The statement, released to Fox News,
follows a Breitbart News report on Obama administration Pentagon
appointees meeting with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein to develop
court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or
share their faith.
(From our earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious
Freedom Foundation, and says Christians--including chaplains--sharing the
gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of “treason,” and of
committing an act of “spiritual rape” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.” He
also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are “enemies
of the Constitution.”)
Being convicted in a court martial means that a soldier has committed a
crime under federal military law. Punishment for a court martial can
include imprisonment and being dishonorably discharged from the military.
So President Barack Obama’s civilian appointees who lead the Pentagon are
confirming that the military will make it a crime--possibly resulting in
imprisonment--for those in uniform to share their faith. This would include
chaplains—military officers who are ordained clergymen of their faith (mostly
Christian pastors or priests, or Jewish rabbis)--whose duty since the founding
of the U.S. military under George Washington is to teach their faith and
minister to the spiritual needs of troops who come to them for counsel,
instruction, or comfort.
This regulation would severely limit expressions of faith in the military,
even on a one-to-one basis between close friends. It could also effectively
abolish the position of chaplain in the military, as it would not allow
chaplains (or any service members, for that matter), to say anything about
their faith that others say led them to think they were being encouraged to
make faith part of their life. It’s difficult to imagine how a member of the
clergy could give spiritual counseling without saying anything that might be
perceived in that fashion.
In response to the Pentagon’s plans, retired Lt. Gen. Jerry
Boykin, who is now executive vice president of the Family Research
Council (FRC), said on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning:
It’s a matter of what do they mean by
"proselytizing." ...I think they’ve got their defintions a little
confused. If you’re talking about coercion that’s one thing, but if you’re
talking about the free exercise of our faith as individual soldiers, sailors,
airmen and marines, especially for the chaplains, they I think the worst thing
we can do is stop the ability for a soldier to be able to exercise his faith.”
FRC has launched a petition
here which has already collected over 30,000 signatures, calling on
Secretary Hagel is stop working with Weinstein and his anti-Christian
organization to develop military policy regarding religious faith.
**UPDATE**
The FRC petition has now exceeded more than 40,000 signatures at the time
of this update.
Breitbart News legal columnist Ken Klukowski is senior fellow for religious
liberty with the Family Research Council and on faculty at Liberty University
School of Law.
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