A Soldier Training
Some men serving in the U.S. armed forces have expressed some disappointments towards the Defense Department and their attitudes toward a regulation that a serviceman cannot participate in an event which selectively benefits a specific ideology or organization. However, many expressed they are unable to understand why it is okay for some troops to participate in a Gay Pride March and not okay for servicemen to participate in a Bible Camp at a church.
The regulation goes as follows: “Army participation must not selectively benefit (or appear to benefit) any person, group or corporation (whether profit or non-profit); religion, sect, religious or sectarian group, or quasi-religious or ideological movement.” However, some military personnel believe that the regulation is only selectively implied.
Earlier in late July, the Defense Department prohibited members of the Missouri National Guard from participating in Bible Baptist Church in Carthage. The guards were invited by the church to be honored by the pastor and the children there. However, the D.C. Military Color Guard Should was authorized to march in Washington D.C.’s gay pride march in San Diego, earlier in June. They were marching in uniform and there was one serviceman who even appeared there with his husband.
Members of the Missouri National Guard who were denied permission to take part in the Bible Camp at the church in Carthage expressed that they could not understand why certain troops were allowed to participate in an event which promotes homo-sexuality but they could not go and visit some children who look up to them and respect them.
The event they were originally planning to take part in, the Bible Baptist Church Bible Camp was an event hosted by the local church to honor various local rescue units. The event was titled “God’s Rescue Squad” and was scheduled to last about a week. Before the national guard, the church had invited members of the fire department, the sheriff with the K-9 unit.
"We had a lot of disappointed kiddos because of the National Guard being unwilling to allow a Humvee and a few soldiers to spend an hour at a Baptist Church," one guardsman told Starnes. "It makes me wonder what I'm actually fighting for… I honestly never thought I'd see the day when this would happen in my hometown." Other servicemen expressed to the media, that people need to understand that their religious freedom could be on the line.
