Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty - Stay Lifted: Controversial Navy Chaplain May Now Be Dismissed

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Stay Lifted: Controversial Navy Chaplain May Now Be Dismissed

Written by Don Byrd
Thursday, 01 March 2007
In non-Hein-related developments, Vice President Cheney had invited controversial Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt to deliver the invocation at an event tonight. But according to WorldNetDaily, that invitation has been "rescinded", as the DC Court of Appeals on Tuesday lifted the stay keeping the military from dismissing him. Klingenschmitt, whose controversial insistence that he be allowed to pray sectarian prayers in his official capacity at public, mandatory military events, had won a temporary reprieve. The ruling from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals concluded that Klingenschmitt hadn't met "the stringent standards required for an injunction pending appeal," so the administrative stay was being dissolved. The result is that the U.S. Navy ordered him immediately to prepare for his dismissal from the service, which would happen by midnight tonight. He told WND to further punish him, his commander informed him that the chief of naval operations had contacted the Conservative Political Action Conference, where Klingenschmitt had been invited to deliver the invocation tonight, and had his invitation rescinded. Navy Times reports that Klingenschmitt might still deliver the prayer at tonight's conservative political conference, but not in uniform.

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