Louie Gohmert: “I thank my friend from Missouri for yielding and for setting up this time that we could share about what is going on.…”

“I thank my friend from Missouri for yielding and for setting up this time that we could share about what is going on. Just in contrast to my friend from Louisiana's examples of the abuses of military members' First Amendment rights, the government is not supposed to prohibit the free exercise of religion. Of course, we know in the military--I knew--that there are some things you give up when you are in the military. You can't assemble when you want to, and you can't speak when you want to, but Commanders in Chief have always known that when it comes to religious liberty, you should not infringe upon people's religious beliefs, especially when they believe they are fighting for a country in which people could have First Amendment rights to utilize and to worship God. In fact, of course, in my 4 years in the Army, we didn't have a Commander in Chief who had issued an order--attributed to George Washington--that people should not take the name of the Lord in vain, because how can we ask God's blessing on our military at the same time and in the same mouth as one's taking God's name in vain? That was not the order of the day when I was in the Army; but by the same token, you saw crosses at chapels on military installations. You saw crosses inside of chapels and outside of chapels. Now they have been removed, we have been told, from the insides and outsides of chapels on military installations. It is outrageous.…”