The lawyer representing two chaplains who are facing discrimination in the military for statements they made about their faith says that the U.S. military is growing overtly hostile to religion.
Michael Berry, lawyer and director of military affairs for the Liberty Institute, joined
Newsmax TV to discuss the situation surrounding Navy Chaplain Wes Modder and Army Chaplain Joe Lawhorn, who are both facing discipline for talking about their faith, that reflected their churches' teachings, which Berry said is supposed to be protected by federal law.
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Berry told John Bachman and Miranda Khan on "America's Forum" Thursday that Lawhorn was put on notice by the Army "when he was conducting a suicide prevention training briefing for members of his unit, and when he began to talk about how his faith had helped him deal with and cope with some of the depression he had experienced as an Army Ranger prior to becoming a chaplain.
"Somebody in the audience complained about that to the media, and he was punished for that by his commanding officer," he explained.
Modder is facing discipline for explaining his views on homosexuality and pre-marital sex to some soldiers, and a complaint was filed by a gay officer, who was working as a temp for the chaplain but never revealed to Modder that he was gay and married to a man.
However, a group of 35 lawmakers have come out in support of Modder and signed a letter to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Chief of Chaplains Rear Admiral Margaret Kibben, saying that they need to "protect military chaplains' freedom to practice their religion according to the tenets of their faith,"
Breitbart reported.
In addition to Modder and Lawhorn, Berry says that he also represented "a member of the United States Air Force who was punished because of his beliefs, his sincerely held religious beliefs."
Berry contends that "we're seeing that really no branch of the military is immune, and it doesn't matter whether they're enlisted, whether they're officers, whether they're chaplains, whether they serve in other functions.
"Really what we're seeing now is an overt hostility to religion and religious expression within our military, which is really reflective of what's happening in our society as a whole," he said.
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