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The Pentagon could be poised for a rapid about-face under the Trump administration, with the Obama administration's push for social reform surrendering to what could be an old-school emphasis on combat readiness and the spirit of the United States military, experts told FoxNews.com.
Under President Obama, the military sought to integrate transgender persons into the ranks, allow women into special operations forces and purge the nomenclature of gender-specific words, adopting what some critics say was a "politically correct" liberal agenda. That's a contrast to the traditional U.S. military approach.
In addition, some Navy ships have been named for civil rights activists. And while the Obama administration has taken an inclusive approach on some issues, it has also worked to minimize expressions of Christianity in the ranks. For example, several officers have been disciplined for displaying Bibles or gospel verses in their quarters.
Veterans and military experts told FoxNews.com that, while some of Obama's civil rights advancements may be locked in, neither Trump nor his choice for secretary of defense, Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis, are likely to make social experimentation a priority.
Source: Fox News
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @09:28PM
"Several officers have been disciplined for displaying Bibles or gospel verses in their quarters"
Disciplined for religious material in their own quarters? Hardly likely.
This is more claptrap trying to support the "persecuted Christians" meme that the religious right loves to spread.
(Score: 2) by n1 on Friday January 13 2017, @09:34PM
I assume TFA is referring to this:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/28/monifa-sterling-marine-punished-for-displaying-bib/ [washingtontimes.com]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @09:51PM
As usual, there is more than one side to a story, personally I've never been very impressed with The Washington Times. From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/the-case-of-monifa-sterli_b_9028368.html [huffingtonpost.com] I think the headline says it all, but I've also pasted in the large central section of the long article:
The Case of Monifa Sterling: How to Turn a Bad Marine into a Persecuted Christian
...
The charges against Sterling resulted from several separate, unrelated incidents over the course of five months. These incidents included failing to go to her appointed place of duty, disrespecting a commissioned officer, and disobeying direct orders from her superiors to wear the proper uniform. These incidents had nothing to do with religion or religious freedom.
The most serious of the charges that Sterling was found guilty of were her failing to go to her appointed place of duty, and her disrespecting of a commissioned officer in relation to that incident. Sterling was assigned the duty of giving out passes to family members visiting Marines who had just returned from a deployment. This duty was to be for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. Sterling claimed that she couldn’t perform this duty because she was on medication for migraines that made her drowsy, but, as the court-martial found, there was no reason that this medication would have interfered with Sterling performing this duty if she took it at night as prescribed. But, as Sterling admitted, she was not planning to take her medication as prescribed on that Sunday. She was planning to take it earlier. Her reason? She was going to church and the loud choir at the church service might bring on a migraine. Seriously, that was her excuse — that she planned to take her medication not as prescribed. Needless to say, this excuse didn’t work. The disrespecting of a commissioned officer occurred a few days before the Sunday on which Sterling was assigned to be on duty giving out the passes. Sterling refused to take the passes from the major who was trying to give them to her, an incident witnessed by a first sergeant who, when asked at the court-martial to describe Sterling’s behavior towards the major, said it was “the most disrespectful thing [he] had witnessed from a Marine of junior rank” to a commissioned officer in his over eighteen years of service.
Sterling’s defense for the charges against her regarding her disobeying direct orders to wear the proper uniform was also a medical excuse. Sterling claimed that she had a medical order, referred to as a “chit,” saying that she did not have to wear a particular uniform because of a medical device she needed to wear for a back problem. But when her superiors checked this out, they found it not to be true, and that there was no reason that Sterling couldn’t be in the “uniform of the day” like everybody else. Much of the court-martial was focused on this issue of Sterling’s medical “chit,” and the finding was that it did not excuse her from refusing to obey the orders of her superiors to change into the proper uniform.
There was also a third incident, in which Sterling refused to obey an order to remove signs on which were printed her interpretation of a Bible verse that she had put up in her work space. At her court-martial, Sterling was also found guilty of refusing to obey this order.
Of all the charges that Sterling was found guilty of at her court-martial, the charge of disobeying the order to remove the signs was not the most serious of the charges brought against her. In fact, as the transcript of the court-martial shows, the Bible verse incident received the least amount of attention at the court-martial. But now, thanks to the propaganda from fundamentalist Christian organizations and the right wing media, Sterling’s case has been turned into a case of outrageous Christian persecution. Anyone reading articles about this case on the internet would think that Sterling is a poor, persecuted Christian who was court-martialed for nothing more than posting a Bible verse on her desk.
...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 14 2017, @01:55AM
A woman named "Monifa"; her insistence on going to church on Sunday, a church with a "loud choir" (apparently loud enough to trigger a migraine); extremely disrespectful attitude and refusal to obey orders...
This sounds like a stereotypical "loud black woman" to me.
It's also quite shameful that the Washington Times actually lied in the story, claiming that she posted this Christian stuff in her "quarters" when in fact it was at her work space. There's a huge difference there.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday January 14 2017, @02:01AM
Marines have little tolerance for dirtbaggery, especially when it comes to their uniforms. Malingering is also a pretty serious offense. So is disrespecting your seniors, especially a commissioned officer.
Shitbags are hounded relentlessly in the military. What her case looks like to me was that they were already hounding her ass and opportunistically went after and tacked on the bible-verse thing.
Being a Black Woman does not grant one free license to shirk rules and regulations and sass their superiors -- although taking a look at her, she'd be a good fit for the Social Actions department.
(Score: 5, Touché) by frojack on Saturday January 14 2017, @02:06AM
The AC says:
personally I've never been very impressed with The Washington Times. From www.huffingtonpost....
Really?
/snort
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by Chrontius on Saturday January 14 2017, @11:13AM
When the facts are on your side, pound on the facts.
ah, here it is:
"If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table."
(Score: 1) by Type44Q on Saturday January 14 2017, @08:58PM
personally I've never been very impressed with The Washington Times
No?? LOLOLOLOL, they're run by the fucking Moonies, for Chrissake.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Pax on Friday January 13 2017, @10:09PM
um.........since is when is a lance corporal an officer?
Officer infers the commissioned types s a rule and not non commissioned ranks
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @10:12PM
And a work station isn't "quarters" either.
The referenced anecdote doesn't fit the original article's quote at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 14 2017, @08:19PM
And it wasn't a Bible, it was a copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". I mean, if it's fake news, why can't we all play?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Friday January 13 2017, @09:42PM
You even remotely scratch the surface of any one these "oppressed Christian" stories and there is a 150% chance that it's someone abusing their authority to oppress others and then whining when they're lightly reprimanded for it.