The career of a decorated Army Chaplain is in jeopardy after he explained to a soldier that he could not conduct a marriage retreat that included a same-sex couple because of his religious beliefs.
Southern Baptist Chaplain Scott Squires was set to preside over Strong Bonds, a marriage retreat sponsored by the Army. However, when Squires learned that a lesbian soldier and her wife would be in attendance, he informed the soldier that he could no longer facilitate the retreat as he is endorsed by the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board (NAMB). NAMB specifically forbids endorsed chaplains from presiding over marriage retreats that include same-sex couples.
However, sensitive to the couple’s desire to attend, Squires rescheduled the retreat to include a non-SBC chaplain who could work with them. But that effort wasn’t good enough for the Army, which determined in a military investigation at Fort Bragg in North Carolina that Squires had discriminated against the lesbian soldier based on her sexual orientation:
“The Army EO policy states that no service will be denied to any member of the Armed Service regardless of race, color, national origin, gender, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation,” read a report from the investigator. “CH Squires should be reprimanded for his failure to include (name deleted) in the initial Strong Bonds Retreat.”
Does the Army not realize their hypocrisy here?
Thankfully, the First Liberty Institute has taken on Squires’s case.
“Chaplain Squires should not have his career ruined for following the rules of both his faith and the Army,” First Liberty Institute attorney Mike Berry said on the “Todd Starnes Radio Show.”
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“In essence, the investigator equated Chaplain Squires’ explaining the requirements of his faith with unlawful discrimination,” Berry said. “It is inconceivable that a military chaplain who merely explains his ecclesiastical endorser places certain restrictions on what religious rites, ceremonies, and practices he may perform violates military EO policy.”
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“That would mean a chaplain can’t even talk about their religious beliefs without being accused of discrimination. That would strip thousands of chaplains across our military of their most basic freedoms under the First Amendment,” Berry said.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time we’ve seen a case like Squires’s. The First Amendment rights of Christians are under attack across the country, and liberals have rallied to put hardworking people out of business just for their belief in traditional marriage. Now, it seems Chaplain Squires’s entire career is at risk for expressing the very thing he was hired for: his faith.
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