Last week, The Daily Citizen brought you the story of U.S. Army Col. Moon H. Kim who is under fire for sharing via email a PDF of John Piper’s new booklet “Coronavirus and Christ” with 35 chaplains under his command.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a militant atheistic group founded by Mikey Weinstein wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense (SecDef) Mark Esper asking that Col. Kim be “officially, swiftly, aggressively and visibly investigated and disciplined in punishment for his deplorable actions.”

Now, 20 Congressmen have written a letter urging SecDef Esper to uphold Col. Kim’s religious liberty rights.

The 20 members, all Republicans, include Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., and Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind. among others.

“In recent weeks, you and Army commands across the globe have received multiple, unfounded complaints from an organization that has a reputation for preying on military chaplains,” the lawmakers write. “Given the content of his email and Federal law protecting religious speech, it is clear that Col. Kim should not and cannot be disciplined for his email.”

The letter details two other instances of the MRFF sending letters to SecDef Esper asking for Christian chaplains to be investigated and prosecuted for allegedly promoting their faith just a little too much.

“Far too often, commanders react hastily to vocal anti-religion activists who attempt to obstruct our troops’ first amendment rights,” Rep. Lamborn said in a statement to The Daily Citizen. “These decisions are often overturned, but only after the intervention of Congress. These infringements on the constitutional rights of our service members must end. I am thankful for Congressman Collins’ leadership on this critical issue, and I hope that our military will enforce the religious liberties of our chaplains and servicemen and women.”

Pastor John Piper responded to the controversy over his booklet on an episode of “Ask Pastor John” on DesiringGod.org stating that the MRFF had taken his book out of context, and incorrectly interpreted his book.

“I see at least three things that the letter and the interview with one of the news outlets gets wrong about the book,” Piper said.

“As far as I can see, the author of that letter wants to say that Piper thinks every person who engages in homosexual acts and who gets the coronavirus is being punished by God for those acts. And my response is ‘Well, no, it’s not that simple.’ I suspect though that this clarification won’t even come close to satisfying the author of this letter.”

 

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