{"id":2210329,"date":"2024-04-01T04:01:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T08:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/38-chaplains-ask-supreme-court-to-stop-u-s-military-from-punishing-their-faith\/"},"modified":"2024-04-01T04:01:37","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T08:01:37","slug":"38-chaplains-ask-supreme-court-to-stop-u-s-military-from-punishing-their-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/38-chaplains-ask-supreme-court-to-stop-u-s-military-from-punishing-their-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"38 chaplains request the Supreme Court to prevent the U.S. military from penalizing their religious beliefs"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F38-chaplains-ask-supreme-court-to-stop-u-s-military-from-punishing-their-faith%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2210329&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article \u200cdiscusses the controversial use of \u200dcells from a deceased Dutch girl in scientific research, particularly in the development of technologies\u200c and medical treatments, including Covid-19 vaccines. It\u200c also highlights\u2062 the legal \u200dbattle of military chaplains \u200bagainst\u2064 the\u2063 Department of Defense&#8217;s handling\u2063 of religious objections to certain mandates, shedding light on ethical dilemmas faced by individuals in the military.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>A healthy little Dutch girl without a proper name died 52 years ago. Scientists keep her kidney\u2019s cells multiplying in a process <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Immortalised_cell_line\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">similar<\/a> to cancer. They perform <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC8711270\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">increasing numbers<\/a> of experiments on derivatives of this baby girl\u2019s kidney cells to develop technologies that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snopes.com\/fact-check\/senomyx-flavor-additive\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">include<\/a> taste-testing experiments for PepsiCo. Her vivisection <a href=\"https:\/\/www.liebertpub.com\/doi\/10.1089\/hum.2020.29116.oxg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">forms<\/a> \u201cthe backbone of the global gene therapy market.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scientists call the baby girl HEK 293. HEK stands for \u201chuman embryonic kidney,\u201d and 293 <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genofab.com\/hek293-cell-line\">means<\/a> she was the 293rd experiment in a set. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1855025743\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-cfaa2a30dab97310f889b61967639b4f fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-cfaa2a30dab97310f889b61967639b4f\"><\/div>\n<p>She likely died from an elective abortion, not a miscarriage, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pdcnet.org\/C1257D43006C9AB1\/file\/5265B61D5497F52585257D94004802BB\/%24FILE\/ncbq_2006_0006_0003_0077_0099.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">concludes<\/a> a 2006 journal article and many other scientific publications. An older gestational age and harvesting her kidney while still alive would have made her <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2015\/07\/20\/feds-paid-baby-organ-harvesting-doc-for-advice-on-healthy-baby-births\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more useful<\/a> for experimentation, as Planned Parenthood officials <a href=\"https:\/\/thefdrlst.wpengine.com\/2015\/07\/14\/planned-parenthood-busted-on-tape-trying-to-sell-aborted-baby-body-parts\/\">affirmed<\/a> of their baby harvesting operations in 2015. <\/p>\n<p>Like many medications, Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2020\/12\/the-facts-about-the-pfizer-and-moderna-vaccines-and-fetal-cell-lines\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">were tested<\/a> on cells made from HEK 293\u2019s kidney. Some of the vaccines have HEK 293 cells inside them. That\u2019s one of several reasons Capt. Rob Nelson, an Air Force chaplain, couldn\u2019t in good conscience accept those treatments despite massive pressure from the military, he told The Federalist in a phone interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have five [children], and it breaks my heart to think of this. This girl continues to be violated as her cells are replicated over and over again,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>Nelson is one of 38 military chaplains whose petition is now before U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in the case <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/search.aspx?filename=\/docket\/docketfiles\/html\/public\/23-717.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Alvarado v. Austin<\/a><\/em>. The chaplains say the Department of Defense continues to defy the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act rescinding its Covid vaccine mandate, which the petition says has allowed statistically zero exceptions.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-0f3762514475e5dcbf6ec1370f1b1a4d fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-0f3762514475e5dcbf6ec1370f1b1a4d\"><\/div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <span class=\"4SG1P2MesWdNJf5y\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The real God-fearing military chaplains here! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cZjWe867Nb\">pic.twitter.com\/cZjWe867Nb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mark Charles Bashaw (@MCBashaw) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MCBashaw\/status\/1771205830827782439?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 22, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Eliminating People with Strong Ethical Boundaries from the Military<\/h2>\n<p>The DOD continues to violate the law by failing to rescind its punishments of conscientious objectors such as denied training and deployments required for promotions, the petition says. In addition, of course, denying soldiers\u2019 religious exercise violates the First Amendment\u2019s guarantee that all Americans can freely exercise their faith in their everyday lives.<\/p>\n<p>That is precisely why the military has chaplains, several told The Federalist. All soldiers, their families, and civilians working for the U.S. military \u201chave a right to believe what they believe and no one can say otherwise. It\u2019s the same reason we can\u2019t have a religious test for federal positions. As a chaplain, my job is to make sure the free exercise of religion is allowed, that nobody infringes upon that inalienable right,\u201d said Army Col. Brad Lewis, a chaplain also party to the suit.<\/p>\n<p>Chaplains usually help determine whether soldiers receive religious accommodations for all sorts of things, from Norse pagans wearing beards to Sikhs wearing turbans and Jews eating kosher. While the military routinely approves such waivers, it told Congress it had denied essentially all religious vaccine waiver requests from soldiers who weren\u2019t almost retired, say the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got in with an age waiver,\u201d Nelson noted of his military service. \u201cThey can supposedly give wavers for all kinds of things but not a religious accommodation.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-45c6997352e14cbf0dbfa661d1768b52 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-45c6997352e14cbf0dbfa661d1768b52\"><\/div>\n<p>In its Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/23\/23-717\/306020\/20240327144533935_23-717%20Alvarado%20Opp.%20-%20final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">response<\/a> filed March 27, the DOD claims it has removed all punishments from soldiers imposed \u201csolely\u201d for conscientious objections to vaccines. It claims removing career penalties that arise from banning conscientious objectors from career-promoting training and duties has no \u201clawful basis.\u201d The DOD also says that because the vaccination requirement has ended, the case is moot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy denying religious exemptions, what the military has done is set about the removal of people who are willing to stand on conviction,\u201d Lewis said. He and Nelson noted this dynamic is especially dangerous if cultivated among soldiers, whose job is to kill.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Four Years Deployed to Defend Freedoms the Military Denies Him<\/h2>\n<p>Lewis has dedicated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.army.mil\/article\/268021\/new_cecom_chaplain_is_in_the_people_business\">more than 30 years<\/a> of his life to the U.S. military, including 47 months of deployment. He\u2019s taken seven deployments to Afghanistan, six to Iraq, and an entire year away from his wife and four children in South Korea. He\u2019s a fourth-generation Assemblies of God pastor whose father also served in the U.S. military during the Cold War.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis was the senior chaplain on Hawaii\u2019s island of Oahu when the Army recommended him as one of two chaplains in 2020 to receive instruction at the U.S. Army War College. <\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters body-xs m-0\">\n<div class=\"col-12 col-md-4\">Image of Col. Brad Lewis <a href=\"https:\/\/www.army.mil\/article\/268021\/new_cecom_chaplain_is_in_the_people_business\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">by U.S. Army<\/a> \/ public domain<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>War College training is the height of an Army career. It\u2019s preparation for high-level officer assignments. While he studied there, Lewis was ordered to take a Covid vaccine. But his conscience wouldn\u2019t let him. <\/p>\n<p>The immense global pressure for an untested medical treatment alarmed Lewis\u2019 long-developed spiritual spidey senses: \u201cThe fact that commerce and travel and careers were hinging on receipt of this vaccine, that bothered me.\u201d It seemed to violate biblical injunctions against total obedience to any state. <\/p>\n<p>Lewis and his wife spent months talking about what to do. They knew objecting could kill his career right as he hit its peak, after decades of personal and family sacrifices.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, he couldn\u2019t violate his duty to obey the still, small voice inside, Lewis says. So he filed for a religious exemption. Like almost every other solely religious exemption of the 37,000 DOD told Congress soldiers filed, it was delayed. Then it was denied. So were Lewis\u2019 appeals. He says his superiors told him he could get vaccinated or get drummed out of the military, but while Lewis was willing to sacrifice his body for his country, he would not sacrifice his soul.<\/p>\n<p>So the Army punished him, first by leaving him with no orders upon graduation from War College. That left Lewis and his wife to sit for 11 months in student housing with no assignment for Lewis while another class of students came and went. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy career was ended by those 11 months of unrated time,\u201d Lewis said. The inaction the Army forced him into destroyed his ratings in the military\u2019s evaluating system. When Congress ended the vaccine mandate, the military assigned Lewis to a rural post in Maryland, where he mostly oversees civilian contractors across the world who have local pastors to tend their spiritual needs.<\/p>\n<p>He says he\u2019s asked superiors whether he will have any opportunities to use his high-level, taxpayer-provided War College training. Lewis says they repeatedly ignored the question. So he\u2019s filed to retire and will leave the Army for good in early 2025.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI took real strength in the idea that my faith is more important than some bureaucrat\u2019s opinion of my faith. It sustained me, it got me through,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n<p>After asking The Federalist to provide Lewis\u2019 birth date and Social Security Number and to delay this article\u2019s publication, U.S. Army spokeswoman Heather Hagan, who according to her email signature works in the Pentagon, finally provided this in response to a request for comment: \u201cAs a matter of policy, the Army does not comment on ongoing litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Not Just about Harvesting Killed Babies<\/h2>\n<p>Each conscientious objector\u2019s reasoning is in some way unlike all the others\u2019. There are commonalities, but they blend in individual ways, like fingerprints. That\u2019s why religious objections to vaccines are not erased by a European Covid shot called Novavax, which its owner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/news\/2022\/february\/novavax-covid-vaccine-cell-lines-pro-life-abortion-christia.html\">claims<\/a> was developed and produced with no human embryo brutalization. <\/p>\n<p>Army Chief of Chaplains Thomas Solhjem, who is now retired, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/USArmy\/status\/1565097701745872897\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">highlighted<\/a> Novavax when it came out in 2022. He ignored many soldiers\u2019 religious objections not based on the vaccines\u2019 use of murdered babies. They include concerns about damaging human health and reproductive capacity, ignoring natural immunity, the ethics of allegedly emergency decrees, the lack of informed consent, and heavy-handed manipulation tactics that include refusing to acknowledge any potentially legitimate conscience objections to the shots whatsoever.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also unlikely any medical intervention today lacks a connection with the discarded little girl. Research done on cells descended from HEK 293\u2019s tiny body is so \u201cubiquitous\u201d now, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/public-health\/commentary\/the-covid-vaccine-and-the-pro-life-movement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote Dr. Melissa Moschella<\/a> in 2020, that \u201cAnyone who wants to completely avoid benefiting from the use of HEK 293 would effectively have to eschew the use of any medical treatments or biological knowledge developed or updated within the past forty years.\u201d Even Tylenol was developed using cells her body generated.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis said Solhjem\u2019s video \u201cblew my mind\u201d because the job of a chaplain is not to negotiate people\u2019s religious beliefs, it\u2019s to support their exercise: \u201cHe didn\u2019t say, \u2018I stand with you. No matter what your reasons are, you have a right to believe them, and I will stand and die here defending your right.\u2019 \u2026 It\u2019s antithetical to what chaplains are supposed to do.\u201d <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018The Department of Defense Is Hostile to Religion\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Several chaplains provided The Federalist \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/trmlx.com\/goalkeeper-of-the-year-award-goes-to-army-chaplain-corps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">scripts<\/a>\u201d that military branches sent chaplains to pressure conscientious objectors into compliance rather than ascertain whether their objections were sincere. They include quotes from figures such as imams and preacher Russell Moore supporting vaccination. <\/p>\n<p>But, for example, the Bible doesn\u2019t say Russell Moore is its chief prophet and interpreter. While theologians and church tradition are helpful guides that Christians should take seriously, the final authority over Christianity is the Bible itself, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Philippians+2%3A1-13&#038;version=NKJV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">it says<\/a> every individual is responsible before God for how he understands and applies it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Department of Defense is hostile to religion,\u201d said the chaplains\u2019 lawyer, Art Schulcz, who is also a veteran. He said the way the DOD handled the vaccine mandate has contributed to the military\u2019s recruiting crisis by repelling recruits and current soldiers with serious faith convictions. In response to ongoing shortfalls, U.S. military branches are lowering enlistment standards and issuing waivers of risk factors such as <a href=\"https:\/\/mymilitarybenefits.com\/military-life\/military-changing-policies-on-marijuana-use-among-new-recruits\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">marijuana use<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. military\u2019s chaplains \u201crecruiting deficit is extreme,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2023\/05\/15\/the-navy-needs-more-chaplains\/\">wrote<\/a> Rear Adm. Gregory Todd, the Navy\u2019s chief of chaplains, last year.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-ffca6aded8420a10ad13a2c7ce390ab7 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-ffca6aded8420a10ad13a2c7ce390ab7\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Dutch girl without a name passed away 52 years ago. Scientists perpetuate her kidney cells, resembling cancer growth, for research. Derived cells undergo various tests, like taste experiments for PepsiCo. This girl&#8217;s vivisection remains central to scientific advancements<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":519,"featured_media":2210330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/51442760081_2399e497b9_k.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2210329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/51442760081_2399e497b9_k.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2210329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2210330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2210329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2210329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2210329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}