by Drew Parks
Army cadet Josh Robinson has experienced what is causing controversy in the military.
KU senior Robinson is in KU’s Army ROTC program. Robinson said that he has experienced his fellow cadets sharing their personal and religious beliefs with him, but no experiences that were too bad for him.
“I have experienced it. No one has ever been aggressive when discussing their faith to me. It hasn’t generally been something I talk about with others,” Robinson said.
The military has recently had to define the difference between sharing one’s religion and forcing someone to believe their religion some in order to stop the rumors coming out about the military being against Christians “sharing” their faith.
Reports in conservative media last week claimed that the U.S. military is punishing Christians for simply “sharing” their religion, while the military claims that it doesn’t punish any religious person for talking about religion – proselytizing, or active trying to convert someone to another religion, could result in a court-martial the rise in controversy of punishing Christian service members for sharing their faith. The stories started from a Fox News report and continued throughout other conservative and Christian media outlets. The Department of Defense came out with a statement to fight off the rumors of punishing Christians in the military who share their faith. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen came out with a statement to tell people that the military does not discriminate against people of certain cultures or religions.
“The U.S. Department of Defense has never and will never single out a particular religious group for persecution or prosecution,” Christensen said.
The military does permit service members to share their religion and for Christians to evangelize, but punishes proselytizing.
“Service members can share their faith, but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one’s beliefs,” Christensen said.
Military commanders can punish members for proselytizing and the punishment varies on the severity of the case.
“When religious harassment complaints are reported, commanders take action based on the gravity of the occurrence on a case-by-case basis,” Christensen said.
The rumors and reports that circulated said that the punishment for “sharing” one’s faith could be court-martialing, but Christensen did not mention the punishment for proselytizing.
Lt. Col. Laurel Tingley of the U.S. Air Force backed up Christensen’s statements on how the military treats proselytizing.
“If a service member harasses another member on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, or disability, then the commander takes action based on the gravity of the occurrence,” Tingley said.
Tingley also said that the Air Force tries to make it so members of all religions can excel in their positions and feel safe with their beliefs.
“The Air Force is dedicated to creating an environment in which people can realize their highest potential without any consideration of one’s personal religious or other beliefs,” Tingley said. “We work to ensure that Airmen are free to exercise their Constitutional right to practice their religion.”
Tingley also said that the manner in which Air Force members can share their faith needs to respectful of others’ religious rights, conducted in good order and discipline and don’t distract others from their military mission.
The military has come out with statements to make sure that the rumors of punishing Christians for sharing their faith will go away. Cru at KU staff member Josh Fieleke gave ways the military can help the rumors go away and also make service members more informed about people sharing their faith by providing meetings to show how people can share their faith without coming off as forceful or intrusive.
“They could provide training, have meetings about it in everybody’s units or groups just to show that talking about your faith is really no different than talking about the Chiefs or Royals,” Fieleke said. “You’re stating what you think about the Chiefs or Royals just like you’re stating what you think about Jesus, and so that’s not wrong to state what you think about Jesus.”
Robinson thinks the best way for the military to dispel the rumors is to ignore them.
“The military shouldn’t respond to groundless rumors,” Robinson said.
Note: To hear a complementary audio piece with this story, click here.
During the month of April and into early May, events happened in the media and military that started the controversy of Christian service members “sharing” their faith. Controversial events and statements with the military followed by stories from the conservative media led to the Pentagon releasing a statement to clear up the rumors of punishing Christians for sharing their faith.
