Religious red herring
Religion & Liberty Online

Religious red herring

Visit Fox News for this exchange between John Gibson and Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center, about charges of religious intolerance in the military.

Here’s a key part of the discussion:

GIBSON: But, Mr. Thompson, I know you’re in this business, so you would be hypervigilant about this. And we all know how this cadet structure is. The seniors have enormous power over lower cadets.

Do we have a situation where senior cadets who are Christians are saying, “I don’t care if you’re a Zoroastrian; I don’t care if you’re a Wiccan; I don’t care if you’re a Muslim; I don’t care if you’re Jewish; Say these prayers”?

THOMPSON: No. That is not true.

First of all, we are not talking about students in kindergarten or high school students. We’re talking about military personnel. They certainly don’t have to say a prayer even if there is a prayer, let’s say, before meals. They can stand quietly. They don’t have to engage in prayer at all. I think it’s really, again, a red herring that is really being drawn into the public arena because of the agenda of Americans United For Separation of Church and State.

Jordan J. Ballor

Jordan J. Ballor (Dr. theol., University of Zurich; Ph.D., Calvin Theological Seminary) is director of research at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy, an initiative of the First Liberty Institute. He has previously held research positions at the Acton Institute and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and has authored multiple books, including a forthcoming introduction to the public theology of Abraham Kuyper. Working with Lexham Press, he served as a general editor for the 12 volume Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology series, and his research can be found in publications including Journal of Markets & Morality, Journal of Religion, Scottish Journal of Theology, Reformation & Renaissance Review, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Faith & Economics, and Calvin Theological Journal. He is also associate director of the Junius Institute for Digital Reformation Research at Calvin Theological Seminary and the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity & Politics at Calvin University.