Pentagon to allow religious beards, tattoos, piercings in some cases

The Hill ^ | 22 Jan 14 | Kristina Wong

[SkyPilot]

The Pentagon will become more accommodating to individuals’ respective religions, according to updated instruction released today.

A new Pentagon policy states that military departments will accommodate religious requests from individual service members unless a request would interfere with military readiness, a mission, unit cohesion, or good order and discipline.

This would include religious clothing, facial hair, religious tattoos and piercings. The changes come after a Sikh American Army major complained to congressional staffers that fellow Sikhs should be able to wear a turban or maintain a beard while in uniform.

Each request will be decided on a case-by-case basis, and some decisions can be made by immediate commanders, while others will have to be referred back to their respective military service.

The new policy is intended to reduce the instances and perception of discrimination toward those whose religious expressions are less familiar to the command, said Pentagon spokesman Navy Lt. Cmdr. Nathan J. Christiansen.

"The Department of Defense places a high value on the rights of members of the military services to observe the tenets of their respective religions and the rights of others to their own religious beliefs," "including the right to hold no beliefs,"

[SkyPilot]

"You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord."

Leviticus 19:28

- Spend Millions of dollars dolling out "same sex" benefits to homosexual playthings

- Conspire with certain members of Congress to rob pensions from currently serving military and retirees who have served honorably (all to "save" $0.6 Billion per year in a $572 Billion budget)

- Attack military health care and vow to gut benefits for military, their families, and retirees

- Tell the public that "all disabled veterans" are exempt from pension cuts, when really only medically retired Chapter 61 retirees were exempted

- With all of the horrific problems facing our military, make it a priority to move heaven and earth so as to permit tattoos and piercings

Pray for our military, that is may survive these evil days.

[massgopguy]

Letting Muslims have beards in the Military will help Al Queda identify their 5th Columnists.

[Joann37]

Wow! Exactly what religious group would they be trying to accommodate - Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholics, etc. /s

Unbelievable.

[null and void]

Pray for our military, that is may survive end these evil days.

[beethovenfan]

But you better not wear a cross.

[HokieMom]

From the BBC

[haircutter]

well NO CLASS nor CHARACTER in the Pentagon, I guess..

Is anyone surprised???

Once obama is gone it will take twenty years to clean up his mess...

[SkyPilot]

[GeronL]

This country is going down the toilet fast

[milemark]

Allowed? I'm surprised they're not required!

[GeronL]

The Nidal Hassan Division

[nitzy]

What makes you think Commanders in Chief; Hillary, Jeb, or Chelsea will do anything to clean it up?

[tet68]

Headline: Pentagon to allow religious beards...

Hey, Moochele, you can come out now!

[svcw]

What’s a religious piercing?

[Blood of Tyrants]

At least they are leaving the decision up to the individual commands and not dictating a one-size fits all order.

[Blood of Tyrants]

It will make identifying the traitors within the ranks easier, too.

[robowombat]

Queers use some sort of bizarre tattoo or piercing as recognition methods. All this will do is allow some bent members of the armed forces to look really strange and disturbing and to enable that quaint queer custom of wolf packing to flourish. Straight, traditional, white males need to consider carefully if the armed forces is the place that want to be.

[mvonfr]

Are burkas allowed too?

[Owl558]

“Exactly what religious group would they be trying to accommodate...”

If you had read the first 5 sentences, you’d have found out they were Sikhs, a proud non-muslum people with centuries of honorable service in both the British and Indian armies. They make good Americans too, by the way. I’m all for accomodating Sikhs in the U.S. Military.

[ansel12]

Yeah, the Sikhs played a big role for the left in pushing this nonsense.