Contact: Wanda Sanchez, 209-534-9921, wanda@fullphasemedia.com; Chaplain Klingenschmitt, 719-360-5132, chaplaingate@yahoo.com
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 /Christian Newswire/ -- 1) Navy and Air Force Chaplains free to pray "in Jesus name" again. 2) Congress orders Secretary of the Navy to rescind "non-sectarian" prayer policy. 3) Congress orders Secretary of the Air Force to rescind "guidelines concerning the exercise of religion."
After months of fighting the Navy’s "non-sectarian" prayer policy, Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt rejoiced on Friday as the U.S. Congress took decisive action to overturn recent Navy and Air Force policies that required "non-sectarian" prayers.
"Praise be to God, military chaplains can once again pray freely in Jesus name!" Klingenschmitt declared in victory. "Although this fight may have cost my career and my pension, it was well worth it, because now at least other chaplains will be given the same religious liberty I was denied."
While Senator John Warner blocked language in the Defense Authorization Act to let chaplains pray according to their conscience, Congressman Duncan Hunter held firm and secured non-negotiable language in the "Conference Report" forcing the Navy and Air Force to rescind their "non-sectarian" prayer policies.
Janet Folger, Founder/President of Faith2Action, declared victory as well: "This conference report has teeth. It restores freedom of speech to military chaplains, it restores the law since 1860 that traditionally let chaplains pray in Jesus name in any setting, and it serves a swift rebuke to Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter. He’s now been ordered by Congress to rescind his illegal policy, and stop his censorship of chaplains’ prayers. Winter is over, it’s Summer again, for chaplains who pray in Jesus name."
Klingenschmitt also believes this policy change will overturn his recent court-martial conviction. "When my court-martial judge ruled that wearing my uniform during ‘public worship’ is only safe inside Sunday chapel, but that ‘worshipping in public’ in uniform can be criminally punished if you disobey orders, he based his ruling on that same illegal policy Congress just rescinded... "
To schedule an interview with Chaplain Klingenschmitt or Janet Folger, contact Wanda Sanchez, 209-534-9921, wanda@fullphasemedia.com or Chaplain Klingenschmitt, 719-360-5132, chaplaingate@yahoo.com