Military chaplain agencies demand conscience protections as ‘don’t ask’ repeal looms
Image via Wikipedia Twenty-one religious agencies that provide chaplains to the U.S. military sent a joint letter to the military’s chiefs of chaplains Monday voicing strong concern over the need for religious liberty protections if the military lifts its “don’t ask don’t tell” policy that forbids open homosexuality in the military. The letter asks the chiefs for their help in urging Congress and the Department of Defense to adopt such protections. Alliance Defence Fund ( ADF ) attorneys helped draft proposed religious liberty protections for the Pentagon’s working group on the matter, but the law designed to dismantle the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ( DADT ) policy still lacks any such protections. “ Service members should not be denied the very constitutional liberties they volunteered to defend,” said ADF Legal Counsel Daniel Blomberg. “If this government truly cares about protecting religious liberties as it says it does, why has it been afraid to put it in writing? The al