The Last Resistance Home » Threat to Religious Liberty in the Military posted 18 hours ago byOnan Coca Threat to Religious Liberty in the Military Filed under 1st Amendment, Christianity, Email Featured, Military Family Research Council, Military Religious Freedom Foundation 135 The good folks at the Family Research Council (FRC) have, over the years, done a lot of important work in fighting to keep Christian values and ethics in our media, as well as working to educate Christians all over the country to the dangers we face if we become culturally irrelevant. Recently, FRC has noticed a growing and disconcerting trend in our military and they’ve just released the findings for us to peruse. In a report titled “A Clear and Present Danger: The Threat to Religious Liberty in the Military,” the FRC enumerates the increasing frequency of incidents of the military’s mounting intolerance of Christianity. Some examples from FRC’s report: Christian Embassy targeted by anti-Christian group – December 2006 Weinstein asked for—and received—a Department of Defense Inspector General investigation of seven officers who appeared in a video for Christian Embassy ministry. The Inspector General concluded in August 2007 that the video was inappropriate, but Weinstein was not satisfied. After seeing the IG’s report, Weinstein told Beliefnet that even though the Air Force suggested corrective actions Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) “wanted to see courts martial.” In its press release MRFF also stated, “MRFF intends to file expeditiously a comprehensive Federal lawsuit that will rapaciously pursue legal remedies to the multitude of horrific Constitutional violations this DoD/IG report reveals.” Air Force pulls ethics course from curriculum at air base – July 27, 2011 For 20 years, an ethics training course for nuclear missile officers was conducted by a chaplain at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. It included texts from the Bible and materials related to just war theory by Saint Augustine. This course was pulled for “thorough review” by the Air Force primarily due to its use of Christian reading materials. Walter Reed Medical Center bans Bibles and religious material – September 14, 2011 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the leading medical institution for the U.S. armed forces, issued an official patient and visitor policy banning Bibles. It stated, “No religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading material, and/or artifacts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit.” The policy was revoked after a political firestorm erupted in the House of Representatives. FRC documents many more egregious examples, like the removal of a cross from a chapel, an officer was forced to remove a Bible from his desk, pro-life groups were linked to terrorism, and more. christian-persecutionOne takeaway from a thorough reading of the FRC report is that the frequency of these events is increasing, and already 2013 seems to be a banner year for those who would attack any notion of Christianity in the military. The most terrifying aspect of this is, what happens when our Christian ethic is removed completely from the training our fighting men and women receive? Already the frequency of suicide among service members is way up, and the moral compass of our soldiers is questioned around the globe. Now more than ever we need to be instilling the moral ethics of just war and faithful Christian teaching to our soldiers. The work the FRC is doing to uncover what the secularists are trying (and succeeding) to do to our military is very important. All of our Congressmen need to see and read this report; it’s the best way to convince them to support our fighting men and women in turning the tide against the anti-God left.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 06:14:56 +0000