Posted on 09/21/2013 1:28:13 PM PDT by robowombat
Christian Air Force Veteran Punished By Lesbian Commander Could Be
September 7, 2013 | By: Heather Clark
SAN ANTONIO – A Christian Air Force veteran that was recently in headlines after being punished by his commander for declining to affirm homosexual marriage, reportedly may face court-martial proceedings as investigators now accuse him of filing a false discrimination complaint.
As previously reported, Senior Master Sergeant Phillip Monk has served in the Air Force for 19 years, and has been stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. When he recently returned from deployment, he found that he had a new commander, Major Elisa Valenzuela, who is a lesbian.
Monk says that in his early communication with the commander, he knew there would be concerns.
“She said she wanted a chaplain but objected to one particular chaplain that she called a ‘bigot’ because he preached that homosexuality is a sin,” he explained to reporters. “She then said, ‘I don’t know what kind of people actually believe that kind of cr**.’ I knew I was going to have a rough time in this unit and I would have to be very careful about what I said.”
Monk was later asked to advise Valenzuela regarding a disciplinary matter involving an Air Force instructor who had expressed his disagreement with homosexual “marriage” in a written presentation.
“Her very first reaction was to say, ‘We need to lop off the head of this guy,’” he recalled. “The commander took the position that his speech was discrimination.”
However, when Monk read the words at issue, he believed that the instructor had not done anything wrong.
Connect with Christian News “He was trying to essentially say [that] despite our differences, it’s the Air Force core values that unite us, and in that process he made some sort of statement about, ‘I don’t believe in same-sex marriage, but it doesn’t matter. I’m going to train you the same anyway,’” he explained.
But Valenzuela told Monk that he needed to be on the same page as she was, and that if he didn’t do so, he would be moved elsewhere. She then questioned him on whether he believes it is discrimination for a person to state that they disagree with homosexual “marriage.” He replied that he did not wish to answer because of his convictions.
Monk was then relieved of his duties and reassigned because he would not affirm Valenzuela’s beliefs. According to the Liberty Institute, the Christian legal organization that is representing Monk, the senior master sergeant was told that he was barred from returning to the building.
However, the Liberty Institute now reports that investigators are accusing the Air Force veteran of making false statements in his discrimination complaint. Monk says that he believes the accusation is retaliation for blowing the whistle against his commander.
“I was stunned and immediately felt that this was a retaliation against me for coming forward with my religious discrimination complaint,” he said.
The Liberty Institute outlined in a news release on Friday that charges could be forthcoming, and if so, there is a possibility that Monk could be court-martialed.
“The Air Force must now decide whether it will charge SMSgt Monk with the crime of making a false official statement,” it explained. “In the military, making a false official statement is punishable by court-martial.”
Attorney Mike Berry advised that the Christian legal organization will continue to defend Monk as it believes that his account is truthful.
“We are hopeful that the Air Force will do the right thing by clearing SMSgt Monk’s name and reputation, and supporting his and every Airman’s right to express, without fear of punishment, their religious convictions,” he said.
I am a retiried AF officer and currently working as an AF civilian. In the past few years where this has been an increasing issue both with dealing with homosexuality and the restrictions on religious freedon while deployed, such as burning of bibles by military leadership at Bagram AB. In most every case, the military has worked with knee jerk, vehement discrimination against people of strong religious beliefs and values. For the bible burning, the military sought no solution such as giving the bibles back to the original senders or better, yet, providing to churches or professed christians natives in Afghanistan.
As far as the current sitution w/ SMSgt Monk, the AF put out 2 required training CBTs on it’s Automated Distance Learning System: (1) Freedom of Religion, Supervisor’s Course, and (2) Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t tell training. Statements of each course are listed below. According to these course, SMSgt Monk acted appropriately and his commander and the wing equal opportunity and IG office are apparently not. SMSgt Monk also should be able to freely pursue grievance with the IG office, religious harassment with the equal opportunity office, petition with his congressman, and pursuit of outside counsel such as he has with Liberty Institute.
1. From AF Automated Distance Learning System (ADLS) Freedom of Religion,
Supervisor’s course. -This right extends to military members and government employees but is not guaranteed in all circumstances.
-The Air Force is officially neutral regarding religious beliefs, neither officially endorsing nor disapproving any faith belief or absence of belief. -We accommodate free exercise of religion and other personal beliefs as well as freedom of expression, except as must be limited by military necessity.
-If military necessity leads to a limitation on an individual’s right to free exercise of religion, commanders will ensure that the limitation is done in the least restrictive manner possible to meet the requirements of military necessity.
-Voluntary participation in worship, prayer, study, and discussion is integral to the free exercise of religion.
-In official circumstances, particularly situations in which superior and subordinate relationships are involved, individuals need to be sensitive to personal expressions that may appear to be official endorsements. This is especially true when subordinates are present as part of their official duties and obligations.
-The IG: Sustains a trustworthy relationship with Air Force personnel by remaining independent. Ensures Air Force personnel are free from retribution, retaliation, or reprisals for communicating with the installation IG. Assists in resolving the underlying cause of a complaint to prevent reduced performance, accidents, poor quality work, poor morale, or loss of resources.
-Supervisor Considerations and Responsibilities
As a supervisor, you retain your rights of religious expression, but must also be sensitive to the rights of your subordinates and the potential that your personal expressions may appear to be official or have undue influence on your subordinates. You need to: Conduct official business; Rely on official standards; Behave in a manner that does not: (1) Appear to infuse official business with a religious component, (2) Give preference to one religion over another, (3) Give preference to religion over non-religion; Remain mindful of the need to consider religious accommodation. -In accordance with Air Force Policy Directive 52-1, commanders should ensure that requests for religious accommodation are welcomed and dealt with as fairly and consistently as practicable throughout their commands.
2. From AF ADLS DADT Repeal Training, rights and accomadating of religion:
-The DoD maintains: zero tolerance for harassment, violence or discrimination
-Free exercise of religious expression, within law and policy, remains unchanged.
-(Members may) Maintain beliefs.
-(Members may) Discuss concerns with commander/chaplain.
Any Service member may petition for redress
She chewed him out!
This is not my father’s military. I’m kind of glad he isn’t around to see what has happened to the military and the country he put his life on when he was in the Navy in WWII.
Active Duty/Retiree ping.
Luke 22:36
The whole point of these charges is to send a message to all Christians in the military. Who wants to subject themselves to being court-martialed?
We saw the same thing with the George Zimmerman trial. The **purpose** of that trail was to send a message to all whites that if you defend yourself against black violence expect to spend more than a year living a legal hell, financial ruin, and your future permanently changed for the worse.
There is a problem trying to communicate with queers. They like certified libs are mentally ill and pathological liars.
Even worse that is the status of the NCA!
He should sue her for sexual harassment. After all when someone wants you to talk about sex and condone their sexual behaviors and you don’t want to talk about sex, that is a form of sexual harassment. If you are being forced to speak about sexual behavior and you feel uneasy and uncomfortable about what the other person is telling you,and you ask them to stop and they don’t, then you are being sexually harassed.
Basically she wants to sexually degrade him and anyone else who disagrees with her personal choices.
Yup.
Tolerance for me but not for thee.
Would love to still be on active duty and bust her in the mouth. It would be worth 30 days in the brig.
Her decision to live an “alternative lifestyle” is not the problem of the troops. They need to throw her out of the military on her lesbian @$$. When I was in the military, that’s what they did with crazy lunatics. She/he/it has no business being a military commander.
Normally, I would take the sergeants side, but with the religious and sexual issues aside, when I was in the AF along time ago, a lot of SMSGTs, CMSGTs thought that once they achieved that rank, they no longer had to listen to officers and could basically do as they pleased. I don’t know if that could apply here, but it could be the case.
Ditto with my father. Ditto with me, i.e, this is not my military.
This begs the question, "When those with aberrant view points and values are faced with moral decisions that we, the non-aberrant, would see as clearly a right versus wrong, or good versus evil in evaluation, what will be the outcome?"
This isn't even a question as to sexual dilemmas, but ones involving choices of abandoning 'this' or supporting 'that.' My suspicion is that psychological testing of these aberrant military waifs would indicated a mind set unsuitable for command decisions. However, as we know, politics trumps common sense.
Yeah, it has been coming for some time. I won’t forget the lame-duck Pelosi congress which got their a$$es whupped in 2010, passed the law that infected our military with open faggotry.
Sounds like sexual orientation abuse to me.
Given the incredible lack of judgment I’ve been witnessing from high-ranking officers lately, this doesn’t surprise me. It’s only a matter of time before we have to deal with this in the Army.
I take the NCOs side. They send out internal memos to remove bibles etc. whenever a big wig come thru. The under secretary is a flamer so Monk is toast. His only bet is that he will get the public behind him. No one in uniform will stick up for him. All the colonels and generals have their tails between their legs on this one.
The survey was rigged but they ignore that. Now that men are getting attacked by the homos they want to know how this happened.
So sexual preference is of the utmost importance to this commander, rather than the readiness of the unit.
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