Baptist Press:
WASHINGTON (BP) — The commutation of a former U.S. soldier’s espionage sentence has caused some to ask whether the reduced prison term is related to the inmate’s transgender identity.
The commutation also prompted Douglas Carver, the North American Mission Board’s executive director of chaplaincy, to underscore the need for U.S. military chaplains “to engage all people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, regardless of their gender identity.”
President Obama announced Jan. 17 that Bradley Manning’s sentence would be commuted from 35 years to the seven years he has already served. He is slated for release May 17, The New York Times reported.
Manning, then a low-level Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, was arrested in 2010 and pled guilty in 2013 to 10 charges related to releasing classified information through the WikiLeaks organization.