Posted on 05/04/2013 9:23:11 AM PDT by EXCH54FE
Following an uproar over a Defense Department statement saying that military personnel could be court-martialed for sharing their faith, the Pentagon has backed down on that position and now says soldiers are free to proselytize, as long as they don't harass others. “Service members can share their faith,” clarified Navy Lieutenant Commander Nate Christensen in a statement, “but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one's beliefs.”
The Defense Department had released an alarming statement saying: “Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense.... Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis.” That statement appeared to come as the result of an April 24 meeting between military officials and Mikey Weinstein of the atheist group Military Religious Freedom Foundation, in which Weinstein pressured Air Force officials to enforce a policy that supposedly bans Air Force personnel from openly expressing their religious faith. The Defense Department has reportedly turned to Weinstein's group to hammer out policies on religious expression in the military.
Weinstein has gained notoriety for his aggressive campaign to sanitize the military of overt faith expressions by service members. He told Fox News that “until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior.” Weinstein was referring to examples of supposed religious persecution within the ranks, and said that his group “would love to see hundreds of prosecutions to stop this outrage of fundamentalist religious persecution.”
The outcry from chaplains and religious leaders over Weinstein's rhetoric prompted the Defense Department to issue its updated statement backing down from implying that service members might be targeted for sharing their faith.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
Backed down for now, until they can find a more subtle way of doing it.
Weekend news dump .. spineless undermining pukes.
Ya see folks! All we have to do is have faith!!
Never cave!!
yeah this whole issue was, in my estimation, totally contrived. So now Christians can share their faith, and it should apply to gays, wiccins atheists etc to persuade soldier of the benefits of a gay wiccins atheist lifestyle.............
Mikely. there is no such thing as unconstitutional religious proselytizing by a member of ANY organization.
Reminds me of Clinton’s feminizing of the military.
When he tried it on the Top Marine the man replied “Sir, we don’t do that.”
Clinton, flummoxed, asked why.
“Because we’re the Marine Corps, Sir” he was told.
Good on Joe La Rue.
How about first pointing out where the courts determined that was unconstitutional?
So the Libeal demoRats must not force unwanted, intrusive...
Hypocrites!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who ever thought we’d see the day that atheists and homosexuals would be running the Pentagon? Sad. America has really fallen.
I’ve noticed that those who are opposed to Christ, tend to react to any Christian statement, with proclamation “they don’t believe in it!” or “That is your faith, not mine.” or “ I don’t believe in demons (or angels)(or God)”, but in the same breath they seek spirituality.
I have considered that perhaps they follow a worldly taught perspective that Christian beliefs aren’t based upon reality, but upon fairy tales, yet this isn’t consistent with their manifest perspective, though it might be one of many arguments they advance.
My instant solution for all Christian soldiers was to tell them to get prayer rugs, face Mecca and pray the rosary or Christian prayers 5 times a day. What WOULD the Pentagon have done then? We all know it wouldn’t have applied to Muslims. I’m afraid the Trojan horse is not only here, but is being fed and runs things.
Awhhh...you mean that I’m not allowed to drag someone into church and force him to become a Christian?
Correct, this isn't over. The rabid anti-Christian bigot Mikey Weinstein has gotten his foot in the door with the DOD.
It's disheartening to know that the Pentagon has given such a cretin as much as the time of day.
“Backed down for now, until they can find a more subtle way of doing it.”
Yeh no kidding. What did they think was going to happen when they came out with this new policy? Its like they don’t live in the same universe as the rest of us. Probably 80% of the people in the military are Christians. 80% of the American public identifies themselves as christians for God’s sake.
All this stuff comes from the Muslim in the Whitehut.
Weinstein doesn’t actually understand the reasoning for the separation of church and state.
Sorry, when did We the People stop being the start/end-all for all laws? Co-equal branches and all, let alone Congress delegating what can(not) be argued in court?
Course, that means I still believe Congress should be removing judges that overstep their duties and/or start making laws from the bench....I know, silly me.
They probably figured that a demoralized soldier is less likely to protect his fag brothers in arms. Liberals’s thinking: just in case there is a God we’d better let them pray to protect our homo brothers so they can be Scout leaders, schoolteachers, and SCOTUS later.
..contrived news story to begin with to take the headlines leading up to Benghazi off front page
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