(RNS) — The historically Black denomination that endorsed U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., who until last week served as the Army’s chief of chaplains, said it had “deep disappointment and serious concern” about his removal by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Green, who had served in the top military chaplaincy role since 2023, was the third Black Army chief of chaplains. He was dismissed on April 2, during the Christian observance of Holy Week between Palm Sunday and Easter and amid the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
“The removal of Major General William Green Jr. raises serious and troubling questions that deserve transparency and accountability,” said the Rev. Boise Kimber, president of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc., in a Wednesday (April 8) statement. “His decades of faithful service, moral leadership, and historic representation within the Army Chaplain Corps should not be overshadowed by actions that create the appearance of bias, ideological targeting, or radical political interference. Our nation must be careful not to allow partisan agendas to undermine institutions built on merit, sacrifice, and service.”
Green’s dismissal occurred at the same time that Hegseth asked Gen. Randy George, the Army’s chief of staff, to resign and removed Gen. David Hodne, the leader of the service’s Transformation and Training Command, The Washington Post first reported.
Kimber joined others in calling for President Donald Trump and Hegseth to explain the reasons behind Green’s dismissal.
“When leaders of this caliber are removed without public clarity, it creates concern not only about the individual decision, but about the larger climate of interference affecting trusted national institutions,” Kimber stated. “We must remain vigilant against bias and any radical disruption that threatens fairness, integrity, and the progress we have fought to achieve.”
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In December 2025, Hegseth announced that he was eliminating the Army spiritual fitness guide that he said “alienates our war fighters of faith by pushing secular humanism.” In his video announcement on the social media platform X, Hegseth said: “In well over 100 pages, it mentions God one time. That’s it. It mentions feelings 11 times.”
Green was a leader in the Army’s efforts to promote and foster resiliency and connection to support soldiers and their families.
“A resilient soldier isn’t just physically fit,” Green said at a conference on “Holistic Health and the Resilient Soldier” in March 2025, which he noted was the 250th year of the U.S. military chaplaincy. “A resilient soldier is strong in body, mind and spirit.”
Religion News Service’s request asking the Army and its chaplaincy officials about Green’s departure and whether it was related to the spiritual fitness guide did not receive an immediate response.
Green, a native of Savannah, Georgia, first joined the Army as a high school graduate and returned to the service after pursuing ordained ministry. Endorsed by the NBCUSA in 1994, he later supported Operation Iraqi Freedom, was a branch chief at the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and was deputy chief of chaplains at the Pentagon before being appointed as the Army’s chief of chaplains.
Leaders in religious, military and political circles were among those questioning and reacting to Green’s dismissal.
“This administration has made clear it views chaplains as instruments to further its ideology,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, in a Tuesday statement. “They want loyalists. Look no further than Secretary Hegseth’s personal minister, Douglas Wilson, who wants to create a theocratic society that strips women of rights and ends religious freedom.’’
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, said earlier on X: “During Holy Week, and for the first time in our nation’s history, Secretary Hegseth fired the head of the Army Chaplain Corps, Major General William Green, without explanation. General Green is a decorated leader who tended to our military’s spiritual health with honor and distinction.”
Hemant Mehta, an atheist blogger and activist who had questioned the spiritual fitness guide, commented on X: “Wild that Hegseth has basically implied the Army Chief of Chaplains is too woke for caring about things like ‘spiritual strength.’”
In a commentary in The Bulwark, retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who worked with Green in Germany and Fort Lewis in Washington state, wrote of what he called Green’s “troubling” departure.
“He didn’t ask soldiers what they believed before he cared for them,” Hertling wrote. “He understood his role was not to define their faith, but to support their humanity. Because that is what a chaplain is supposed to do.”
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