Posted on 05/28/2015 8:54:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Rev. Franklin Graham has spoken out on a case concerning a Marine Corporal who was court-martialed for refusing to remove a Bible verse from her computer at work, stating that it shows that there is no tolerance in culture for Christians.
Marine Lance Cpl. Monifa Sterling was court-martialed earlier this week after she was convicted Feb. 1, 2014, for refusing to remove the verse "No weapon formed against you shall prosper" (Isaiah 54:17) from her computer.
"Unbelievably, she was criminally prosecuted by the U.S. government for displaying this encouraging scripture on her computer in her workspace. Give me a break, really? Can our society be at a point where a supervisor can order a young Marine to remove a Bible verse from her computer? Others are able to display secular messages without any opposition, but Sterling was targeted by her supervisor," Graham wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
"Today there's a tolerance in our culture for everything — except the things of God and His Word. The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has been asked to review Lance Cpl. Sterling's case — let's pray that this kind of targeting and persecution of Christians by our government will be stopped."
Fox News' Todd Starnes noted that Sterling represented herself at the trial, and was found guilty of disrespect toward a superior commissioned officer and four specifications of disobeying the lawful order of a noncommissioned officer.
Sterling was given a bad conduct discharge, while her rank was reduced from Lance Cpl. to private, after both the lower court and the appellate court ruled that displaying Bible verses at work is not protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The Liberty Institute has now taken up her case, however, and has filed an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the U.S. Armed Forces.
"If the government can order a Marine not to display a Bible verse, they could try and order her not to get a religious tattoo, or go to church on Sunday," attorney Michael Berry said. "Restricting a Marine's free exercise of religion is blatantly unconstitutional."
Last week Graham stood up for an Air Force general after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation called on Maj. Gen. Craig Olson to be court-martialed, this time for giving credit to God during a speech at a National Day of Prayer event.
Olson received heavy criticism from the MRFF, which said in a letter to Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh that he should be "aggressively and very visibly brought to justice for his unforgivable crimes and transgressions" for saying that God helped him throughout his military career.
Graham argued that atheist groups are attempting to "bully Christians into silence" with such actions.
"Are Christians the only group of people who cannot identify themselves publicly in this country? Are we the only voices who cannot speak?" the evangelical asked.
freedom of religion, becomes freedom from christianity
Dispicable.
. . .If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven’s scenes,
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.
I’m glad there are some organizations that will pursue court cases in defense of Christians. We need more of them.
“They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.”
Sounds blasphemous.
There have been numerous versions of this story posted on FR, and the full story is not quite what Graham is pushing here. The bible verses were but one part of this Marine’s broader pattern of disobeying orders from her supervisor (with whom she was apparently engaged in a long-running personality clash).
This country I going to Hell fast!!! What’s next? The Ghettos?
No one is allowed to put anything on any computer monitor. This isn’t about the content, if she were allowed to do this, then the next guy over could put Alluah Akbar on his and they couldn’t tell him to take it down. The military is about conformity. She was given a lawful command based upon previously known to her regulations, she basically told her superiors to Eff off, and they rightly corrected her insubordination. She obviously didn’t belong in the Marines if she couldn’t follow a simple order. Whether she agreed with it or not.
Under the UCMJ she was found guilty of disobeying a lawful order four times, failing to go to an appointed place of duty, disrespecting a superior commissioned officer. No wonder she got the Big Chicken Dinner at Courts Martial. It was appealed and the appeals court found “Military orders are presumed to be lawful and are disobeyed at the subordinate’s peril,” as for the other two charges either you were where you were suppose to be or not and as for disrespecting a superior commissioned officer (A High Ranking Officer)that would probably be considered unchristian like.
She took a gamble and lost....
Freepers: don’t let your sons and daughters join the military! Once the Christians quit joining, the brass will have to change it’s mind.
Our government is now fully secular and is openly hostile towards people of faith, specifically Christians. Meanwhile, the government is giving other groups of people special or super rights who will be immune to scrutiny. Islamists, gays, atheists are not only protected by this government but are using the government to attack Christians.
I predict, within a short period of time, life-ending atrocities towards Christians by our government and its allies while the media looks the other way.
Time to stand up and be counted.
Sadly, the ones left will immediately TURN on AMERICANS.....WITH THEIR GUNS.
If this is simply about not having anything on one's monitor, then you are correct. However, if she is surrounded by other people with all sorts of crap on their monitors (rainbow flags?), then she was being discriminated against.
Allah Akbar would be ok, though.
I will make a caveat that I think that all government employees should NOT put ANY type of little saying on their professional & official e-mails. However, that said, until there is such a total ban, the prosecuton of this corporal should be done, because it is religious persecution by the USMC.
Having a long career in the military, I disagree. It is very positive for morale and discipline to permit individuality as much as possible. One of the great historical advantages of the US military has been the independent thinking of its troops. In contrast the soldiers of other nations are brow beat into lockstep, and that actually makes them predictable and afraid to find solutions in the middle of difficulty. They always try to get approval before they do anything toward achieving the objective on their own.
The Marine Corps Hymn has been one of my favorite pieces of music since I was a kid, because my father served in the US Marines, but the logic is maybe a little questionable.
Shouldn’t they also charge her with possession of coins and currency bearing the inscription “In God We Trust”?
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