Witch Hunt By Navy Brass Against Decorated Chaplain for
Expressing Traditional Marriage View
by Robert Wilde23 Mar 2015
Chaplin Wes Modder left the Marine
Corps in 1990 and decided that he would follow the calling that God
asked, to be a minister. He also wanted to continue serving his country. So he
chose to be a military chaplain. Now the U.S. Navy
threatens to end his career as a decorated Chaplain for the Naval Special Warfare command, for expressing his
view of being in favor of traditional marriage.
The former soldier and Christian minister, along with the
Managing Director of Strategic Litigation of the Liberty Institute, Hiram
Sasser, joined Breitbart Executive Chairman and host, Stephen K. Bannon, on Breitbart
News Sunday, airing on Sirius XM Patriot radio channel 125. The Liberty
Institute focuses on cases involving the First Amendment and other
constitutional and civil rights issues.
Sasser explained that Modder received a letter of
recommendation from the officer who carried the “football” (nuclear codes) for
President Bush. Moreover, Modder was recommended for early promotion, but
now the Navy may actually remove him from the promotion list completely. Modder
earned outstanding fitness reports, and received a letter of
recommendation from the commanding officer of Naval Special Warfare Command–the
command to which Navy SEAL Teams belong.
Bannon observed, “so what you are saying is we have a pretty
squared away Naval officer, those are the facts, that’s not just my opinion.”
Sasser then explained that Modder was assigned as Chaplain
at a submarine school in South Carolina. “There he counseled sailors who came
to him as a minister of the Assemblies of God, seeking spiritual advice,” said
the attorney for the Liberty Institute. “He was hired specifically by the Navy
to provide pastoral spiritual counsel.”
During his time at the school he had been asked to give his
opinion in a private one-on-one counseling session about whether marriage
should be between a man and a woman. “He said that the Bible says that marriage
should be between a man and a woman. He said that homosexuality is not a sin,
but that homosexual conduct is a sin,” Sasser recounted.
The top Naval brass took those statements, which he issued
as a Christian minister, and used them as evidence “that he was not worthy of
being in the Navy,” Sasser said. On top of that, Modder has a combined 19 and a
half years of military service and the Navy is trying to drive him out before
his 20 year retirement plan.
Significantly, before everyone of Modder’s counseling
sessions he acknowledges that he is an ordained minister. He emphasizes that
when one comes to talk to him, they are seeing him as a Chaplain. Modder
explains to them that he gets his teaching from the Bible and that is the
source of his counseling. Therefore, there should be no surprise, Sasser
suggests, that Modder believes the way that he does.
Breitbart’s Executive Chairman asked Modder if he thought
that the way he is being treated is fair. “No I don’t think it’s fair. I
think it’s quite shocking,” he responded. “I can honestly say I didn’t see this
coming. I’ve just been counseling sailors the way I have always done. I’ve
served fifteen years in the Navy and was a former Marine. There is a great need
for what I do and as an ordained Minister with the Assemblies of God, this is
not a very typical experience.”
Bannon told Modder that “Andrew Breitbart built our site as
a platform for your kind of story. We want to help you because this is just
unsatisfactory.”
Modder said that with the help of the Liberty Institute,
that he is going to fight this, because “I can’t in good conscience walk away…
I’m hoping there can be a reconnection between policy at the highest levels and
how we actually execute ministry to take care of our folks serving our
country.”
“It looks to me like a witch hunt” said Bannon. “Knowing how
serious a board of inquiry is–and quite frankly how rarely they are called—to
come down on someone with this record and these fitness reports, it is so
outrageous. We are going to make sure this situation is fully vetted, because
this is one of the most outrageous things I’ve ever seen. It is truly a witch
hunt by the United States Navy.”
U.S. Navy
U.S.
Navy was a contributor for the Center
for a New American Security.
Note: Richard J. Danzig
was the secretary for the U.S. Navy,
and is the director & former chairman for the Center for a New American Security.
Dennis
C. Blair was an admiral for the U.S.
Navy, a director at the Center for a
New American Security, and a national intelligence director for the Barack Obama administration.
Robert
O. Work was the under secretary for the U.S. Navy, the CEO for the Center
for a New American Security, and is the deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Gary
Roughead is a director at the Center
for a New American Security, and was the chief of naval operations for the U.S. Department of Defense.
John
P. White is an advisory board member for the Center for a New American Security, was a director at the Center for a New American Security, and
the deputy secretary for the U.S.
Department of Defense.
Vikram J. Singh
was a fellow at the Center for a New
American Security, and an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Defense.
William
J. Perry was a director at the Center
for a New American Security, and the secretary for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Janine Davidson
is a non-resident senior fellow at the Center
for a New American Security, and was the deputy assistant secretary for the
U.S. Department of Defense.
Kurt M. Campbell
is the chairman & co-founder for the Center
for a New American Security, and was a deputy assistant secretary for Asia
for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Bob
Butler is a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, and was a deputy assistant
secretary for cyber policy for the U.S.
Department of Defense.
Derek H. Chollet
was a senior fellow at the Center for a
New American Security, a special assistant to the president for the Barack Obama administration, and is the
assistant secretary for the U.S.
Department of Defense.
Colin
H. Kahl is a senior fellow at the Center
for a New American Security, and was a deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Richard L.
Armitage is a director at the Center
for a New American Security, and was an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Michele A.
Flournoy is the CEO for the Center
for a New American Security, and was the under secretary at the U.S. Department of Defense for the Barack Obama administration.
William
J. Lynn was a director at the Center
for a New American Security, and the deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Defense for the Barack Obama administration.
Wallace Gregson
Jr. was an advisory board member for the Center for a New American Security, the assistant secretary for
Asian & Pacific security affairs at the U.S. Department of Defense for the Barack Obama administration, and a lieutenant general for the U.S. Marine Corps.
U.S.
Department of Defense was a contributor for the Center for a New American Security.
U.S. Air Force was
a contributor for the Center for a New
American Security.
U.S.
Army was a contributor for the Center
for a New American Security.
John
A. Nagl was a lieutenant colonel for the U.S. Army, and is an advisory board member for the Center for a New American Security.
Dell
L. Dailey was a lieutenant general for the U.S. Army, and is an advisory board member for the Center for a New American Security.
U.S. Coast Guard
was a contributor for the Center for a
New American Security.
U.S. Marine
Corps was a contributor for the Center
for a New American Security.
Gregory S.
Newbold was a lieutenant general for the U.S. Marine Corps, and a director at the Center for a New American Security.
Arnold L. Punaro
was a major general for the U.S. Marine
Corps, and is an advisory board member for the Center for a New American Security.
John R. Allen was
a general for the U.S. Marine Corps,
and is a director at the Center for a
New American Security.
Albright Group
LLC was a contributor for the Center
for a New American Security.
Albright Group
LLC is a merged company with the Albright
Stonebridge Group.
Richard R. Verma
was a counselor for the Albright
Stonebridge Group, and an advisory board member for the Center for a New American Security.
Madeleine K.
Albright was the founder of the Albright
Group LLC, a director at the Center
for a New American Security, is a co-chairman for the Albright Stonebridge Group, and an overseer at the International Rescue Committee.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the International Rescue
Committee, the Robin Hood
Foundation, and the Harlem Children's Zone.
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and a benefactor for the Harlem
Children's Zone.
Clifford S.
Asness is a director at the International Rescue Committee, was a leadership council member for the Robin
Hood Foundation, and supported same-sex
marriage in New York.
Michael R.
Bloomberg was a donor for the Robin
Hood Foundation, a benefactor for the Harlem
Children's Zone, the New York (NY)
mayor, and is the founder of Bloomberg
LP.
Bloomberg
LP was a contributor for the Center
for a New American Security.
U.S.
Navy was a contributor for the Center
for a New American Security.
Eric
T. Olson was an admiral for the U.S.
Navy, a commander for the U.S.
Special Operations Command, a commander for the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group, and is a director at Iridium Communications Inc.
Dennis
C. Blair was an admiral for the U.S.
Navy, a director at Iridium
Communications Inc., a national intelligence director for the Barack Obama administration, and a
director at the Center for a New
American Security.
U.S.
Navy was a contributor for the Center
for a New American Security.
U.S. Air Force was
a contributor for the Center for a New
American Security.
U.S.
Army was a contributor for the Center
for a New American Security.
U.S. Coast Guard
was a contributor for the Center for a
New American Security.
U.S.
Department of Defense was a contributor for the Center for a New American Security.
U.S. Marine
Corps was a contributor for the Center
for a New American Security.
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