Jim Bratten
In the last twenty years, the effort to remove faith from our military has been progressing at remarkable speed.
Deep politicization of our Department of Defense, as with all other federal agencies, occurred during the Obama administration. Secular attacks on religious liberty within our military branches intensified. These have not lessened under Trump, despite his victories for the right to practice one’s faith, no matter location or situation.
Under Obama, the U.S. Navy forbade Christian chaplains from “praying in Jesus’ name” during worship services. The U.S. Air Force pulled references to God from its academy in Colorado Springs, even deleting “God” from addresses at the commencement ceremonies. Congressman Randy Forbes (R-VA) publicly grilled U.S. Air Force leadership in committee hearings in 2014 for their failure to protect the religious freedom of Air Force Academy cadets who were threatened with punishment for simply posting Bible verses on the public white boards outside their dorm rooms.
There are dozens of cases where members of the U.S. Armed Forces have been threatened with court-martial, prosecution, and even discharge, for simply practicing their faith. Christian soldiers and sailors will be punished if, in their worship, they happen to offend atheists, agnostics, homosexuals, or any non-Christian. This punishment violates federal law and Defense Department rule DoDI 1300.7, which allows unimpeded practice and expression of religious faith by members of every military branch in the U.S. Armed Forces. President Obama’s war against religious liberty, launched in earnest in 2013, ignored that rule and the Constitution, threatening those practicing their faith with court-martial.
Now the Wuhan virus pandemic has offered the politically-correct and socially-aware U.S. Navy another opportunity to step over the line. President Trump has been bold in his defense of religious liberty, declaring houses of worship “essential places that provide essential services.” Ignoring the president’s directive, and the Constitution, the U.S. Navy recently banned all its personnel from attending worship services in a church or chapel, on-base or off-base. This ban included chaplains.
According to the American Family Association (AFA), which circulated a petition to President Trump regarding this travesty, the Navy’s directive “specifically approves other places where large numbers of people gather, including unlimited social gatherings, mass transportation,” etc. “It’s ridiculous to consider the U.S. Navy issuing an order that says gathering for worship is banned, but gathering for a protest is OK,” said Abraham Hamilton III, general counsel for the AFA. “Though President Trump has declared churches essential, our Navy has threatened to court-martial service members if they agree with the president and attend indoor church services. We have entered upside-down land.”
One U.S. Air Force chaplain assigned to a naval installation has retained legal counsel and demands that the Navy grant “religious accommodation to attend in-person religious services” at his off-base church. Thankfully, lawsuit 
threats and involvement by a well-known law firm have caused the Navy, wisely, to back off, before President Trump would have had to order the Navy to rescind its unlawful directive.
No American citizen who enlists in any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces agreed to relinquish his or her rights, including religious freedom, when they signed up. Our service members defend our freedom at the risk of their own lives. Why should they lose their freedom to worship? They are defended by the same Constitution they swear, under oath, to defend.
Enlisting, or accepting a commission, in any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces does not negate or revoke one’s rights protected by the U.S. Constitution, particularly the one that’s the First Freedom.
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