WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Religious freedom advocates complain about Pentagon restrictions on faith
Advocates for religious freedom told lawmakers Wednesday that there is an increasing climate of intolerance toward people of faith in the military and called for Congress to keep up pressure on the Pentagon to ensure service members' First Amendment rights aren't violated.
"Our service men and women do not give up their religious freedom and constitutional rights simply because they join the military,” Travis Weber, a former Navy pilot and director of the Family Research Council's Center for Religious Liberty told a House Armed Services subcommittee.
"Simple objection to another’s religious speech is not a basis for silencing that speech. Unfortunately, that seems to be the current view adopted by many commanders and some military policy," he said.
Weber and other witnesses noted that there's considerable confusion in the ranks about the Pentagon's policy toward religious expression and how it should be implemented, in spite of provisions enacted into law protecting individual expressions of belief that are not overt acts of proselytization.
“We’re asking for your help in keeping DOD’s feet to the fire,” said Ronald Crews, a retired Army chaplain and executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty.
The issue of religious expression in the military has become more intense in recent years, partly because of deployments to Muslim-majority countries where religion is a sensitive issue and because many religious organizations opposed the end of the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly, leading to concerns about the freedom of military chaplains from those denominations.
In response, Republican lawmakers worked to get stronger protections for both chaplains and regular service members written into law. Some still believe religious expression has become unreasonably limited in the military.
"It's a sad day for America when that's happened. It's a sad day for religious liberty," said Rep. Walter Jones Jr., R-N.C., decrying what he said were unreasonable restrictions on chaplains.
“I think that there’s a tsunami of confusion out there," agreed Michael Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which has worked for greater restrictions on open religious expression in the armed services. But he noted that much of the confusion is deliberate, caused by religious people who want to get around the restrictions.
"There’s a very purposeful attempt to witness and proselytize” in violation of Pentagon rules, he said.
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