DADT: Leadership Views, DOMA, and the Scourge

Below:

  • Admiral Mullen and Obama on repeal and integrity
  • Concerns remain in Chaplain Corps
  • Process of repeal still criticized as “misleading”
  • Reliance of repeal on DOMA highlighted, with DOMA next
  • Chaplain calls homosexuality a “scourge”
  • Marine recruiters visit homosexual “community center”

Admiral Mike Mullen, the now-former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reiterated his stance that allowing homosexuals to serve openly was a matter of integrity (ie, not making people “lie about who they are”) and the military was, in fact, “stronger” without the ban, though it was unclear on what basis he made that conclusion.

The sentiment was repeated by Commander-in-Chief President Barack Obama:

“As of today, patriotic Americans in uniform will no longer have to lie about who they are in order to serve the country they love,” Obama said.

For his part, newly appointed Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said repeal

reflects the American values that military members uphold…

“Thanks to this change, we move closer to achieving the goal that is at the foundation of American values — equality and dignity for all,” he said.

There remains a concern among the Chaplain corps to see how repeal will “really” play out.  Despite “official” assurances, it remains to be seen how new policy changes will be enforced.

Twenty-one representatives of religious groups that endorse military chaplains wrote a letter to congressional leaders urging action to protect religious liberty as the repeal. Some chaplains are concerned that there will be unofficial pressure to affirm a gay lifestyle.

At least one critic contended the American public doesn’t actually have a “clue” as to how the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will affect the US military because of the political nature that drove the change:

The American public has no clue, because the 111th Democrat-controlled Congress repealed the ban in a “lame-duck” session without hearing a single dissenting view.  And President Obama hid behind the cover of a politically inspired Pentagon report marred by poor research and improper activities meant to mislead Congress.

Retired Chaplain (Col) Ron Crews continues to point out that assurances of the post-repeal environment were predicated on the Defense of Marriage Act, which is likewise now up for ‘repeal,’ with the Executive branch choosing not to defend its challenge in the Judicial branch.

“So much of the [post-DADT] training has been based on the Defense of Marriage Act as being federal law,” Ron Crews, director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, told CitizenLink. “…[B]ut we know this administration has said they think [DOMA] is unconstitutional and won’t defend it. So where does that leave all those [military] PowerPoint slides that say ‘This is our policy on the repeal of DADT because of DOMA’?”

In fact, many sites have pointed out the push for more benefits, including those currently (theoretically) prohibited by DOMA.

Retired Chaplain (Col) Alexander Webster, in a rare blunt opposition to allowing homosexuals to serve in the military, called repeal an “attack” by the “scourge of homosexuality,” and indicated it would initiate discrimination against those in moral opposition to the change:

The elimination of the last vestige of moral restraint on sexual perversion in the U.S. military…ushers in a new Orwellian era in which the military leadership of our nation will proclaim the unnatural as natural, the unhealthy as healthy and the immoral as moral.

The New York Times noted that of all the invited military branches, only recruiters from the US Marine Corps visited a “gay community center” in Oklahoma when invited.

With reference to ArmyChaplaincy.com [2] and the ADF [2], [3].