During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump was asked about the erosion of religious liberty in the US military. In October, his campaign provided the following response:

Religious freedom in the military is under attack, just as it is across our society. We ask our men and women in uniform to risk their lives for us, and the least we can do is fight every day for their right to worship freely and express their faith while in uniform. My Secretary of Defense will be a person who understands and respects our military’s tradition of religious tolerance and freedom, and who honors the service of our Chaplain Corps as I do.

My Defense Secretary and I will never treat religious expression, whether by a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Sikh or any other faith, as a threat; rather, we will honor religious tolerance and expression as something our soldiers risk their lives for and deserve as much as any other citizen. This is not a question of forcing anyone to believe something they don’t want, or punishing our service personnel for their lack of religiosity or for worshiping differently. This is about making sure our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines are never punished for their faith. And when I’m Commander-in-Chief, they never will be.

It will be interesting to see what occurs after 20 January 2017.

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