{"id":7976,"date":"2010-11-10T00:25:57","date_gmt":"2010-11-10T05:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=7976"},"modified":"2010-11-08T00:55:27","modified_gmt":"2010-11-08T05:55:27","slug":"aclu-christian-navy-ensign-sue-for-co-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/10\/aclu-christian-navy-ensign-sue-for-co-status\/","title":{"rendered":"ACLU, Christian Navy Ensign Sue for CO Status"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The ACLU has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.acluct.org\/aboutus\/pressroom\/izbickipressrelease.htm\">sued the US Navy<\/a> on behalf of Ensign Michael Izbicki, a 2008 US Naval Academy graduate, who has been denied status as a conscientious objector.<\/p>\n<p>Izbicki has reportedly been developing beliefs in line with the Quakers, a pacifist theology.\u00a0 The Navy has reportedly denied his claim because it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ctnow.com\/news\/hc-conscientious-objector-1104-20101103,0,5640653.story\">questioned the sincerity of his beliefs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>According to the lawsuit, the Navy&#8217;s investigations of the legitimacy of Izbicki&#8217;s beliefs were deeply flawed and, in one case, &#8220;showed extreme religious bias&#8221; against his Christian beliefs, especially when it came to his increasing interest in Quakerism&#8230;\u00a0 <!--more--><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Izbicki&#8230;now lives at the pacifist Christian community of St. Francis House in New London.<\/p>\n<p>His lawyers say two Navy chaplains, three civilian-ordained clergy and two academic theologians have affirmed the &#8220;depth and sincerity&#8221; of his beliefs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For his part, Izbicki has reportedly offered to reimburse the Navy for his education, and is willing to go to prison.\u00a0 As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcconnecticut.com\/news\/local-beat\/CT-Sailor-Sues-Navy-Over-Religious-Beliefs-106683373.html\">stated in the articles<\/a>, his beliefs align with opposition to all war, the requirement for CO status:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;My Christian convictions preclude the use of violence; I cannot take someone else&#8217;s life, nor can I aid others in doing so,&#8221; Izbicki wrote in his application, the Hartford Courant reports. &#8220;Therefore, I cannot participate in war in any form.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As a point of contrast, PFC Naser Abdo recently requested CO status not because he objected to all war, but because he <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/26\/muslim-soldier-claims-conscientious-objector-status\/\">objected to war waged by the US military<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ACLU has sued the US Navy on behalf of Ensign Michael Izbicki, a 2008 US Naval Academy graduate, who has been denied status as a conscientious objector. Izbicki has reportedly been developing beliefs in line with the Quakers, a pacifist theology.\u00a0 The Navy has reportedly denied his claim because it questioned the sincerity of his beliefs. According to the [&#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":[46,1142,2,36,10,473],"class_list":["post-7976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-conscientious-objector","tag-michael-izbicki","tag-military","tag-navy","tag-religion","tag-usna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7976","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=7976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}