TAKE ACTION: Keep a religious veto out of the annual defense bill
Act: Click, personalize and send: FFRF Action Fund | TAKE ACTION: Keep a religious veto out of the annual defense bill
TLDR: An amendment to the military budget has been proposed that would:
- Allow military chaplains to refuse more duties, like refuse service to a LGBTQ member or member of another religion (The foundation of professional chaplaincy is caring for everyone nonjudgmentally.)
- Shields military chaplains from consequences of their behavior.
Our military members deserve better.
More information: A radical Texas congressman is using the annual defense bill to hand military chaplains a blanket religious veto over their duties and to shield them from any consequence for pushing religion on the troops they're meant to serve. The full House is about to vote on it.
Rep. Keith Self has attached Amendment 237 to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the must-pass bill that funds the military every year. His proposal couldn't pass as a standalone bill, so he's pushing it through as part of legislation that Congress can't easily vote down. It has cleared the House Rules Committee and is headed for a floor vote.
The amendment does two things. First, the amendment expands and entrenches a chaplain's ability to refuse duties that conflict with their beliefs. Chaplains already have conscience protections under current Pentagon policy, but the amendment goes far more broadly. Conscience protections would apply to any “task or action,” allowing chaplains to decline to counsel or refer a service member whose identity or choices they disapprove of, leaving those service members with nowhere to turn. Second, the amendment shields a chaplain's preaching and conduct from “censorship, undue restriction, or fear of retribution,” and makes any service member who interferes subject to court-martial.
Please take action and urge your representative to vote no on Amendment 237 and keep it out of the NDAA.