A coalition of legislators and religious freedom advocates warned Tuesday about the growing hostility toward Christians serving in the military and called for a federal statute to protect the religious liberty of troops.
The Family Research Council distributed a report, “A Clear and Present Danger: The Threat to Religious Liberty in the Military,” at the press conference on Tuesday at the Capitol detailing incidences of that hostility, including the July 27, 2011 cancellation of a 20-year-old ethics course taught at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California because it used Scripture.
On May 31, 2013, a painting that included a Scripture citation was removed from Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation complained.
“There’s a long list of things that have been happening in very recent years that for those who do the most for us – uniformed members – who put their lives on the line and who have done that over 237 years, those who have fought for our religious liberties the most are the ones today who are having those very liberties taken from them,” Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) said at the press conference.
Fleming sponsored and the House passed an amendment to the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act to create a statute designed to protect the religious liberty of service members, including the freedom to live out and talk about one’s religious beliefs.
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