Vicky Hartzler: “Thank you. We have another friend from California here, Representative Doug LaMalfa. We are so glad that he is here, and…”

“Thank you. We have another friend from California here, Representative Doug LaMalfa. We are so glad that he is here, and I want to yield time to you to hear what your thoughts are on this very important topic of religious freedom in our military. Mr. LaMALFA Thank you, Mrs. Hartzler. I really, really appreciate you leading the charge on this very important issue that is probably not noticed by a lot of Americans these days, but is certainly being noticed by those members of the military that wish to express their religious freedoms as they see fit. Indeed, that was really one of the cornerstone issues of the Founders on several items: on taxation, of course, on private property and private property rights, and very importantly, the ability of Americans in the new country to express their religious views as they see fit, to have the freedom to do that. So it is rather amazing, and certainly appalling, that in our own military we see this going on where those rights are being suppressed, especially what we are hearing tonight with some of my previous colleagues' speeches about Christianity. Having a Bible on a desk somehow is a problem for somebody? How have we gotten to this point here? How can people be labeled somehow as part of a terrorist organization when actually these are peaceful enterprises where you are trying to bring people together under the grace of God?…”