A U.S. Veterans Affairs chaplain’s lawyers are taking action after he was allegedly sanctioned for a sermon he delivered in June.
In a recent letter, First Liberty Institute and the Independence Law Center advocated for Veteran Chaplain Rusty Trubey of the Coatesville VA Medical Center in Pennsylvania and asked for assistance from U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, Fox News reported on Monday.
The letter requested Collins “take immediate action to eliminate a speech code being imposed by the Veterans Affairs (VA). They are also asking Secretary Collins to ensure that Chaplain Trubey and his colleagues may preach according to the dictates of their conscience,” the outlet said.
The lawyers are also arguing the alleged sanctioning violates the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Trubey has been a chaplain at the center for almost a decade. He led a worship service in June in the hospital’s chapel and preached on the first chapter of the book of Romans.
Click here to read the chapter in its entirety.
According to Erin Smith, who is associate counsel at First Liberty Institute, Trubey read the chapter and explained what the Biblical text is interpreted to mean.
The Fox article continued:
“The specific text that he was reading was Romans 1 verses 23 through 32, so before he gave the sermon, he did explain that what he was going to say was going to be hard to hear or uncomfortable for people,” Smith said.
“But he also was explaining that in order to be able to hear the good news of what he was going to be preaching, it’s important that you hear bad news,” she added. “The Bible describes in Romans 1, behaviors the culture engages in and one of those behaviors that the Bible describes is homosexual behavior.”
According to the First Liberty Institute, a VA police officer approached the chaplain after the service was over and allegedly made complaints about the message. In turn, Trubey told his supervisor the police had been alerted.
Trubey was then reportedly removed from his duties and reassigned to stock shelves for the hospital.
The institute continued:
When he asked for an explanation, his supervisor said it was due to “inappropriate conduct” and because the message was based on a “very charged and divisive text.” Chaplain Trubey was investigated for several months and threatened with a reprimand on his permanent record.
After receiving our Letter of Representation, the VA facility suddenly rescinded this proposed reprimand. But his supervisor has implemented an unconstitutional review process. Under this new rule, Chaplain Trubey and all chaplains must have their sermons reviewed ahead of time. That means his supervisor has the power to decide what content in a sermon is “objectionable” and opens the door for other supervisors to punish chaplains simply for preaching a viewpoint they find offensive.
If the review rule is implemented, Trubey’s lawyers argue that other chaplains could be targeted for their preaching.
Trubey has since been restored to his position as chaplain and Smith is confident Collins will take action on the issue.
“We really do look forward to seeing the good work that he’s going to do for religious liberty and taking care of the chaplaincy and the VA,” she stated.
The Senate confirmed Collins as Secretary of the VA on February 4, which made him President Donald Trump’s tenth confirmed Cabinet member, per Breitbart News.
“Collins faces a steep task in reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs, a massive bureaucracy routinely cited for low employee morale and criticized by the veterans and families it serves,” the outlet said.
It is important to note that Trump told those gathered at a recent prayer breakfast he will create a task force to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI and other agencies.”
