{"id":3524,"date":"2011-07-02T11:22:50","date_gmt":"2011-07-02T15:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=3524"},"modified":"2011-07-02T11:22:50","modified_gmt":"2011-07-02T15:22:50","slug":"take-action-veterans-affairs-a-bans-mention-of-god-at-funerals-for-vets-bullying-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/07\/take-action-veterans-affairs-a-bans-mention-of-god-at-funerals-for-vets-bullying-christians.html","title":{"rendered":"Take Action: Veterans Affairs A Bans Mention of God at Funerals for Vets (Bullying Christians)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\"ShareShare on Facebook <\/a> \"ShareShare on Twitter <\/a> \"OnlineOnline Version<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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VA\u00a0Bans Mention of God at Funerals for Vets<\/h4>\n

“The hostile and discriminatory actions by the Veterans Affairs officials in\u00a0Houston\u00a0are outrageous, unconstitutional and must stop,” said Jeff Mateer, Esq., general counsel of Liberty Institute.<\/h5>\n

June 30, 2011<\/p>\n

The Department of Veterans Affairs and its Director of the Houston National Cemetery, Arleen Ocasio, are engaging in religious viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, by adding new incidents of religious hostility.
\n\"DirectorSince taking the directorship of the Houston facility in April, 2010, Arleen Ocasio has used her position to bully Christians, repeatedly trampling on the religious liberties of Veterans of Foreign Wars District 4, The American Legion Post 586, and the National Memorial Ladies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On March 15, Director Ocasio told\u00a0Nobleton\u00a0Jones, Honor Guard Junior Vice Commander, that he couldn’t say “May God grant you grace, mercy and peace” to grieving families.<\/p>\n

“The hostile and discriminatory actions by the Veterans Affairs officials in Houston are outrageous, unconstitutional and must stop,” said Jeff Mateer, Esq., general counsel of Liberty Institute. “Government officials who engage in religious discrimination against citizens are breaking the law. Sadly, this seems to be a pattern of behavior at the Houston VA National Cemetery.”<\/p>\n

Our friends at Liberty Institute have amended an earlier lawsuit against the VA that states the new violations against religious liberty include:<\/p>\n

\u2022 VA Forbids Mention of God at Funerals for Veterans and Requires Families to Submit Prayer for Approval to the Government
\n\u2022 VA instructs the VFW and a Private Funeral Home that they may not present the option of prayer to families
\n\u2022 VA Tells Volunteers to Remove “God Bless” from Condolence Cards to Grieving Families
\n\u2022 VA Closes Cemetery Chapel; Uses it for Storage<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can read Liberty Institute’s detailed report of Director Ocasio’s offenses\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

TAKE ACTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Ocasio has already been successfully sued this year for religious discrimination. Obviously, she is not qualified to be the director of a National Cemetery and should step down.<\/p>\n

Send an email to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs secretary Eric Shinseki<\/strong><\/a>. Ask him to 1) stop his department’s religious discrimination and 2) relieve Director Ocasio of her duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Take<\/a><\/td>\nSend an email to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki now!<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

It is very important that you forward this alert to your friends and family members.<\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/www.afa.net <\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Online Version VA\u00a0Bans Mention of God at Funerals for Vets “The hostile and discriminatory actions by the Veterans Affairs officials in\u00a0Houston\u00a0are outrageous, unconstitutional and must stop,” said Jeff Mateer, Esq., general counsel of Liberty Institute. June 30, 2011 The Department of Veterans Affairs and its Director of the Houston…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":403,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344,252,503,168,68,450,407,156,254],"tags":[1373,1375,1376,1374,1372],"class_list":["post-3524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bullying","category-christian","category-free-speech","category-jesus-christ","category-political-correctness","category-politics","category-pray","category-take-action","category-u-s-military-2","tag-ban-god","tag-department-of-veterans-affairs","tag-director-of-the-houston-national-cemetery-arleen-ocasio","tag-funerals","tag-vets"],"yoast_head":"\nTake Action: Veterans Affairs A Bans Mention of God at Funerals for Vets (Bullying Christians) - Watchwoman on the Wall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/07\/take-action-veterans-affairs-a-bans-mention-of-god-at-funerals-for-vets-bullying-christians.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Take Action: Veterans Affairs A Bans Mention of God at Funerals for Vets (Bullying Christians) - Watchwoman on the Wall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Online Version VA\u00a0Bans Mention of God at Funerals for Vets “The hostile and discriminatory actions by the Veterans Affairs officials in\u00a0Houston\u00a0are outrageous, unconstitutional and must stop,” said Jeff Mateer, Esq., general counsel of Liberty Institute. 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June 30, 2011 The Department of Veterans Affairs and its Director of the Houston…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/07\/take-action-veterans-affairs-a-bans-mention-of-god-at-funerals-for-vets-bullying-christians.html","og_site_name":"Watchwoman on the Wall","article_published_time":"2011-07-02T15:22:50+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/action.afa.net\/images\/afa_logo_email.png"}],"author":"Donna Calvin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/07\/take-action-veterans-affairs-a-bans-mention-of-god-at-funerals-for-vets-bullying-christians.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/07\/take-action-veterans-affairs-a-bans-mention-of-god-at-funerals-for-vets-bullying-christians.html","name":"Take Action: Veterans Affairs A Bans Mention of God at Funerals for Vets (Bullying Christians) - Watchwoman on the Wall","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/07\/take-action-veterans-affairs-a-bans-mention-of-god-at-funerals-for-vets-bullying-christians.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/07\/take-action-veterans-affairs-a-bans-mention-of-god-at-funerals-for-vets-bullying-christians.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/action.afa.net\/images\/afa_logo_email.png","datePublished":"2011-07-02T15:22:50+00:00","dateModified":"2011-07-02T15:22:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#\/schema\/person\/1470e1ef6765f8a27f970307b0835df1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/07\/take-action-veterans-affairs-a-bans-mention-of-god-at-funerals-for-vets-bullying-christians.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/07\/take-action-veterans-affairs-a-bans-mention-of-god-at-funerals-for-vets-bullying-christians.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/07\/take-action-veterans-affairs-a-bans-mention-of-god-at-funerals-for-vets-bullying-christians.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/action.afa.net\/images\/afa_logo_email.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/action.afa.net\/images\/afa_logo_email.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/07\/take-action-veterans-affairs-a-bans-mention-of-god-at-funerals-for-vets-bullying-christians.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Take Action: Veterans Affairs A Bans Mention of God at Funerals for Vets (Bullying Christians)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/","name":"Watchwoman on the Wall","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Donna Calvin","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#\/schema\/person\/1470e1ef6765f8a27f970307b0835df1","name":"Donna Calvin","description":"In sixth grade my teacher told us that we were going to be the first generation to see the year 2000 and all things would be different. 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