The U.S. military ordered soldiers to remove a cross and a steeple
from atop a chapel and to board up cross-shaped windows at a remote
American forward operating base in Afghanistan.The removal of Christian symbols from the chapel at Forward Operating Base Orgun-E came after a solider complained — leading American Atheists president David Silverman to send a letter to the Pentagon.
The Christian cleansing brought condemnation from religious liberty advocates like Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.
“Under this Administration, the military has become a Christianity-free zone,” Perkins told Fox News. “As a veteran, there’s an irony here. You put on the uniform to defend freedom — chief among them is freedom of religion. And yet, you are stripped of your own freedom to practice your faith.”
“This is not about imposing religion on a people we’ve freed from oppression,” Perkins said. “This is about American soldiers having the ability to practice their own faith.”
Silverman stressed that their complaint was not an attack on Christianity.
The chapels are for every member of the service – even the atheists,” Silverman said. “This is not an attack on Christianity. This is an equalization of the chapel’s use in compliance with Army regulations.”
It’s not the first time the military has ordered a chapel cleansed of Christian symbols.
In 2011, the Army ordered the removal of a cross from a chapel at Camp Marmal – a decision that led some soldiers to accuse the military of a “direct attack against Christianity and Judaism.”
“My personal feeling is that it is a direct attack against Christianity and Judaism,” one soldier told Fox News. “When you look at the regulation and you notice the four items directly quoted are crosses, crucifixes, the Star of David and the Menorah.”
The Army regulation makes no specific mention of the wheel of Dharma, Pentagram, Pentacle, Star and Crescent or the Yin and Yang symbol, he noted.
And while Christian symbols are being removed from chapels, there has been at least one instance of a gay pride flag being raised at a base in Afghanistan. Click here to read our original story.
Photographs purporting to show the rainbow flag flying over the base stirred widespread debate after it was posted on Facebook.
Jan 24, 2013
By Todd Starnes