Obama, Pentagon certify DADT repeal

Obama, Pentagon certify DADT repeal: “WASHINGTON (BP)–President Obama and Pentagon leaders announced Friday they have certified the United States military is prepared for open homosexuals to serve in the armed services. The certification by the president, plus new Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen, means only a 60-day waiting period remains before final repeal of a longstanding policy that bars open homosexuals from serving openly in the Armed Forces.”

The most concerning thing to me is the freedom to preach the gospel and call people to repent from their sin including homosexuality. What the US Military is doing may actually be a infringement on the freedom of Religion and attempt to squash open dialogue and thinking in the market place of ideas. This ideas are expressed in an excellent quote from more than 60 retired chaplains in a letter sent to Obama and then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates:

… repeal would marginalize “deeply held” religious beliefs of military personnel and present a conflict when some chaplains, while preaching, “present religious teachings that identify homosexual behavior as immoral.” They warned changing the policy could influence chaplains not only in what they could preach but in what they could say in a counseling session. A repeal, the letter further said, would harm morale because it would be casting “the sincerely held religious beliefs of many chaplains and Service members as rank bigotry comparable to racism.”

I pray that truth is not the causality in this action by the White House, and that a continue free exchange of ideas can genuinely be maintained without censorship or false name calling when people cannot or will not argue their positions. We all should love all sinners in our ministries, but we should never excuse sin in others or in our own lives in proclaiming the Word of God. Eternity is at stake in our preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and heaven and hell (eternal punishment) are realities that all men and women need to hear about that are the result of either the Grace of God alone (for entrance into Heaven) or the sinful rebellion of men and women (with the just punishment of an eternal Hell). I pray that the Christian chaplains will continue preaching and counsel military personnel in a Biblical manner about the Gospel of good news of justification before God and repentance from sin (and yes repentance from the sin of homosexuality) out of a genuine love for all peoples regardless of the cost to themselves.