Huelskamp: Obama Administration Chaplain Gag Order Further Demonstrates Need for Military Religious Freedom Protection Act

Press Release

In January, Congressman Tim Huelskamp introduced the Military Religious Freedom Protection Act, legislation that among other things will ensure the religious liberty of a military chaplain is not violated following the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Just a few short weeks after he introduced this legislation, there is again cause to believe that the Obama Administration is attempting to violate the religious liberty of chaplains again. It was recently reported that the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains instructed Catholic chaplains that they could not read the entirety of a letter from Military Services Archbishop Timothy Broglio criticizing the Obama Administration's new rule requiring Catholic employers to cover and pay for contraceptives, including abortifacients.

"When President Obama put his hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the constitutionally-protected rights of all Americans, no exception was made against those in the military," Congressman Huelskamp said. "Whether it is expressing the tenets of one's faith on the issue of marriage or abortion or contraception, it is a violation of the most fundamental of rights -- the free exercise of religion -- to coerce a chaplain to act in contravention of the tenets of his faith. This 'gag order' on military chaplains is just one more example of the Obama Administration and his political appointees caring more about their narrow political agenda than the constitutionally-guaranteed rights of our men and women in uniform, including our chaplain corps."

"The men and women who valiantly and voluntarily defend our nation do so first and foremost to guarantee the protection of the rights we hold dear, including free exercise of religion and freedom of speech. Throughout the course of generations, men and women have given their lives defending those rights. Now, they find those rights under siege not on a foreign land, but right here at home."

In addition to ensuring that chaplains will not be coerced to perform or participate in any duty, rite, ritual, ceremony, service or function that is contrary to their own conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs or those of their faith group, the Military Religious Freedom Protection Act will ensure that a service member cannot be denied promotion or other training opportunities for any sincerely held belief he has about the appropriate or inappropriate expression of human sexuality and that military facilities or other property owned by the Department of Defense cannot be used to perform a marriage or marriage-like ceremony involving anything other than the union of one man with one woman.

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