{"id":6693,"date":"2010-08-04T00:30:56","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T05:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=6693"},"modified":"2013-10-03T20:49:18","modified_gmt":"2013-10-03T23:49:18","slug":"gene-robinson-criticizes-adf-for-opposing-dadt-repeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/04\/gene-robinson-criticizes-adf-for-opposing-dadt-repeal\/","title":{"rendered":"Gene Robinson Criticizes ADF for Opposing DADT Repeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gene Robinson, famous as the first homosexual bishop in the Anglican church, wrote an opinion piece in USA Today<\/em><\/a> demonstrating the lack of understanding some opponents of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” have about\u00a0the military, regulations, and the law.\u00a0 In his piece, he criticizes the reply by ADF attorney Daniel Blomberg<\/a> that said “religious liberty is in real jeopardy” should DADT be repealed.<\/p>\n

First, Robinson says:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

No Roman Catholic, fundamentalist Christian or Orthodox Jewish chaplain would have to change her or his beliefs about homosexuality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That much is true.\u00a0 No one has suggested the government can force people to change what they believe.\u00a0 (As an aside, Robinson’s inclusion of the pronoun “her” is interesting, given his subjects.)\u00a0 He then says<\/p>\n

If any gay or lesbian servicemembers went to one of these chaplains, they would still receive the counseling against homosexuality they have always received.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That could also be true.\u00a0 What he fails to address, however, is what would happen if a homosexual servicemember — counseled “against homosexuality” by a superior officer (Chaplain)\u00a0— lodged a complaint through the chain of command or Equal Opportunity system, as they would be permitted to do.\u00a0\u00a0His justification is incomprehensible:<\/p>\n

Speaking against homosexuality is what gay and lesbian soldiers have come to expect from these brands of religious leaders.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently he thinks religiously-based comments declaring homosexuality wrong — what some homosexual advocates call “bigotry” — are “expected,”\u00a0and therefore they won’t mind.<\/p>\n

He also takes what is yet another swing at what has become a common meme by those who support the repeal of DADT:\u00a0 “It’s just like…”:<\/p>\n

Presumably, these same chaplains have counseled soldiers against getting an abortion, even though it is perfectly legal to do so.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This swing “misses,” and the argument fails, for the same reason as did the discussion about remarriage<\/a>.\u00a0 Having had or desiring an abortion, like having had a divorce or remarriage, is not a characteristic of a protected class under military anti-discrimination policies.\u00a0 Therefore, any<\/em> military member — Chaplain or not, religious or not — is free to express their support or disagreement with\u00a0abortion, divorce, or remarriage.\u00a0 (Resnicoff also tried to use the abortion equivalency<\/a>, and Blomberg pointed out his error.)<\/p>\n

However, if the laws under consideration in Congress<\/a> are passed, homosexuality will<\/em> be a protected class.\u00a0 As such, the topic of homosexuality is nothing like<\/em> divorce, remarriage, or abortion.\u00a0 In fact, the Alliance Defense Fund makes a compelling case<\/a> that the proposal on open service by homosexuals is like nothing<\/em> to date in the military.<\/p>\n

Yet proponents of repeal repeatedly propose the claim it is “no different” than any other policy change to date.\u00a0 They have yet to provide a compelling, or even accurate, case.<\/p>\n

One final thought: Robinson said no Chaplain would be forced to change their beliefs.\u00a0 This is true.\u00a0\u00a0Opponents of repeal, like the ADF, have only said Chaplains may be punished for<\/em> expressing<\/em> their beliefs, not that they would be forced to change<\/em> their beliefs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gene Robinson, famous as the first homosexual bishop in the Anglican church, wrote an opinion piece in USA Today demonstrating the lack of understanding some opponents of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” have about\u00a0the military, regulations, and the law.\u00a0 In his piece, he criticizes the reply by ADF attorney Daniel Blomberg that said “religious liberty is in real jeopardy” should DADT […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,28],"tags":[437,5284,4,219,770,864,442,39,2,17,10,866],"class_list":["post-6693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chaplain","category-government-and-religion","tag-adf","tag-chaplain","tag-churchandstate","tag-dadt","tag-daniel-blomberg","tag-gene-robinson","tag-homosexual","tag-jewish","tag-military","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-roman-catholic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6693","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=6693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}