National Guard Banned From Vacation Bible School, Gay Pride Is Allowed

Have you ever attended Vacation Bible School? Around here, we call it VBS and it is the time of the year, usually during summer vacation from school, that children gather at a local, or not so much, school to learn about the Bible and the principles it teaches. In the case of the VBS put on by our church, it is some children’s only opportunity to attend an event that is both educational and uplifting. Not to mention, a lot of fun.

During the week, representatives of the local police and fire departments, as well as the local paramedics. It depends on the theme of the VBS. For instance, the theme at our local VBS this year was God’s Garage. The children have a lot of fun and learn something about the Bible in the process. That’s how it is supposed to work.

To point of this post, the theme for VBS at Bible Baptist Church in Carthage, Missouri this year was God’s Rescue Squad. As you can guess, the local fire and police departments made an appearance. The paramedics brought their ambulance and was evidently proud to do it. Because of the patroitic pride felt by the church, they extended an invitation to the Missouri National Guard to bring a Humvee and visit with the children. The invitation had a two-fold purpose. First, the church wanted the children in attendance to have the opportunity to see a Humvee up close. It’s quite the impressive sight, especially to a young child. Second, they wanted to show their appreciation of the National Guard for the work they do in serving our country and protecting our freedoms. They thought it would be a simple thing to request, but they thought wrong.

Fox News – But our story picks up with what happened on Thursday. That was the day when the church was supposed to honor the National Guard. They had invited troops from the nearby armory to drop by with one of their Humvees

“We were going to thank them for protecting our religious liberty,” said Pastor Hogan. “It was more of a promotion for the military – to show the kids what the military does.

But the National Guard did not visit Bible Baptist Church on Thursday night, and the reason why has caused great anger and frustration among church members.

“We were told it was against military policy for National Guard troops to participate in Vacation Bible School,” Pastor Hogan said. “They said if the National Guard had assets on church property it would look like the National Guard is sponsoring the Baptist religion.”

Forgive me for being so dense, but I just can not grasp the concept why it is necessary to ban the National Guard, or any other section of our military, from participating in VBS. Are they teaching doctrine to the children by showing off a Humvee and some of the other equipment? The answer would be an obvious no. Are they trying to establish or further a particular religion by being honored at the church for doing what they are doing for our country? Again, the answer is no. It is unfortunate, sad, and more than a little ignorant that our military has such a stupid policy. This is what the Army regulation says, as it was given to State Representative Mike Kelley, who questioned the Missouri National Guard on what had transpired.

It states: “Army participation must not selectively benefit (or appear to benefit) any person, group, or corporation (whether profit or nonprofit); religion, sect, religious or sectarian group, or quasi-religious or ideological movement.”

The policy also states that troops are to avoid any activities that might involve or appear to involve the promotion, endorsement, or sponsorship of any religious or sectarian movement.

I have yet to hear a coherent reason for such a stupid policy. There, I said it again. It is a stupid policy, born of an overgrown federal government that favors political correctness above everything else. It’s nonsense, but it is what we have to deal with because of the direction our government has been heading for the past several decades. It is not an overnight sensation, but one that has been a long time coming.

Make no mistake. I am in no wise upset with the Missouri National Guard. The members of the unit that was forbidden to help with VBS were disappointed that they could not do so. One member, having to remain anonymous because of the Army regulations, had this to say about the policy.

“I will never understand why it’s okay for the military to march in a gay pride parade but not be allowed to spend an hour talking to children who look up to them (soldiers),” the Guardsman said. “I honestly never thought I’d see the day that this would happen in my hometown.”

He is referring to the permission given by the Department of Defense for a military color guard to march in a gay pride parade in Washington, D.C. In my opinion, you can’t get any more backwards than that. Since when is it such a bad thing to participate in Vacation Bible School, but perfectly acceptable to make sure our military is politically correct and shows how proud they are of the small minority of Americans who are homosexual?

Our country may be even further down the tubes than I thought.