{"id":18794,"date":"2012-07-25T01:32:31","date_gmt":"2012-07-25T04:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=18794"},"modified":"2013-11-01T23:20:54","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T02:20:54","slug":"congress-criticizes-defense-department-for-homosexual-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/25\/congress-criticizes-defense-department-for-homosexual-parade\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress Criticizes Defense Department for Homosexual Parade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Senator Jim Inhofe of the Senate Armed Services Committee &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/inhofe.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&amp;FileStore_id=531189cd-fcb1-40ee-ab61-ec93bf239dec\">respectfully requested<\/a>&#8221; that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta explain why members of the US military <a href=\"http:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/2012\/07\/ap-gop-challenges-military-gay-pride-parade-072412\/\">were authorized to wear their uniforms<\/a> in a homosexual &#8220;pride&#8221; parade in San Diego.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In a letter to Panetta, Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma said department rules bar service members from participating in political activities while in uniform and pressed Panetta on why a waiver was granted, who requested it and why it was considered over others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Congressmen also noted that other military members have been punished for doing what the DoD authorized in this instance:\u00a0 <!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIf the Navy can punish a chaplain for participating in a pro-life event or a Marine participating in a political rally, it stands to reason that the Defense Department should maintain the same standard and preclude service members in uniform from marching in a gay pride parade,\u201d Inhofe wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s unclear if Senator Inhofe was referring to a specific instance with regard to the Navy Chaplain, though former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt was <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/10\/former-navy-chaplain-klingenschmitt-sues-for-reinstatement\/\">court-martialed for wearing his uniform<\/a> when it wasn&#8217;t authorized.<\/p>\n<p>On his own site, the Senator also included a fairly comprehensive list of the evidence of &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/inhofe.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.PressReleases&amp;ContentRecord_id=ba756de7-a9f8-55c0-8c91-65f3dfaf9031\">Hostility towards religion in the military under the Obama Administration<\/a>:&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Hostility towards religion in the military under the Obama Administration<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>April 2010\u2014Franklin <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/2010\/04\/21\/army-weighs-rescinding-invitation-evangelist\/\">Graham is disinvited<\/a> from a National Day of Prayer event at the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<p>August 2011\u2014The Air Force <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/checkpoint-washington\/post\/air-force-suspends-ethics-course-that-used-bible-passages-to-train-missile-launch-officers\/2011\/08\/02\/gIQAv6V2pI_blog.html\">stops teaching the Just War<\/a> theory to officers because the course is taught by chaplains and is based on a philosophy introduced by St. Augustine.<\/p>\n<p>September 2011\u2014Air Force Chief of Staff Schwartz <a href=\"http:\/\/forbes.house.gov\/UploadedFiles\/Gen_Schwartz_Letter_Religion_Neutralilty.pdf\">prohibits commanders<\/a> from notifying airmen of chaplain programs and services available to them.<\/p>\n<p>September 2011\u2014The Navy issues guidelines for Walter Reed Medical Center stipulating that \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/forbes.house.gov\/UploadedFiles\/WalterReedMemo.pdf\">No religious items<\/a> (i.e. Bibles, reading materials and\/or artifacts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit.\u201d Once the issue became public, the Navy reversed the decision.<\/p>\n<p>September 2011\u2014The Pentagon directs that military <a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/blogs\/politics\/2011\/10\/will-same-sex-marriages-pose-a-dilemma-for-military-chaplains\/\">chaplains may perform same-sex marriages<\/a> at military facilities in violation of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.<\/p>\n<p>November 2011\u2014The Air Force Academy <a href=\"http:\/\/radio.foxnews.com\/toddstarnes\/top-stories\/air-force-academy-backs-away-from-christmas-charity.html\">rescinds support for Operation Christmas Child<\/a>, a program to send holiday gifts to impoverished children across the world, because the program is run by a Christian charity.<\/p>\n<p>February 2012\u2014The U.S. Military Academy at West Point <a href=\"http:\/\/cnsnews.com\/node\/508665\">disinvites<\/a> three star Army general and decorated war hero Lieutenant General William G. (\u201cJerry\u201d) Boykin (retired) from speaking at an event because he is an outspoken Christian.<\/p>\n<p>February 2012\u2014The Air Force <a href=\"http:\/\/www.syracuse.com\/news\/index.ssf\/2012\/02\/air_force_rco_removes_god_logo_patch.html\">removes \u201cGod\u201d<\/a> from the patch of Rapid Capabilities Office (the word on the patch was in Latin: Dei).<\/p>\n<p>February 2012\u2014The <a href=\"http:\/\/radio.foxnews.com\/toddstarnes\/top-stories\/army-silences-catholic-chaplains.html\">Army silences Catholic chaplains<\/a>, ordering them not to read a letter to parishioners that their archbishop asked them to read regarding abortion and the Obama Administration\u2019s policies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senator Jim Inhofe of the Senate Armed Services Committee &#8220;respectfully requested&#8221; that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta explain why members of the US military were authorized to wear their uniforms in a homosexual &#8220;pride&#8221; parade in San Diego. In a letter to Panetta, Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma said department rules bar service members from participating in political activities while [&#8230;]<\/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":[134,54,5284,1897,219,1744,406,276,442,795,1977,2,36,497,43,11,2666,10,171,74,2198,1835,101],"class_list":["post-18794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-air-force","tag-catholic","tag-chaplain","tag-court-martial","tag-dadt","tag-doma","tag-franklin-graham","tag-gordon-klingenschmitt","tag-homosexual","tag-james-inhofe","tag-leon-panetta","tag-military","tag-navy","tag-norton-schwartz","tag-obama","tag-prayer","tag-rapid-capabilities-office","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-senate","tag-senator","tag-walter-reed","tag-west-point"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18794","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=18794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}