{"id":5904,"date":"2010-06-16T00:35:22","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T06:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=5904"},"modified":"2013-09-24T21:23:14","modified_gmt":"2013-09-25T00:23:14","slug":"maaf-supports-religious-restrictions-for-dadt-repeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/16\/maaf-supports-religious-restrictions-for-dadt-repeal\/","title":{"rendered":"MAAF Supports Religious Restrictions for DADT Repeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many voices\u00a0supporting the “repeal” of the policy and laws collectively referred to as “don’t ask, don’t tell” have dismissed claims from religious groups and military Chaplains about impingement on\u00a0religious liberty.\u00a0 The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, which supports the repeal, disagrees<\/a>.\u00a0 They not only believe the repeal will<\/em> result in the restriction of religious freedom, they welcome<\/em> it:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

[Military Chaplains\u00a0who oppose repeal] fear their opposition to homosexuality will be labeled as “rank bigotry comparable to racism.”\u00a0 They fear they will not be able to label homosexuality as “sinful and harmful” and that they will not be able to avoid working with homosexual service members. \u00a0 They fear that in…family support programs such as Strong Bonds, chaplains will not be able to evangelize their faith.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

MAAF President Jason Torpy blatantly misrepresents two points.\u00a0 As noted by the lack of quotation marks, the letter to which Torpy refers<\/a> says nothing about a fear of “working with” homosexuals.\u00a0 What it does<\/em> say is Chaplains may be required to fill ministry positions (that is,\u00a0sectarian\u00a0support\u00a0of the Chaplaincy) with persons who express a homosexual preference, despite the fact such a preference is inconsistent with the theology of the Chaplain and\/or the congregation it serves.<\/p>\n

Torpy also says, without quotation or support, that Chaplains want to use Strong Bonds to “evangelize their faith.”\u00a0\u00a0What the letter does<\/em> say is persons who express a homosexual preference may ultimately\u00a0attend the Strong Bonds program<\/a>; Chaplains who cannot morally support such a lifestyle choice would either have to abdicate their theological beliefs or face punishment if they made statements that were “discriminatory” toward what they viewed as the immorality of homosexuality.<\/p>\n

Torpy’s pejorative simplifications notwithstanding, his main point is most important:<\/p>\n

MAAF affirms that all of these are likely outcomes<\/strong><\/em> of open service for gay and lesbian service members. MAAF wholeheartedly supports these restrictions<\/strong><\/em> on the opportunity to discriminate… (emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Torpy openly calls for the restriction of\u00a0the human liberty<\/em> to religious freedom\u00a0— despite the fact it\u00a0benefits “atheists and free thinkers” and\u00a0is protected by the US Constitution.<\/p>\n

Torpy gives insight as to his reasoning with this statement:<\/p>\n

This personal\/professional separation in military duties is the same skill that allows chaplains to minister daily to a military society that is pluralistic in belief and action.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, Torpy commits\u00a0a fairly common error — one made more common\u00a0when someone outside<\/em> of a religious worldview attempts to tell those inside<\/em> it what they believe.<\/p>\n

With some notable exceptions, the majority of world religions support the concept of religious choice.\u00a0 That is, because theology is a belief<\/em>, it cannot be forced (as, for example, could a behavior).\u00a0 Even mutually exclusive religions (in most places) support the freedoms of the other religions to both exist and evangelize because they trust in the ultimate truth of their own to prevail; they generally believe they do not require the suppression of another religion for the success of their own.<\/p>\n

Therefore, a Chaplain who ministers “daily to a [pluralistic] military society” does not contravene his faith when he does so.\u00a0 With specific reference to the Christian faith, which is the only faith Torpy addresses, Christianity actually supports<\/em> religious freedom, because it is in this freedom that Christians believe others can freely<\/em> come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Thus, Torpy’s attempt to morally\u00a0equate religious pluralism\u00a0with “sexual pluralism” is in error.<\/p>\n

Torpy and his MAAF are\u00a0not the first to assert that the normalization of homosexual conduct in the military would be ‘business as usual.’\u00a0 The Alliance Defense Fund has disagreed<\/a>, saying if homosexuals are allowed to openly serve, the military will<\/p>\n

for the first time in history espouse a military policy that is completely at odds with the morality expressed by many of its Chaplains.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With respect to the impact to religious freedom, at least,\u00a0it seems Torpy and the ADF agree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many voices\u00a0supporting the “repeal” of the policy and laws collectively referred to as “don’t ask, don’t tell” have dismissed claims from religious groups and military Chaplains about impingement on\u00a0religious liberty.\u00a0 The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, which supports the repeal, disagrees.\u00a0 They not only believe the repeal will result in the restriction of religious freedom, they welcome it:\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[20,5284,4,219,253,107,2,10,616],"class_list":["post-5904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-atheism","tag-chaplain","tag-churchandstate","tag-dadt","tag-jason-torpy","tag-maaf","tag-military","tag-religion","tag-strong-bonds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5904","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=5904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}