Of all places in the nation to pull this off…Texas! The home of more Christians per inch than most of the 50 states. This lady Arleen must be planning on funding from China. Does she not know that God owns oil in Texas! Sure gonna be more fun than a hog sloppin” in the mud to see how this one turns out.
VA Bans Mention of God at Funerals for Vets “The hostile and discriminatory actions by the Veterans Affairs officials in Houston are outrageous, unconstitutional and must stop,” said Jeff Mateer, Esq., general counsel of Liberty Institute. June 30, 2011
The Department of Veterans Affairs and its Director of the Houston National Cemetery, Arleen Ocasio, are engaging in religious viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, by adding new incidents of religious hostility.
Director of the Houston National Cemetery, Arleen Ocasio Since taking the directorship of the Houston facility in April, 2010, Arleen Ocasio has used her position to bully Christians, repeatedly trampling on the religious liberties of Veterans of Foreign Wars District 4, The American Legion Post 586, and the National Memorial Ladies.
On March 15, Director Ocasio told Nobleton Jones, Honor Guard Junior Vice Commander, that he couldn’t say “May God grant you grace, mercy and peace” to grieving families.
“The hostile and discriminatory actions by the Veterans Affairs officials in Houston are outrageous, unconstitutional and must stop,” said Jeff Mateer, Esq., general counsel of Liberty Institute. “Government officials who engage in religious discrimination against citizens are breaking the law. Sadly, this seems to be a pattern of behavior at the Houston VA National Cemetery.”
Our friends at Liberty Institute have amended an earlier lawsuit against the VA that states the new violations against religious liberty include:
• VA Forbids Mention of God at Funerals for Veterans and Requires Families to Submit Prayer for Approval to the Government
• VA instructs the VFW and a Private Funeral Home that they may not present the option of prayer to families
• VA Tells Volunteers to Remove “God Bless” from Condolence Cards to Grieving Families
• VA Closes Cemetery Chapel; Uses it for Storage
You can read Liberty Institute’s detailed report of Director Ocasio’s offenses here.
TAKE ACTION
Director Ocasio has already been successfully sued this year for religious discrimination. Obviously, she is not qualified to be the director of a National Cemetery and should step down.
Send an email to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs secretary Eric Shinseki. Ask him to 1) stop his department’s religious discrimination and 2) relieve Director Ocasio of her duties.
Take Action NowSend an email to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki now!
It is very important that you forward this alert to your friends and family members.
Sincerely,
Tim
Tim Wildmon, President
American Family Association
How sad. I weep.
True tolerance here “someone doesn’t believe in God and they enact laws so that those that do believe can not enjoy thier freedom to pray”. Very sad that in a country that started with people running from religious persecution has come to this. How could anyone justify that? I guess that thier convictions against God are so THIN that they can not even tolerate his name being mentioned in a funeral for a military person, even if they choose the prayer. We will have to hide our faith much like the Jews in Germany years ago.
My brother lives in Texas. I hear there is a brewing back story. The possibility that an Evangelical Chaplain was engaged in a Theological tug of war with a Muslim Chaplain, may have resulted in the proverbial “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”
The irony of all these sentiments is that the massive amount of our tax dollars are going to train Muslims to protect themselves from Muslims! We have trained Iranian pilots at Davis Monthan. And Pakistani. And Hindu Indians. And Saudi Arabians. And Egyptians.
As soon as I track down the genesis of this event I will report back.
A friend emailed me this report and at first I thought it was one of those fake items that needs to be checked out on SNOPES.COM Which I did and this is the article they posted from Reporter in Houston:
A Press Secretary Josh Taylor issued the following statement:
“Invoking the name of God or Jesus is not only allowed, it is common at VA National Cemeteries across the country. However, VA’s policy is that VA-sponsored honor guards should not make recitations at commital services unless requested to do so by the deceased’s survivor(s.)’
Taylor also directed FOX 26 to a little known policy dated 2007. It says Honor Guards “shall not provide texts of any such recitations to the deceased’s survivors for consideration.”
“This is the first time we’ve found out about this national policy. It’s absolutely shocking that the government is stepping in and telling private citizens what they can and can not say,” said Hiram Sasser with the Liberty Institute.
Attorneys with the Liberty Institute began investigating last month after a local pastor won the fight to say his Jesus prayer at the cemetery’s Memorial Day ceremony.
“When we investigated we determined the government and director are discriminating based upon religious viewpoint,” said Jeff Mateer, General Counsel for Liberty Institute.
Lawmakers are beginning to call for the firing of the cemetery’s director.
“Oh yes she’s got to go and anyone else on her staff who’s carried out such similar conduct,” said Rep. Ted Poe (R)-TX.
Congressman Michael McCaul (R)-TX agrees.
“This is shocking and really abhorrent to our veterans that they can’t have a proper military burial and can’t refer to God or Jesus Christ,” he said.
Our calls to Ocasio have still not been returned. The U.S. Attorney’s Office told a judge earlier this week it’s investigating the claims and will report its findings next month.
Read more: http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/110630-va-god-allowed-at-cemetary#ixzz1R694djzb
Thank you Christine for the background and resource. This is a perfect example of the value of interactive blogging.
I was pretty shocked by this whole mess when I read the report on Facebook too. Policy or no policy, pissing contest between different religious groups or not, this type of discrimination is outrageous. I do believe that this issue has now been taken to court. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.