CHAPLAIN ALLIANCE FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY February 11, 2015 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact CHAPLAIN ENDORSERS at info@chaplainalliance.org or call (571) 293-2427
Chaplains commend Air Force for retaining article about airman’s humanitarian work
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty commended Air Force officials Tuesday for declining to succumb to activist demands that they remove from a military website an article about Senior Master Sgt. Larry Gallo of the 433rd Airlift Wing, who spends his Christmas holidays doing medical mission work in Guatemala and Mexico.
Chaplain Alliance and Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter to the Air Force after it placed the article under review as a result of a complaint from an outside organization. It was the second time in recent months that the Air Force has put such an article under scrutiny despite new rules that reinforce the ability of service men and women to express their faith.
“Congress has spoken, the Department of Defense has spoken, and Air Force policy is clear: Air Force personnel may speak of their faith without fear of recrimination,” said Chaplain (COL) Ron Crews, USA Retired, executive director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. “For that reason, the Air Force had no need or justification for conducting a review in the first place. While we are pleased that the article will stay, we hope the Air Force will simply ignore these kinds of complaints in the future rather than investigate what does not need to be investigated.”
Congress affirmed protections for religious speech in the Right of Conscience Clause of the National Defense Authorization Act. The Air Force also recently issued revised guidelines that permit Air Force personnel to speak about their faith.
“All Americans, especially those who wear the uniform and fight to protect our freedoms, should not have to fear that they will be unjustly scrutinized simply for exercising those freedoms,” said ADF Legal Counsel Travis Barham. “We certainly commend the Air Force formaking the right decision here, but we hope it will simply reject any future complaints of this nature as unwarranted.”
Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty is an organization of chaplain endorsers, the faith groups that provide chaplains for the U.S. military and other agencies needing chaplains. The endorsers in Chaplain Alliance speak for more than 2,600 chaplains serving the Armed Forces.
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