Family Policy Network of North Carolina

North Carolina Republican Representative Walter Jones is working to correct what he sees as religious persecution happening in the U.S. armed forces on a daily basis. “The persecution centers on Christian chaplains praying in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ,” he asserts. “That’s the First Amendment right of everyone.” Jones and a number of pro-family organizations have jointly asked President George W. Bush to protect the constitutional rights of American military chaplains by issuing an executive order allowing them to pray freely according to their beliefs.

The North Carolina lawmaker says one thing that brought the problem home to him was a conversation with an Air Force colonel who asked to speak to him and confided, “Congressman, there have been many times, after a ceremony on base and I was asked to pray, that I came back to my office and got down on my knees with tears in my eyes, asking God to forgive me because I would not mention his son, Jesus Christ’s name.” Jones says these kinds of restrictions on military chaplains have surfaced over the past five years, and he believes they are getting worse. [Bill Fancher]