letter of caution to Klingenschmitt for violating Article 89 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) by disrespecting senior commissioned officers via "intemperate language" on the chaplain's personal website. Ordered to remove the offending material, Klingenschmitt did so, but cited the Military Whistleblower Protection Act in warning that "[w]hile I consented this one time to modify the content of my communications to Congress, I shall not do so again. [... I] will respect rank, but never their abuse of power and religious harassment, of which I directly accuse them in my whistleblower reports." These reports were part of a complaint Klingenschmitt filed with the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (IG) on 4 April, alleging constitutional violations by his superiors and religious persecution; the IG found his claims without merit, and closed the case on 3 October.
Court-martial