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Oppression of Christians in US Military is Triggering their Exodus
America has a Judeo/Christian ethos; 90% of Americans believe in God and 50% of them go to church and synagogue every week. Christian members of the US military are wondering long and hard about joining and/or making the US Armed Forces a career. This concern by Christians to possibly avoid a US Armed Forces that oppresses Christians appears to fit in with Obama’s Social Experiment On Diversity, in order to minimize Christian influence in the US military. The Social Experiment On Diversity that has been changing the make-up of the US Armed Forces is seriously eroding unit cohesiveness, unit morale, and the “Combat Effectiveness “ of the US military.
Chaplains are having their sermons and even the places where they are allowed to pray controlled and censored to be sure their statements are “Politically Correct” and in keeping with the what the Obama civilian appointees in DOD want them to say. Chaplains have been prevented from reading letters from their Cardinals in the pulpit to their parishioners. Chaplains have been prevented from giving bibles to patients in their hospital rooms. Catholic Chaplins who don’t believe in the use of birth control pills and abortion are prevented from preaching their religious beliefs in the pulpit. Army Ranger Chaplain Joseph Lawton was punished and served with a “Letter of Concern” for referring to solace and comfort he receives in his darkest moments by reading the Psalms of King David in the Old Testament of the Bible, while he was conducting a suicide prevention seminar for Combat Veterans suffering from PTSD.
The Defense in Marriage Act, a Federal Law, has been violated and disobeyed by Obama, and Holder without repealing it. Chaplains who support that Federal Law because of their religious beliefs have been discriminated against. Obama’s civilian DOD appointees have been intolerant toward Chaplains who do not believe in same sex marriage, supposedly in the defense of tolerance, to make them comply, which is not only hypocritical, but is bigoted. So if a Chaplain’s well held religious beliefs don’t allow him to support same sex marriage, he is threatened with career ending punishment which would result in his failure to be promoted, and/or would result in his removal from the US Armed Forces. That treatment of Chaplains and Christians who agree with their Chaplains beliefs have been discriminated against and oppressive by the civilian appointees of the Obama administration at DOD.
Military personnel are prevented from having bibles at their desks in their work place, and military base commanders have been instructed not to allow bibles to be placed in base hotel rooms.
Open homosexuality in the US Armed Forces has been approved by Obama’s Executive Orders, in a major “CHANGE” to General George Washington’s 238 year old US Military Regulations. Last year because of the “CHANGE” of General George Washington’s Military Regulations, the US Armed Forces authorized the recruiting of a large influx of gay males and women to join the US military for the first time in US history. Last year 10,400 straight members of the US Armed Forces were sexually assaulted in their barracks and aboard their ships. The Navy has had straight female enlisted women sexually assaulted in their barracks and aboard their ships by lesbian crew members; and nearly 9, 000 female members of the US Armed Forces were sexually assaulted last year.
Gay Rights Political Events and gatherings are now being held on US Military bases and in the Pentagon in violation of US Military Regulations which prohibit political events of any kind. US Military Color guards and military personnel in uniform are now being ordered to march in Gay Rights Parades (a political event) in violation of US Military Regulations, while at the same time, members of the US Armed Forces have been prevented from attending Christian events in their uniforms.
In 2014, at the Iron Mountain VA Hospital in Wisconsin, Chaplain Bob Mueller, relayed an unsettling experience he experienced in a conversation he had with one of Obama’s civilian appointee in the Veterans Administration, when he said “a couple of months ago, an order came down from Washington, DC to all Chaplains in VA Hospitals across the nation, ordering them to cover all icons associated with Christianity in VA Hospitals, like photos of Christ, crosses, and stained glass windows, because there are Christian symbols in stained glass.” Chaplain Mueller was told to “stop talking about Jesus, and to stop reading the scripture out loud.” He said that the Obama administration has issued the same orders “to cover all things associated with Christianity” to all VA Chapels across the country.” Clicking on the below listed link will verify Chaplain Mueller’s report:
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/v/VA-Covers-Religious-Symbols.htm#.VGzFkmdNcVA
The Flag and General Officer, who have always practiced and supported Judeo/Christian ethics, who opposed the hollowing out of the US Armed Forces, and policies that degraded the “Combat Effectiveness” of the US military by the occupant in the Oval Office, have been systematically eliminated over the last 6 years. A total of 195 Flag, General, and Senior Military Officers, who disagreed with Obama’s “Politically Correct” destructive military policies, and his executive Order that changed the US Military into first major military force in the world that openly gay, a new and destructive policy that has negatively affected unit cohesiveness, the morale, and the “Combat Effectiveness” of the US Armed Forces, have been purged by General Dempsey—those that remain have been conditioned not to defend Christianity. Those 195 purged Senior Officers would have opposed the on-going attack on Christians in the US Armed Forces, but they are no longer there to defend the Chaplains and the enlisted Christian personnel. Senior enlisted military personnel who also practiced and supported Judeo/Christian ethics, and disagreed with an openly gay military, tried to utilized their right to complain thru the chain of command, and to express their concerns about the “Social Experiment on Diversity”, have also been purged, and in some cases have been court martialed and dishonorably discharged.
Although the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution guarantees Freedom of Religion, Christian members of the US Armed Forces have had their religious rights systematically violated and oppressed, as previously discussed above and in the below listed article. The suppression of Christianity in the US Armed Forces is triggering an exodus from the US military of many Christians who wanted to make the US military a career when they joined. After their first tour of duty, while witnessing how Chaplains and their Christian religious beliefs were oppressed, they have turned against making the US Armed Forces a career. The elimination of thousands of Christian personnel from the US Armed Forces with their well held religious beliefs and ethics in the ranks, and having them replaced will personnel with a different set of beliefs in keeping with Obama’s beliefs, will change the nature of the US Armed Forces.
Copyright 2015, Capt. Joseph R. John. All Rights Reserved. This material can only be posted on another Web site or distributed on the Internet by giving full credit to the author. It may not be published, broadcast, or rewritten without permission from the author.
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WND RADIO
CRACKDOWN ON CHRISTIANS TRIGGERS EXODUS FROM MILITARY
'They're starting to wonder, is this going to be a place where I'm welcomed?'
Greg Corombos is news director for Radio America.
A leading defender of Christians in the military says the crackdown on the free religious expression of Christians in uniform is increasing despite Pentagon assurances to the contrary, leading active-duty personnel to re-evaluate their careers and young Americans and their parents to reconsider service at all.
Recent discipline for military chaplains dispensing biblical counsel have made national headlines, but a recent piece in the Washington Times suggests enlistment numbers are in danger of dropping as well.
Liberty Institute represents chaplains in two high-profile cases as well as several other personnel reprimanded for their free expression of Christian beliefs. Senior counsel Michael Berry said the American people are paying attention and getting increasingly worried about what’s happening in the military.
“A great deal of Americans of faith, which is still a majority of our country, are looking at the environment and climate within our federal government and military more specifically and seeing case after case, report after report,” Berry said in an interview with WND and Radio America.
He said the growing number of stories is causing committed Christians to ask some uncomfortable questions.
“They’re starting to wonder, ‘Is this going to be a place where I’m welcomed? Is this going to be a place where I’m tolerated? Am I going to be required to keep my faith in the closet, so to speak?’ Or are they going to be allowed, which has always been the practice in our country up until this point, to freely exercise their religion in accordance with their sincerely held beliefs as the Constitution allows?” asked Berry, a military vet who made his own difficult decision to leave the armed forces as he saw religious liberties eroding.
“I was on active duty, and I began to see the writing on the wall,” he said. “I realized this is not the military I grew up in. This is not the military that I was raised to believe in and to support. It’s changing, and I realized it was time for me to make a move.”
And Berry is not the only one thinking long and hard about military service as the right career path.
“I’ve had a lot of mothers and fathers ask me. They say, ‘Mike, I served and my son or daughter wants to follow in my footsteps. But, as proud as I am of my military service, I’m not sure I want my son or daughter to be serving in our military anymore, given what’s going on,’” Berry said. “That’s very scary for our country if that kind of conversation and dialogue is now happening.”
It’s difficult to get solid numbers on the impact religious freedom restrictions are having on recruiting and retention. Berry said the military almost always keep mum about drops in recruiting and retention and it never breaks down the reasons for the declines.
“It doesn’t behoove the military to report that they’re having problems with retention,” he said. “A group like a chaplain’s corps is not going to say, ‘We’re having a hard time attracting new chaplains’ because that doesn’t present them in a very favorable light.”
Liberty Institute is providing counsel for Navy Chaplain Wes Modder, an Assemblies of God minister who was removed from his position after answering questions from personnel who wanted to know what the Bible said about homosexuality and sex outside of marriage.
Another client is Army Ranger Chaplain Joseph Lawhorn, who was served with a letter of concern after a soldier complained about Lawhorn telling a suicide-prevention seminar that in his darkest moments he found comfort and solace in the Psalms of King David while also endorsing many secular resources.
Berry said the protest was baseless and can be seen as opportunistic by any objective analysis.
“[The soldier] didn’t even complain to Chaplain Lawhorn or the chain of command,” he said. “He went and complained to an outside media outlet, who then published the story. That’s what really precipitated that whole incident and led to Chaplain Lawhorn being punished.”
In the Washington Times article, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen is quoted as extolling religious freedom and how it continues to be cherished in the military.
“The Department of Defense respects, places a high value on and supports by policy the rights of members of the military services to observe the tenets of their respective religions or to have no religious beliefs,” said Christensen in the article.
“The mission of the chaplain corps is to provide care and the opportunity for service members, their families and other authorized personnel to exercise their constitutional right to the free exercise of religion,” he said.
But Berry said the impressive rhetoric is not matched by the facts.
“If what the DOD spokesperson is saying is true, then why on earth are chaplains like Chaplain Lawhorn and Chaplain Modder being threatened with career-ending punishment?” he asked. “Simply because they hold religious beliefs that are no longer popular? I would seriously question the DOD’s commitment to religious freedom is that’s allowed to stand without challenge.”
Lawhorn and Modder join other Liberty Institute clients whose careers are in limbo over their expression of personal beliefs. The list includes an Air Force senior master sergeant whose career is in doubt after he voiced support for traditional marriage. A commanding officer in the U.S. Army is fighting back after complaining that heterosexual soldiers are being treated unfairly compared to homosexuals.
“That’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Berry said. “There are dozens of cases beyond what Liberty Institute handles dealing with religious hostility in this country. And like I said, within the military, it’s on the rise.”
While the Defense Department publicly professes great respect for religious freedom, anti-Christian activists are not hiding their agenda. The Washington Times article also features Military Religious Freedom Foundation President Michael Weinstein, who says chaplains who hold to biblical views on sexuality need to keep their mouths shut or find another line of work.
“You can continue to believe that internally, but if you have to act on that, the right thing to do is to get out of the U.S. military, because you have no right to tell a member of the military that they’re inferior because of the way they were born,” Weinstein is quoted as saying.
Berry finds that analysis legally ludicrous.
“Mr. Weinstein could not be more legally wrong,” he said. “The Constitution, federal law and military regulations all forcefully protect the right of service members to hold and to express their sincerely held religious beliefs. The military has a very high legal standard they have to meet if they’re going to try to censor or prohibit the free exercise of a service member’s sincerely held beliefs.”