Comments on: CNS News: More than 2,000 Evangelical, Orthodox Chaplains Join Catholics in Opposing Pentagon Directive on Same-Sex Marriage

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 15:12:08 +0000

In reply to bob. Military chaplains are not and will not be compelled by law to perform religious ceremonies that are prohibited by their denominations whether it's gay marriage, a remarriage or an interfaith marriage. It is currently legal in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama (among other states) to marry your first cousin, but no chaplain has ever been compelled to marry first cousins, either. I'm sure a nutty activist or two might try to impose one or more of these, but it won't hold water.

By: bob

bob — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 02:50:21 +0000

Wouldn’t a chaplain already have the right to refuse to marry any (normal) couple for any reason ? He isn’t required to perform any sacrament if he doesn’t think the proper conditions are met. For that matter a Baptist chaplain wouldn’t “have to” celebrate an Orthodox liturgy for a congregation of Orthodox soldiers. I don’t know, but isn’t there a lot of leeway for chaplains to opt out of things?

By: isaac

isaac — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 02:33:19 +0000

The bigger question is what is any Christian is doing in the US military in the first place. It shouldn’t take this kind of thing to have given a Christian pause about being in a military whose purpose has long since moved very far away from wars of defense.

Christians are just going to lose this battle, look like busybodies who are far too interested in legislating the moral behavior of non-believers, and miss the opportunity to demonstrate a radically different approach to war and violence.

The whole “Defense of Marriage” posture is a posture of complete and utter failure. Christians should “defend” marriage by bowing out of state sanctioned marriages and then working on divorce rates in the single digits in order to demonstrate a difference.

By: George Patsourakos

George Patsourakos — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:29:15 +0000

The Department of Defense ruling last week, which allows military chaplains to perform same-sex marriages, is in fact illegal, because it violates DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) — a law that was passed 15 years ago, and still remains in effect today. President Obama, however, has instructed his legal staff to ignore DOMA, so that the federal government can allow same-sex marriages to be performed and accepted.

I wrote an in-depth commentary on this very subject on my Theology and Society blog yesterday (October 5, 2011) titled “Commentary: Allowing Military Chaplains to Perform Same-Sex Marriage Violates DOMA.” AOI Blog readers can read it by visiting theologyandsociety.blogspot.com.