By Owen Toomey –
After Chaplain Rusty Trubey preached against homosexuality in June, he was relieved of duties for hate speech. But what about the Constitution’s protection of freedom of religion and freedom of speech?
“It’s scary to think that in America, a chaplain could be removed, investigated and censored for preaching out of the Bible during a chapel service,” said the Army Reserve chaplain. “Veterans come to Protestant Chapel service to hear something that they won’t hear from their therapist, the actual good news. This is the message that I feel called and led to be faithful to preach and why veterans come to the VA Chapel to hear.”
Trubey’s VA supervisors in the Coatesville, PA, also demanded he submit his sermons beforehand so they could be approved.
In response, First Liberty Institute and the Independence Law Center sent a letter on behalf of Rusty Trubey, a veteran chaplain at the Coatesville VA Medical Center, to U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins to ditch a speech code being imposed by the Veterans Affairs.
“The government has no business censoring anyone’s sermon, including military chaplains,” Erin Smith, associate counsel at First Liberty Institute, said. “This is just the kind of woke policy that we anticipate Secretary Collins wants to purge from the VA.”
Randall Wenger of the Independence Law Center concurred: “Chaplains do not give up their First Amendment rights in order to serve. Censoring the content of a chaplain’s sermon is an unconstitutional violation of their God-given rights to religious freedom and free speech.”
It is true that military personnel take a solemn oath to do no harm, but Trubey says he has an obligation to God to preach the whole Gospel, not just government-approved parts.
“In order to be able to hear the good news of what he was going to be preaching, it’s important to first hear the bad news,” Smith says.
The sermon in question was based on Romans 1, which outlines all prevalent sins. Homosexuality is not worse than any other sin. We are all sinners (the bad news), and we need a Savior who forgives us (the good news).
The Gospel hates no one and offers love for everyone but calls upon all to repent of any and every sin.
