An Army chaplain who was disciplined for offering spiritual guidance now has the support of 24 representatives and senators.
“We are concerned that this disciplinary action violated First Amendment free speech protection that are undergirded by state reflected in the FY2013 and FY2014 NDAAs, along with the accompanying DoD regulations,” states the letter from the senators, sent to Army Secretary John McHugh.
“In fulfilling his duties as chaplain, Captain Lawhorn shared both his personal struggle with depression as well as biblical references and materials in accordance with the views of his endorsing agency and complementary to personal convictions.”
Army Chaplain Capt. Joseph Lawhorn was given a “letter of concern” from a superior at Fort Benning when he mentioned his Christian faith during a suicide prevention class.
The letter from Col. David Fivecoat said a handout he offered required people to see Christian information.
“You provided a two-sided handout that listed Army resources on one side and a biblical approach to handling depression on the other side,” the letter read. “This made it impossible for those in attendance to receive the resource information without also receiving the biblical information.”
“Regrettably, military chaplains have been increasingly under fire simply for fulfilling their important and time-honored role in supporting our service members. This is just one more incident that sets a bad precedent, effectively gagging chaplains and keeping service members from getting the support they need,” Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty executive director Ron Crews said.
Residents of Adamawa state, Nigeria, say that terrorists are rampaging through the region without any Nigerian Army troops in the area to stop their rampage.
Adamawa state legislator Adamu Kamale asys that over 40 people have been killed in seven villages as Boko Haram has burned down homes and businesses and even mosques.
“They don’t spare anything: they slaughtered people like rams and they burned down our houses after looting food,” Kwache said. “There’s no presence of troops, some residents are hiding on top of hills, while those that could not run were abducted, particularly youths and women.”
Kamale says he’s been begging the government to send troops into the region but has been refused on all requests.
The terrorists are moving on the city of Maidguri with over 2 million residents. Boko Haram released a statement yesterday telling the government they plan to turn the city into a “big grave” and there “will be no mercy” for residents.
Despite asserting that they would not be invading any other parts of Ukraine, Russia has massed over 100,000 troops on the country’s border.
Andriy Parubiy, the chairman of the Ukraine National Security Council, said during a webcast that Russia has stationed large amounts of troops along the northern, western and southern borders of the country.
“We might see a huge attack on the territory of continental Ukraine [any day] and we are getting ready for it,” Parubiy said.
Intelligence officials say that Russia is working behind the scenes to try and stir up dissent throughout the rest of the country as an excuse to invade the rest of the nation.
U.S. lawmakers are being cautious about the situation, with one Representative noting that Russia has sent a large amount of armored vehicles and aircraft to the border.
A war in Ukraine could bring massive problems to the world oil markets and Europe, which is heavily dependent on natural gas from Russia.
