“A Christian chaplain in the military is being officially censored for engaging in free speech, and anti-Christian activists are demanding he be punished. Lt. Col. Kenneth Reyes is a Christian chaplain currently serving in the U.S. Air Force. He is stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska. As an ordained clergyman whose duties are to provide religious instruction and spiritual counseling, he has a page on the base’s website called ‘Chaplain’s Corner.’ Reyes recently wrote an essay entitled, ‘No Atheists in Foxholes: Chaplains Gave All in World War II.’ This common saying is attributed to a Catholic priest in World War II, made famous when President Dwight D. Eisenhower said during a 1954 speech: ‘I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives. In battle, they learned a great truth that there are no atheists in the foxholes.’ As reported by Fox News’s Todd Starnes, when Reyes referenced this famous line in his essay, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) contacted the base commander, Col. Brian Duffy, demanding he take action on Reyes’s ‘anti-secular diatribe.’ ... They accuse him of violating military regulations. My legal research on this issue uncovered no regulation prohibiting Reyes’s speech, which looks like expression protected by the free speech and religious freedom provisions of the First Amendment. Military leaders did not respond to Fox’s inquiries asking the Air Force to identify any such rules. Nonetheless, only five hours after MRFF’s complaint, the essay was removed from the website. Duffy has profusely apologized in MRFF for not stopping this religious leader from sharing religious thoughts. But this response--which again appears to be a violation of Reyes’s First Amendment rights—is insufficient for MRFF. They said, “Faith based hate, is hate all the same,” and, “Lt. Col. Reyes must be appropriately punished.” (Emphasis added). ... MRFF is activist Mikey Weinstein’s organization. He called observant Christians ‘fundamentalist monsters’ seeking to impose a ‘reign of theocratic terror,’ and he described sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ as an act of ‘spiritual rape’ that makes believers ‘enemies of the Constitution’ who are committing an act of ‘sedition and treason’ against this nation.” (Breitbart.com, July 24, 2013) Comments are closed.
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