-UPDATE: Pentagon ‘Clarifies’ Proselytizing Court Martial Statement
by Dr. D ~ May 2nd, 2013
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Just as I expected. Today, after the story hit the fan, the Pentagon ‘clarified’ their statement about restricting religious discussion and possibly court martialing those in the service who proselytized.
Still the clarification really isn’t all that adequate from my perspective. Nevertheless here it is from DoD Spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen:
“Service members can share their faith (evangelize), but not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one’s beliefs (proselytization).”
Response: As I said, the ‘clarification‘ is not all that adequate from my perspective. First of all, there is absolutely no evidence that this was a problem in our services in the first place.
It is hard to imagine soldiers being forced to convert to any religion. Also what would actually constitute “unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert”? It is so open to differing and diverse interpretations that it would be unmanageable as a rule. Therefore it could actually be used indiscriminately to ruin the careers of those disliked by others.
Here’s the response of ADF Legal Counsel Joseph La Rue to the new statement:
“We appreciate the Pentagon’s clarification, but little or no evidence exists of coercive proselytization in the military, so we are troubled over what motivated the original comments.
“Members of our military should not be denied the very freedoms they fight to defend. Freedom of religion and speech are paramount among those freedoms. We wish to ensure that the Pentagon does not deny members of the armed services the basic freedoms that the Constitution guarantees all Americans. For that reason, ADF is serious about investigating this gross error.”
So the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is also not entirely satisfied and intends on continuing to investigate this issue. This is a long ways from over in spite of the ‘clarification.’ *Top
May 2nd, 2013 at 11:14 pm
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