Editor, Times-Union:

Since the founding of the United States military under General George Washington, chaplains have shared their faith and ministered to the spiritual needs of soldiers, sailors, airmen, special forces, guardsmen and marines in battles the world over.

But, even today, after four years with Donald Trump as president, Defense Department bureaucrats are still moving to treat the vital work of military chaplains as a crime punishable by court martial and possible imprisonment. Yes, it’s true!

Think about it. A major part of the Obama-Biden “legacy” is a government stuffed with bureaucrats set on destroying America’s most cherished institutions. They share former President Barack Obama’s loathing for the U.S. military, for Christians and for Christian values.

So now, years after he left office, the career bureaucrats Obama “left behind” could seriously harm both Christians and the military is one single blow. How? By banning what liberals define as “religious proselytizing” and/or “religious coercion.”

Now, I know to some that may seem like a reasonable policy. But please don’t be fooled - that is not what they really mean. What the left really hopes to do is use those terms as cover to ban any expression of faith by any member of the military.

Besides working toward making it a crime for soldiers, sailors, airmen, special forces, guardsmen and marines to share their faith, the Obama-Biden administration supported politics that:

• Banned Bibles at the Walter Reed Military Medical Center (this was reversed after pressure from outraged American servicemen and women).

• Removed the words “so help me God” from the Air Force Academy oath sworn by new recruits.

• Published military training manuals that describe Christians in the same category as Muslim al-Qaeda terrorists.

• Prohibited commanders from informing their units about programs and services offered by chaplains.

And even now, more than four years after Barack Obama left office, the Pentagon is still influenced by leftist groups, like the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, that are trying to erase Christianity and prayer from our Armed Forces.

In fact, the head of that group, atheist Mikey Weinstein, has declared that chaplains and soldiers sharing their faith are guilty of “treason” and of committing an act of “spiritual rape.”

You see, in the warped, hate-soaked words of Mr. Weinstein, military Christians are “enemies of the Constitution.”

Paul Onstott

Burket