Issue #99

by Art Kelly

1. Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court:

“As one who has spent a number of years in uniform, as a Marine and a police officer, my remarks will focus primarily on Ms. Kagan’s treatment of military recruiters at Harvard Law School.

“As has been pointed out, while dean of the law school, she defied the requirements of a federal law, known as the Solomon Amendment. Her violation of this federal law was motivated by her vehement opposition to the military’s prohibition against open homosexuality…

“We do not need a justice on the Supreme Court who sees it as her life mission to write the homosexual version of Roe v. Wade by striking down one-man, one-woman marriage across America.”

Perkins complete testimony is online here.

2. The Obama Administration-backed legislation now moving through Congress to permit open homosexuals to serve in the military will have a devastating effect on the men and women in uniform and on the chaplains, according to active and retired military personnel.

WORLD magazine reports that, if the bill is enacted into law, theologically conservative chaplains will be prohibited from preaching that homosexual conduct is contrary to biblical morality.

Richard Young, a retired Army colonel who spent 25 years as a chaplain, states, "For the first time in American history, virtues that are taught by chaplains will go directly against the moral message of the military. This will really muzzle how chaplains will be able to minister without facing charges of discrimination."

Chaplains from denominations which consider homosexual conduct sinful would be prohibited from preaching such messages or counseling individuals to avoid certain sins. Nor could Catholic or evangelical Protestant chaplains refuse to marry two homosexuals in the military.

During the Bush Administration, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, forcefully stated, “We should not condone immoral acts." However, his successor under President Obama, Admiral Mike Mullen, testified before Congress in support of homosexual participation in the armed forces. All four heads of the service branches then wrote Congress to disagree with Mullen’s recommendation.

And more than a thousand retired military officers have signed a letter to warn that open homosexuals in the military would "break the all-volunteer force."

The active duty soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines are also opposed to homosexuals in the services, according to a poll in Military Times. 10% say they would not re-enlist and an additional 14% say they would consider it. If just 10% ended their military careers, that would mean a loss of about 228,000 uniformed troops.

Such a pro-homosexual policy would also have a deadly effect on recruiting.

Retired Navy Commander Wayne Johnson wonders if potential recruits would want to serve if it meant showering and sleeping in barracks with those who find their own gender sexually attractive--and have the legal right to say so. "I think people will vote with their feet," he said.

Daniel Blomberg of the Alliance Defense Fund says the homosexuals have made entrance into the military a top goal because they understand that the military is an institution that is crucial to molding American society.

"This is not a narrow fight just about the military. This is just step one in achieving the goal of normalizing homosexuality in mainstream America," he said.