Wes Modder holds several noteworthy titles – Reverend, Doctor, husband, father. And two more: Chaplain and Lt. Commander, U.S. Navy.
Chaplain Modder served as a Marine in the 1980s but left to pursue his calling as a pastor. He later returned to the military to serve as a pastor to some of our country’s finest but most hard-pressed men and women, those who wear the uniform of the United States, and to their families.
Yet now, after serving faithfully for 19 years, Chaplain Modder has been “hauled before representatives of the military's Equal Opportunity board for holding biblical views on marriage and sexuality.”
This would be bad enough, but it gets worse: “In continued defiance of federal law, a U.S. Navy official denied ... Chaplain Wes Modder’s request for religious accommodation this week. Although Chaplain Modder’s Marine and Navy SEAL commanders have called him ‘a national asset’ and ‘the best of the best,’ Navy officials are threatening Chaplain Modder with career-ending punishment because he expressed faith-based beliefs in private counseling sessions with sailors.”
With our friends at the Liberty Institute, FRC is standing with the Chaplain. More than 100,000 people have signed our petition calling on the Secretaries of Defense and the Navy to “restore Chaplain Modder and ensure that his religious freedom is secure.”
Please sign our petition and join us in defending this American hero. Religious liberty is our first freedom, because without it, none of our other freedoms is possible. Wes Modder understands this. Let’s hope we all do.
Sincerely,
Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice-President
Family Research Council
P.S. On Wednesday, April 1 be sure to come to FRC or watch online as the Institute for Religion and Democracy’s Chelsen Vicari talks about her recent book, Distortion: How the New Christian Left is Twisting the Gospel and Damaging the Faith. Register for the event (at no charge) and join us next week!
Education
- Truly Higher Education – National Affairs
- What’s Wrong with Common Core – Acton Institute
- Professor Obama’s Lesson for Millennials - Christian Post
- Meet 5 Award-Winning Teachers Who Reject Common Core – The Federalist
Human Dignity and the Sanctity of Life
Abortion
- Obama Administration: "Provide Abortions or Get Out" – Pregnancy Help News
- The Dark History of Birth Control You Haven’t Heard – Mic.com
- Unborn baby shown grimacing in womb as mother smokes - Telegraph
- Parade Blarney – City Journal
- Millennials will change abortion conversation- USA Today
- No murder charges for woman who ripped baby from mom’s womb? Colorado voters have only themselves to blame- LifeSite News
- American Idol reject whose YouTube lullaby to her daughter has now launched her singing career reveals how she nearly aborted her baby- DailyMail
Assisted Suicide
- Kara Tippitts’ Last Battle - Breakpoint
- Mother of seven faces being removed from life support on Tuesday against family’s wishes- LifeSite News
Bioethics
- Three-Parent Embryos: Gearing Up for the US Debate –Catholic World Report
- Bioethics in Transition: Reframing the Discussion – Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
Obamacare
- Marco Rubio Marks Fifth Anniversary of Obamacare by Rolling Out Alternative Plan – Daily Signal
- Pavlich: America isn’t better with ObamaCare- The Hill
- The Dilemmas of King v. Burwell – NY Times
Marriage & Family
- Family structure and multiple domains of child well-being in the United States: a cross-sectional study - Population Health Metrics
- The Religion-Health Connection Among African Americans: What Is the Role of Social Capital?” Community and Applied Social Psychology
- Loneliness and social isolation are just as much a threat to longevity as obesity - Brigham Young University
- Sex, contraception, or abortion? Explaining class gaps in unintended childbearing - The Brookings Institution
Economy and the family
- Debt, Cohabitation, and Marriage in Young Adulthood – Demography
- Education, Labor Markets, and the Retreat from Marriage - US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (originally published in Social Forces Journal)
Fatherhood
- The Kids Aren’t All Right – Weekly Standard
- What Makes a Man Great? 10 Traits that Standout – “The Fatherhood Challenge,” from Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk
Homosexuality and Gender Issues
- Dear Gay Community: I Am Your Daughter – The Federalist
- The Girl with Two Mommies - Stream
- Nature vs. Synthetics: What’s at Stake in the Dolce and Gabbana Controversy- Public Discourse
- Ministry offers ‘Courage’ for gay, celibate Catholics- Washington Times
- Dolce & Gabbana: “The Only Family is the Traditional One”- First Things
- Pope Francis condemns gender theory a third time: ‘The family is under attack’- LifeSite News
Human Sexuality
- Gordon College Reaffirms Ban on Students, Faculty Engaging in Extramarital Sex, Homosexuality – Christian Post
- Toward a Graciously Historic Sexual Ethic – The Gospel Coalition
- Why Are Liberals in Denial About the Sexual Revolution? – The Week
Human Trafficking
- How Asia, U.S. Can Help End Human Trafficking – Daily Signal
- Fact Check: Debunking False Talking Points on Sex Trafficking Filibuster – Townhall.com
- Senate Dems Hold Up Sex Trafficking Bill to Protect Abortion Industry- Breitbart
- Law Helps Those Who Escape Sex Trafficking Erase Their Criminal Record- NY Times
- British Girls Raped by Muslim Gangs on "Industrial Scale"- Gatestone Institute
Marriage
- Family Structure IS Still the Problem – Marriage and Religion Research Institute
- Why Won’t Liberals Talk about the Most Important Kind of ‘Privilege’ in America? – National Review
- Federal Court Precedent: A Defense of Judge Roy Moore and the Alabama Supreme Court – Public Discourse
- Marriage: What it Is, Why it Matters, and the Consequences of Re-defining It – Heritage Foundation
- How many kids grow up with their married mom and dad? – Daily Signal
- Corporations are the Enemy - Crisis Magazine
- Progress! The First Three-Way Gay Marriage - Crisis Magazine
- Infertility: We Said "Yes", Too – Catholic365
Pornography
- Seven Attitudes that Hinder Recovery from Sexual Sin – Covenant Eyes
- FRC Welcomes FCC Enforcement Action against Patently Offensive Broadcast – Family Research Council
- Children, Young Adults & Pornography: A ‘Smorgasbord’ of Harms – Porn Harms Research
Religious Liberty and Persecution
Domestic
- What sustainability and religious freedom have in common – Washington Times
- Students Challenge Cal State: Let Us Back on Campus – The Becket Fund
- Congress to consider ‘veto’ of DC bills coercing organizations against their missions - Alliance Defending Freedom
- CHAPLAIN UPDATE: U.S. Navy Official Denies Chaplain Wes Modder’s Request for Religious Accommodation - Liberty Institute
- Media Company Purposefully Obscures True Reason for Wrongful Termination of Award-Winning Journalist - Liberty Institute
- Threatened for Her Zeal for the Faith - First Things
International
- Canada Supreme Court: Catholic Schools Have a Right to Teach Church Views - National Catholic Register
- FRC’s Perkins on Persecution of Christians in Middle East: ‘It is Genocide’ - CNSnews.com
- V.S. Naipul Says ISIS is Now the Fourth Reich - Mail Online
Religion in Public Life
Christian faith and public policy
- Great Political Ideas are Sustained by Great Religious Ideas – Crisis Magazine
- When the Good News Isn’t Proclaimed - Breakpoint
- The Same Thing, But Different - The Catholic Thing
Other Stories of Note
- Coattail Politics—Clinton Style - Spectator.org
- I Hope Israel Spied on Iran Nuclear Talks - Spectator.org
- Iran and the Lessons of History – City Journal
- Remembering Harry Jaffa: An Appreciation – Claremont.org
- Real Entitlement Reform with the ‘Doc Fix’ Repeal – galen.org
