John Schlageter, general counsel for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services USA (AMSUSA) said that military priests are facing arrest if they celebrate mass or practice their faith on military bases during the government shutdown.
Schlageter explained: “During the shutdown, it is illegal for them to minister on base and they risk being arrested if they attempt to do so.”
The AMSUSA “provides the Catholic Church’s full range of pastoral ministries and spiritual services to those in the United States Armed Forces.”
Schlageter warns: “If the government shutdown continues through the weekend, there will be no Catholic priest to celebrate Mass this Sunday in the chapels at some U.S. military installations where non-active-duty priests serve as government contractors.”
Indeed, “Sunday Mass won’t be offered ” and if “someone has a baptism scheduled, it won’t be celebrated.”
During the shutdown, civilian priests previously hired by the AMSUSA are not allowed admittance on military bases.
The US Armed Forces furloughed 50 Catholic priests during the government shutdown.
House Representative Mike Pompeo said that this action infringes on “the constitutional rights of those who put their lives on the line for this nation do not end with a government slowdown. It is completely irresponsible for the president to turn his back on every American’s First Amendment rights by furloughing military contract clergy. This action crosses a constitutional line of obstructing every U.S. service member’s ability to practice his or her religion.”
Recently, the Pentagon stated that Christians who are active duty in the US Armed Forces would be court martialed if caught trying to convert fellow soldiers to Christianity because “religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense. . . Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis . . .”
Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), asserted that the US Air Force would begin the court martial process for members who were caught proselytizing beginning on April 23rd because those trying to convert others “are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished – by the hundreds if necessary – to stave off what he called a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.”
Weinstein continued: “Someone needs to be punished for this. Until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior.”
Using rhetoric, Weinstein attended a meeting with Pentagon officials to utilize the Air Force Instruction, Standards of Conduct policy , Section 2.11 which states that the US government must remain neutral with regard to religion.
The policy reads: “Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for an individual’s free exercise of religion or other personal beliefs and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion.”
Conversely, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC) commented on the Pentagon taking direction on military policy from the MRFF. Perkins said: “Why would military leadership be meeting with one of the most rabid atheists in America to discuss religious freedom in the military,” Perkins said. “That’s like consulting with China on how to improve human rights.”
Perkins began a protest petition to urge Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Defense, to defend the religious free will of soldiers “and not to proceed with the purge of religion within the ranks called for by anti-Christian activists.”
Mainstream media (MSM) are combating this development with propaganda from the DoD. Lieutenant Commander Nate Christensen stated: “The U.S. Department of Defense has never and will never single out a particular religious group for persecution or prosecution. The Department makes reasonable accommodations for all religions and celebrates the religious diversity of our service members. Service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one’s beliefs (proselytization).”
SOURCE occupycorporatism
