Just as a new Gallup poll shows growing support for the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue policy, the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the policy – keeping it in place.
President Obama, during his campaign for the White House, promised to eventually repeal the policy, but so far, has made no attempt to do so and has allowed the military to expel more than 200 openly gay and lesbian members since taking office.
Every study done on the how allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military has found “no discernible impact” on unit cohesion or any other factors within military life. My brother spent many years in the Navy and has said everyone on his ship was well aware of who was gay and who wasn’t. It didn’t matter. They worked together as a unit without trouble. Every study done on this issue shows this to be the norm, not the exception.
The surprise in all this is what the Gallup poll revealed – a 12 point jump in support for repealing DADT among conservatives. In November 2004, only 46 percent of conservatives supported repeal of the policy. Now, 58 percent support allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. Even more surprising is an 11 percent jump in support of ending discrimination against gays and lesbians in military service by those who attend church on a weekly basis. In 2004, 49 percent of churchgoers supported allowing open service by gays and lesbians – now that number is 60 percent.
There is much speculation about the jump in numbers in the conservative and church going communities. Some gay and lesbian observers have speculated
that conservatives simply need more warm bodies as we fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and gay warm bodies are better than straight warm bodies. Still others, like this poster at the Advocate, see an even more sinister reason for the rise in acceptance:
Of course conservatives want gays in the military. Anyway to kill us or get rid of us. Meanwhile, what person in their right mind would volunteer to be a murderer? Or to get murdered? For a country that will not recognize your same-sex relationship?
I think the bigger, deeper question that isn’t be asked here is why Christians – especially Christians who crow about “tradition” when arguments for marriage equality for gays and lesbians is discussed – would support anyone serving in the military – especially people of faith.
Remember, for the first few hundred years of their existence, Christians refused to serve in the military. Taking Jesus at his words in the Sermon on the Mount – they believed it was peacemakers who were blessed and many early church fathers espoused pacifism like Tertullian writing circa 250 A.D.:
“But how will (a Christian) make war – nay, how will he serve as a soldier in peace (time) – without the sword which the Lord has taken away? For, although soldiers had come to John and received the form of a rule, although also a centurion had believed, (yet) the Lord afterwards, in disarming Peter, ungirded every soldier. No dress is lawful among us which is assigned to an unlawful action.”
It was 313 A.D. when Christians began to join the military, after Constantine made Christianity the government religion. Ironically, by 438 A.D., non-Christians were barred from military service, ending the tradition of Christian pacifism.
Now, the military has become a hotbed of fundamentalist Christian activity with the religious right evangelizing the troops.
For US Army soldiers entering basic training at Fort Jackson Army base in Columbia, South Carolina, accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior appears to be as much a part of the nine-week regimen as the vigorous physical and mental exercises the troops must endure.
That’s the message directed at Fort Jackson soldiers, some of whom appear in photographs in government issued fatigues, holding rifles in one hand, and Bibles in their other hand.
What a difference a few thousand years can make!
I realize that there is a need for a standing military to defend our country in this volatile world and that there are plenty of people, gay, straight, Christian or otherwise, who want to dedicate their lives to military service. I honor them all and their desire to serve.
However, when Christians begin to speak about “tradition” when marriage equality is the topic, I think it’s fair game to remind them that Christian “tradition” also espouses a refusal to serve both God and the government – and teaches followers of Jesus to be peacemakers, not with guns and tanks, but with love and compassion.
The uptick in conservative and regular churchgoer support for repealing DADT is simply another step away from a Christian tradition that I, for one, think is worth preserving – the refusal to take another human life simply because the government says we must.
