HUFFPOST – BLAKE PAGE, WEST POINT DIRECTOR OF MRFF AFFAIRS: Some Wear Black, And Like it

Selected Article Excerpts:

• Radicalism. The accusation of radicalism brings to mind a variety of emotive responses. Unbridled passion. A lack of reason. Mania, perhaps. So what would a radical agenda consist of? A message of hate or supremacy seems to fit the bill. What about a message of radical empathy? Is it possible for an individual or organization to be so hell bent on the insurance of liberty and justice for all as to be labeled with such a slur? I would say no, but Colonel (Chaplain, U.S. Army) Retired Ron Crews has established an opposing position in his statements included in an article published this week.

• “The military unfortunately has been yielding to a radical agenda to the point of even allowing same-sex marriage at the historic West Point Chapel,” Col. Crews laments. “But yet they are unsure, it appears, that allowing prayers at official eventscan be continued.”This piggybacking of the ideals of religiosity and ideals of segregation is precisely the sort of thinking which myself as the Director of Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) Affairs at West Point and the rest of the MRFF team continue to combat at every turn.
  

• The military today continues to fail to provide benefits to same-sex couples who may be legally married in any of several states. This is because the military is a federal organization, subject to federal law. Law which has made it possible for national organizations to disregard the legally binding documents issued on the state level. Perhaps it is radical for me to believe that the federal government should not reduce the rights of a certain demographic in this way without simultaneously establishing that all state-issued documents are invalid in the eyes of federal institutions. Perhaps equality is radical.

• This is not an issue for atheists. This is not an issue for gay people. This is not an issue for Muslims. This is not an issue for the military. This is an issue for Americans of every creed, color, orientation, profession, and political persuasion.

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