To: National Desk
Contact: Michele Combs, Director of Communication for the Christian Coalition, 202-479-6900, michele@cc.org
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 /Christian Wire Service/ -- Christian Coalition of America commends President George W. Bush for ensuring that military chaplains will once again be able to pray at all times in the name of Jesus, a practice which has been stifled by a politically-correct military establishment for a number of years. Congressman Walter Jones, (R-NC), is also to be commended for his hard work in working out the deal between the White House and the United States Congress. Some 75 Members of the House and Senate signed a letter to the President written by Congressman Jones urging him to issue an Executive Order.
The Honorable Claude Allen, the White House Domestic Policy Advisor, assured Congressman Jones that President Bush would indeed speak to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about this issue and the congressman agreed that this religious discrimination problem could be corrected without an additional executive order issued by the President.
The President of the Christian Coalition of America, Roberta Combs said, "Americans were surprised to learn last summer that the U.S. Air Force was about to issue unconstitutional guidelines which would have written into policy religious discrimination against evangelical and Catholic chaplains who wanted to pray in the name of Jesus. Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt's discrimination case and the religious discrimination case in the Army's 10th Mountain Division, now in Iraq, have shown us that
religious discrimination in the U.S. military is rampant. I thank President Bush, a man of great religious faith, for ensuring that such discrimination will no longer be able to continue. Our brave men and women serving all over the world, many in harm's way, deserve a discrimination-free atmosphere when it comes to their faith."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php