{"id":17833,"date":"2012-05-18T04:20:30","date_gmt":"2012-05-18T07:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=17833"},"modified":"2013-10-30T20:31:44","modified_gmt":"2013-10-30T23:31:44","slug":"white-house-strongly-objects-to-religious-liberty-provisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/18\/white-house-strongly-objects-to-religious-liberty-provisions\/","title":{"rendered":"White House “Strongly Objects” to Religious Liberty Provisions"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Obama’s administration has registered its objections<\/a> to several portions of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act<\/a> passed by the US House (which also includes another attempt to\u00a0ban NASCAR sponsorships<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Obama administration “strongly objects” to provisions in [the bill] that would prohibit the use of military property for same-sex “marriage or marriage-like” ceremonies, and protect military chaplains from negative repercussions for refusing to act against their consciences, as, for example, in being ordered to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The White House Office of Management and Budget made an interesting observation<\/a> on the seriousness of banning the use of military facilities for same-sex ceremonies.\u00a0 The OMB said the ban [emphasis added]<\/p>\n

would make it obligatory for the department to “deny…access to facilities for religious ceremonies on the basis of sexual orientation, a troublesome and potentially unconstitutional limitation on religious liberty<\/em><\/strong>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The OMB fails to say what religion includes the exercise of homosexuality as one of its tenets.<\/p>\n

Faced with accusations of a “war on religious belief” — as characterized by Rep Todd Akin (R-MO)<\/a> — the DoD reiterated its stance that<\/p>\n

DADT Repeal is not about changing attitudes but rather about reinforcing behavior that treats everyone with dignity and respect…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That statement has previously seemed to be in conflict<\/a> with the training programs and leadership statements<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Others have said the legislation is unnecessary, though that line of logic falters slightly in the face of DOMA.\u00a0 Some DADT repeal concerns were dismissed as “unnecessary” because DOMA made them moot.\u00a0 Once DADT was repealed, the Obama administration stopped defending DOMA in court, and is now actively working to repeal it.\u00a0 Even now, activist groups are trying to paint DOMA<\/a> as the next big discrimination fight.\u00a0 Thus, the “don’t worry about it, it’ll be fine” line of thinking carries little weight.<\/p>\n

Ironically, while some opponents claim the amendments were unnecessary because current policies already allow what the legislation protects, others claim those same amendments actually codify illegal conduct.\u00a0 Jason Torpy, resident atheist critic, said<\/a><\/p>\n

These amendments are intended to give chaplains the additional power to force their beliefs on others by belittling and ridiculing fellow service members.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Contrary to Torpy’s drama, nothing in the amendments to the NDAA gave anyone power to force their beliefs on anyone.\u00a0 And if current policies already allow members to express their religious beliefs, there is no change in anyone’s ability to ‘belittle or ridicule’ anyone.\u00a0 As usual, Torpy sees persecution where none exists.<\/p>\n

President Obama has reportedly threatened to veto the Defense Act<\/a> over a multitude of concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Obama’s administration has registered its objections to several portions of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act passed by the US House (which also includes another attempt to\u00a0ban NASCAR sponsorships). The Obama administration “strongly objects” to provisions in [the bill] that would prohibit the use of military property for same-sex “marriage or marriage-like” ceremonies, and protect military chaplains<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[20,5284,78,219,1744,442,253,2,2595,43,17,10,1745],"class_list":["post-17833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-atheism","tag-chaplain","tag-congress","tag-dadt","tag-doma","tag-homosexual","tag-jason-torpy","tag-military","tag-national-defense-authorization-act","tag-obama","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-todd-akin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}