It looks like speaking out against the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy may have consequences. Just ask Tony Perkins.
The Brody File has learned that the Andrews Air Force base chaplain's office rescinded their prayer luncheon invitation to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins just two days after Perkins criticized President Obama's call for lifting restrictions on homosexuals in the military.
The National Prayer Luncheon takes place this Thursday Feb. 25 at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C. The theme is "Getting Back to the Basics." Perkins is an ordained minister and a Marine Corps veteran so he was asked to speak and accepted. He was planning to give a devotional message not a political one.
However, after President Obama called on Congress to lift restrictions on homosexuals serving in the military, Perkins forcefully spoke out against it. Two days later, Perkins got the letter from the Andrews Air Force Base chaplain's office saying thanks, but no thanks -- the invitation was stripped.
The letter referred to past statements by the Family Research Council, saying the group is "incompatible in our role as military members who serve our elected officials and our Commander in Chief."
Tony Perkins calls it blacklisting and has this reaction:
"As one who took the oath to defend and protect our freedoms, I am disappointed that I've been denied the opportunity to speak to members of the military, in a non-political way, solely because I exercised my free speech rights in a different forum. It's ironic that this blacklisting should occur because I called for the retention and enforcement of a valid federal statute.
I am very concerned, however, that this merely foreshadows the serious threat to religious liberty that would result from repeal of the current military eligibility law. Such legislation would not merely open the military to homosexuals. It would result in a zero-tolerance policy toward those who disapprove of homosexual conduct.
Military chaplains would bear the heaviest burden. Would their sermons be censored to prevent them from preaching on biblical passages which describe homosexual conduct as a sin? Would they remain free to counsel soldiers troubled by same-sex attractions about the spiritual and psychological resources available to overcome those attractions?
Any chaplain who holds to the millennia-old tradition of Judeo-Christian sexual morality could be denied promotion, or even be forced out of the military altogether understand the untenable situation that this creates for chaplains and the men and women in uniform. I urge Congress, the President, and the top leadership of our military to place the constitutional guarantee of religious liberty ahead of the fashionable political correctness of a special interest group."
Perkins talked more about his reaction to this on Thursday's The 700 Club. Watch that here.