{"id":290,"date":"2009-02-28T14:56:27","date_gmt":"2009-02-28T21:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=290"},"modified":"2009-11-21T21:32:59","modified_gmt":"2009-11-22T05:32:59","slug":"religious-freedom-and-american-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/28\/religious-freedom-and-american-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious Freedom and American Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

CNN carried an article<\/a> on Wednesday about Vice President Biden’s “stimulus oversight meeting.”\u00a0\u00a0Neither the article nor the accompanying photo caption mentioned what many noticed in the photo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Biden is a professed Catholic, and he evidently observed Ash Wednesday.\u00a0\u00a0Even though he is Vice President of the United States, and even though he was acting in his official capacity in front of the world, he is Constitutionally guaranteed the right to religious free exercise.<\/p>\n

The same is true for members of the military.\u00a0 On an internet forum, one user asked “Are Catholic Soldiers allowed to leave the Ashes on their forehead while in uniform?”\u00a0 Just as with Biden, the answer is yes<\/em>.\u00a0 While there is no official policy on Ash Wednesday, in order to prohibit the ashes the military would need to demonstrate that the “accommodation\u00a0[would] have an adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, standards, or discipline.”\u00a0 There are<\/em> situations in which the military could<\/em> legitimately restrict the practice; as a general rule, it rarely, if ever, does so.\u00a0 (See Religion and the Military<\/a> and DoDD 1300.17<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

In the past,\u00a0some have complained that outward signs of Christianity by government (or military) officials in America\u00a0may make other nations think we’re “crusaders” or may inspire acts of terrorism against us.\u00a0 Might a soldier’s expression of religion, while in uniform, be negatively perceived in some corners of the world?\u00a0 Perhaps, just as with the Vice President’s; but how much liberty should we sacrifice for security (or, more accurately, to prevent offense)?\u00a0 While we should certainly be cognizant of\u00a0cultural perceptions, we\u00a0should be hesitant to let foreign opinions dictate American liberties.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: Getty Images\/CNN.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CNN carried an article on Wednesday about Vice President Biden’s “stimulus oversight meeting.”\u00a0\u00a0Neither the article nor the accompanying photo caption mentioned what many noticed in the photo.\u00a0 Biden is a professed Catholic, and he evidently observed Ash Wednesday.\u00a0\u00a0Even though he is Vice President of the United States, and even though he was acting in his official capacity in front of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4,2,10],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-churchandstate","tag-military","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290","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=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}