As a former Air Force member who was deployed to a base in Kyrgyzstan, I experienced how vital religious freedom is for our service members. I even found myself behind a keyboard during church services at our base—not because I was particularly talented, but because we didn’t have many musicians to choose from! My rusty junior high piano skills had to do, so we avoided songs with complicated chords. But what we never avoided was the truth. We never censored our worship to steer clear of topics like sin, depravity, or redemption.
Even more impactful than the music were the chaplains who preached out of Scripture boldly and without compromise. Their sermons were a spiritual anchor for us, offering clarity, hope, and comfort in a foreign and sometimes difficult place.
What Happened to Chaplain Trubey?
That is why I’m so thankful for Chaplain Trubey and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Douglas Collins for defending that same freedom today. And I’m thankful for you, and your faithful support that enables us to do this important work.
Under the previous Administration, our client, Chaplain Trubey, was unfairly removed from his VA Chaplain duties at the Coatesville VA Medical Center in Pennsylvania and subjected to a five-month investigation. His offense? He preached a sermon on Romans 1, a sermon that would be very familiar to Christians around the world. But his supervisor, steeped in cultural “woke” ideology, took issue with the message and labeled Romans 1 a “charged and divisive text.”
A Dangerous Attempt to Silence Biblical Truth
For months, he was under investigation and removed from his Chaplain duties. The woke supervisor pushed for a reprimand and made concerted attempts to restrict future sermons to only religious ideas shared across religions. In other words, stop preaching the Biblical truth of sin and the need for a savior. Worse yet, the supervisor attempted to implement a new sermon review process that would have restricted chaplains’ ability to preach according to their faith.
Fighting Back – And Winning
Our attorneys, partnering together with our friends at First Liberty Institute, represented Chaplain Trubey. We sent a letter to the newly confirmed Veterans Affairs Secretary, Douglas Collins. And we have great news–Secretary Collins responded and has made it clear that religious discrimination and censorship will no longer be tolerated in VA hospitals.
This victory is important for many reasons. Chaplain Trubey and his colleagues are now free to serve veterans and service members without the fear of being censored for preaching according to their conscience and faith. But this decision doesn’t only protect the religious liberty of chaplains across our nation, it also ensures that the veterans they minister to can receive the spiritual care they need without compromise.
Thank you for standing with us in this fight for religious freedom and the spread of the gospel. Your support makes victories like this one possible, and I am grateful for your continued commitment to defending the rights of those who serve and have served our country.
