FRC Washington Update:
. . . [T]he timing of his team’s first strike on the issue was so important. Shortly after the State of the Union address, where President Obama called for repeal, the White House rushed Adm. Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the Hill for cover. Both leaders backed the campaign in an effort to head off any dissent. Until yesterday, they were quite successful.
So successful, in fact, that even I was caught in the crossfire. In October, the chaplain of Andrews Air Force Base asked me to speak at a non-political prayer luncheon. Just two days after the State of the Union address, the base rescinded its invitation, citing FRC statements ‘which are incompatible in our role as military members who serve our elected officials and our Commander-in-Chief.’ As a veteran of the Marine Corps, I was shocked that the military would exclude me from speaking to the spiritual needs of our servicemen solely because I exercised my free speech rights in a different forum–in support of the current law of the land. Unfortunately, this is just precursor of things to come in a post-’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ military.
This legislation would more than open the Armed Forces to homosexuals; it would lead to a zero-tolerance policy toward anyone who disapproves of homosexuality . . .
