GrahamH wrote:Surely religious people would want to be ministered to by a chaplain that believes as they do.

Since they can't be certain that he believes as they do, his clients have to be content with what the chaplain says he believes, and how he treats ther spiritual concerns in light of that, and that is taken by them as meaning he believes as they do, although perhaps not in excruciating detail. Chaplains are assumed to be much wiser about such matters than the folks to whom they minister, and they don't achieve a lot of success if they aren't.

Some people, like this prospective Navy chaplain, feel it's important to test the limits of what they can say they believe. The lack of wisdom made plain in making his declaration is probably why the Navy concluded he lacks the wisdom to minister to military personnel.