Reply #27: Flip it.

[Grins]

Turn it around on them. Would they still hold their position if the General were speaking in uniform, on any subject, to one of those "Citizen Councils" in Mississippi?

He wasn't invited to speak because he was a parishioner, but because he was the Undersecretary, and spoke on behalf of the military. And the military should be mighty upset.

As to the comment that, "...one's church is not exactly a press conference..." - well the Church certainly treated it that way. Who took the pictures, the film, the text, and made it all public. Who let "them" in?

This is not an issue for the ACLU. It's an issue for the military.

(For what it's worth, I'm ex-military, and I can't imagine a situation where this behavior - by a senior officer no less - would be acceptable.)