Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told Iowa radio talk-show host Jan Mickelson that the Obama administration had "an open hostility toward the Christian faith" — urging prospective military recruits to enlist after President Barack Obama leaves the White House.
Mickelson asked Huckabee
Thursday on his WHO-AM program in Des Moines to respond to news reports that cited religious freedom advocates as saying that the military had become a
"hostile work environment" to Christians.
The former governor
said Friday that he would announce whether he was running for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination on May 5.
"This administration has had an open hostility toward the Christian faith," Huckabee responded.
"And I know that sounds like a bold statement, Jan, but when you have a president whose administration orders its chaplains to put their Bibles away, not to pray in Jesus name, not to counsel people on the issues of sexual morality; when you have this attitude that is more about promoting gay marriage and gay rights in the military than it is about being able to protect religious liberty for those people of faith, it’s going to be hard to find people who are truly devoted people of faith and Christian believers and Orthodox Jews and others.
"Why would they want to be in a military that would be openly hostile and not just simply bring some scorn to their faith, but would punish them for it?" Huckabee asked.
He was referring to two instances cited in the news report, first published in The Washington Times.
In one case, a chaplain for a Ranger training battalion was sent an administrative letter of concern in December after a soldier complained that he had promoted Christianity and used a Bible during a mandatory suicide-prevention training session.
And last month, a Navy chaplain was removed from his job — and his career put in jeopardy — after complaints about his private counseling sessions, during which he discouraged homosexuality and sex outside of marriage.
Mickelson then asked Huckabee how he would advise parents of children might seek to enlist in the nation's military.
"There’s nothing more honorable than serving one’s country and there’s no greater heroes to our country than our military," Huckabee said. "But I might suggest to parents, I’d wait a couple of years until we get a new commander-in-chief who will once again believe in ‘one nation under God’ and believe that people of faith should be a vital part of the process of not only governing this country, but defending this country."
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