Category Archives: Chaplains

September 7, 2018 Radio Commentary

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Exonerated! SBC Chaplain Squires

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, September 7, 2018 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

There’s good news today! On August 24th, the Army exonerated Chaplain Scott Squires and his assistant Kacie Griffin by announcing rejection of all charges against them. Chaplain Squires had been charged with dereliction of duty and sex-discrimination against a lesbian soldier. His assistant was facing charges for not immediately registering a female soldier who wanted to attend the marriage retreat with another enlisted female and identify as a same-sex couple.

Since same-sex marriage conflicts with his faith, the chaplain rescheduled the date of the retreat, so another chaplain could conduct it. After the soldier filed charges against them, Squires and Griffin were provided a defense attorney by the First Liberty Institute, a non-profit public interest law firm that, exclusively, defends religious freedom for all Americans.

After a four-month Army investigation of the incident, charges were announced August 1st, but three weeks later all charges were dismissed. Their attorney from First Liberty said: “We are grateful that the Army has rejected and abandoned these baseless charges. The U.S. military is no place for anti-religious hostility against its own military chaplains. Chaplains like Scott Squires and assistant Kacie Griffin do not have to give up their First Amendment rights in order to serve their fellow soldiers.” Continue reading →

August 30, 2013 Radio Commentary

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Former Georgia Legislator Making National Impact

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, August 30, 2013 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Do you ever wonder what happens to politicians that “do good” in Georgia and then leave? It could be said we’re sharing personnel or it could be the Lord puts them where they can do even more “good.” That’s the way it seems for retired military chaplain Col. Ron Crews, former Georgia Representative, now executive director of the Chaplains Alliance for Religious Liberty.

As a Representative in the Georgia General Assembly, Crews sponsored H.B. 1580 that passed in 1996, defining marriage as “only the union of man and woman.” Several years later, his co-sponsor Representative James Mills was appointed to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles. These men had such foresight that they, actually, pre-empted the passage of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, recently ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Eight years after H.B. 1580 passed to define marriage in state law, S.R. 595, which was introduced by Senator Mike Crotts, passed the General Assembly by a two-thirds vote and was ratified by voters in the 2004 General Election. That ratification amended the Georgia Constitution as follows:

“This state shall recognize as marriage only the union of man and woman. Marriages between persons of the same sex are prohibited in this state. No union between persons of the same sex shall be recognized by this state as entitled to the benefits of marriage This state shall not give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other state or jurisdiction respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other state or jurisdiction. The court of this state shall have no jurisdiction to grant a divorce or separate maintenance with respect to any such relationship or otherwise to consider or rule on any of the parties’ respective rights arising as a result or in connections with such relationship.”

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