Family Faith Freedom Frenzied Freak-Out

 The Family Research Council urgently wants you to know two things:

1. Obama is out to Destroy Your Religious Freedom by ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
2. If you send the FRC your money, they will stop Obama from doing this awful thing.

Let’s cut to the plug:

The Obama administration wants to take away your religious freedom-and it is using the U.S. military to do it!

Lovely lead sentence, conjuring up images of jackbooted soldiers marching down your street to take away your religious freedom.  Eek!

Let me quickly explain how.

Please do.

On September 20, Congress’ repeal of the 1993 law prohibiting open homosexuality in the U.S. military became official.

Yes, it did. After endless study, congressional testimony by military leaders, and surveys of military personnel, it was clear that the only thing maintaining the law any more was some folks just don’t like gays.  That didn’t seem a rational basis for exclusion, any more than some folks just not liking blacks was a reasonable basis for them to have to serve in segregated units.

As a Marine Corps veteran, I know that this development will have dire consequences for the majority of the dedicated men and women serving in our armed forces.

Dire! Majority!

Really? Why is that?

Military readiness and combat effectiveness could be seriously compromised just as military leaders warned Congress.

The Joint Chiefs, and the military personnel surveyed, disagree with your assessment of what “military leaders warned Congress.”

And,

• The quality of life for military families will be impacted through radical changes in their schools and housing located on military bases;

• Religious freedom will suffer as well as chaplains who uphold the bible’s teaching on homosexuality will open themselves up to disciplinary action, bad fitness reports, and the denial of promotions.

Really?  There will be radical changes in base schools?  Like what? Like they may stock Heather Has Two Daddies in the school library?  What other changes do you suggest will happen because gays are now (openly) serving?

And how will quality of life regarding housing change?  Because some of Those People might have base housing next door?  Welcome to the Real World, folks.  I think you will find having gay neighbors doesn’t really do much harm to the local neighborhood.

Really? Has this happened so far?  I mean, as you pointed out, its been nearly two months since the DADT repeal occurred. Any chaplains been disciplined yet? Surely those brave evangelical Biblical chaplains have continued to speak out! And surely those slavering gay soldiers have just been waiting to pounce!

Funny, I haven’t heard about anything like that happening, either.

Chaplains who uphold the (evangelical) Bible’s teaching on, oh, salvation through Christ Jesus alone (certainly a more fundamental dogma than … have they been persecuted, disciplined, denied promotions for preaching about how Muslims and Jews and atheists and pagans and not-the-right-kind-of-Christians are going to Hell?  Don’t think I’ve heard about that, either.

Family Research Council asks for your donation today to help us continue leading the fight on Capitol Hill, in the media and at the grassroots to defend the troops and your religious freedom.

(Link removed.)

Don’t think for a minute that this assault on religious freedom and traditional marriage is limited to the military. It’s not!

It’s not? Eek!

The experts at FRC …

Experts at … what?

… recognized from the start that the campaign to overturn the law prohibiting open homosexuality in the military was never really about “fairness” …

Really?  Because everyone I ever talked to who believed in the end of DADT always mentioned fairness.

… –or just limited to the military.

Well, there you’re correct … except that it was the military that was expressly forbidding gays to openly serve, and firing them if they were discovered.

It has always been about using the nation’s military to advance a radical anti-family, anti-religious freedom agenda that could never gain approval by voters on its own.

I do not accept the proposition that allowing gays to (openly) serve in the military is radical, anti-family, or anti-religious freedom.

I do, though, believe that removing this legalized prejudice from the military will add to further integration of gays into the civilian population, just as it had an effect when the military ceased its legalized racial prejudice when it integrated blacks and whites together. Study after study shows that the biggest factor in acceptance of gays is knowing them, and having personal, professional, and social familiarity with them.  The  same is true of other races and religions and other things that divide us.  It’s hard to buy the demonizing propaganda that all gays are ravening sex fiends and pedophiles and leather freaks when you meet Tim’s partner Fred at the company Christmas party …

If chaplains can be marginalized for openly opposing same-sex “marriages,” …

They can’t be, except socially.

… which were recently authorized on military bases under the new Department of Defense guidelines, …

The DoD did not “authorize same-sex marriage on military bases.”  It did say that military chaplains who wished to perform such marriages, in states that allow them, could do so, and could do so using facilities on basis if desired.

… how long will it be before your church can no longer preach the portions of God’s word that are politically incorrect?

Um … never?

No form of intimidation will be off the table–revoking a church’s nonprofit status, blocking building permits, imposing restrictive zoning, etc.–in an effort to silence a pastor’s opposition to homosexuality.

Really?  I mean, again, how many churches have been intimidated out of existence,, or had their nonprofit status revoked, or had their building permits canceled, etc., because their pastor spoke out against gays? Or divorce? Or Islam? Or atheists? Or alcohol? Or wars?

How many was that again?

Um … are the crickets chirping your answer?

There’s a growing tendency among Christians today to not get involved with assaults on their faith until it specifically impacts them.

No, there’s a growing tendency among some Christians today to perceive disagreement as assault, and failure of everyone to toe their ideological line as an attack on their freedom.

While what is happening now within the U.S. military may seem to be far removed from where you are, believe me, the threat will soon be at your church’s front door!

That’s right! Gay soldiers might want to actually step inside your church and worship there.  Eek!

Your financial contribution is urgently needed today to help FRC mobilize tens of thousands of Americans like yourself to oppose the Obama administration’s efforts to curtail the rights of military chaplains and our pastors to preach the full word of God.

Which efforts are completely imaginary. Can we contribute Prozac instead?

FRC is currently working overtime in Washington, DC to garner support to overturn the new Department of Defense guidelines allowing chaplains to officiate at same-sex “weddings” on military bases …

So you’re defending religious freedom … by restricting the religious freedom of chaplains to officiate at same-sex weddings?

See, this is what drives me nuts about the FRC and their “we’re being abused and marginalized and infringed upon!” rhetoric.  It’s not just that they want to be sure they can do what they feel religiously bound to do … they want to be sure that nobody else can do things they religiously disagree with.  And they call that “religious freedom.”

… and to make sure DOMA is applied to the military.

At the moment, it is.

FRC will also call for a legal challenge against the Defense Department for not following DOMA, the federal statute which prohibits same-sex “marriages” and, consequently, federal benefits for same-sex couples.

Gosh, that seems unfair. Oh, wait, I’m not allowed to use that radical word.

By the way, DOMA doesn’t “prohibit same-sex ‘marriages'”.  Marriage remains a state-by-state set of laws (You know how you love state laws when they do the things that you like, but prefer federal laws when some states don’t do the things you like? And you know how you love churches being able to do what they will religiously, except when it comes to marrying gays if their faith says they can.).

What DOMA says is that the federal government will only recognize marriage, for purposes of federal benefits, between a man and a woman.  It also says that the states that don’t recognize gay marriage have an “out” from the Constitutional “full faith and credit” clause when it comes to not having to respect gay marriages that occur in other states.  State X may allow First Cousins to marry, and State Y doesn’t, but if First Cousins marry in State X, State Y recognizes that marriage, as does the Federal Government.  DOMA says that, in the case of (eek!) gays, neither State Y nor the Feds have to recognize the individuals as married.

It is unfair.  And it’s of dubious constitutionality, which it is under attack for in the courts.

It is a challenging battle, but we are committed to sharing the truth in love . . . no matter the cost, no matter how long it takes. And with your help and the Lord’s blessing, we will prevail.

You shan’t have my help, FRC.  And I seriously doubt you have the Lord’s blessing.  Might as well give it up now, and use that money for feeding the poor, clothing the naked, caring for orphans and widows, all those things that Jesus actually talked about.

So please give generously to this vital effort to keep our military, marriage and religious freedom.

Except that none of those things is actually threatened so as to need preservation. So it’s not really a vital effort.

Finally, as we enter the season of Thanksgiving, our staff and I thank you in advance for your prayers and financial support.

Well, I’ll keep you in my prayers, how’s that?

God bless you and God bless America.

And “bless your heart.”