RELIGION/TRUMP EXEC ORDER: “When President Donald Trump signed an executive order promoting religious liberty on Thursday [5-4-17], he singled out the US military for preventing troops from receiving religious items.
‘People were forbidden from giving or receiving religious items at a military hospital where our brave service members were being treated, and when they wanted those religious items,’ Trump said at the signing ceremony. ‘These were great, great people. These are great soldiers. They wanted those items. They were precluded from getting them.’
It was a comment that raised eyebrows at the Pentagon.
Pentagon officials are adamant there is no policy that prohibits members of the military from receiving religious items at military installations…
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification. But Pentagon officials said he was likely referring to a situation in 2011 at the Army’s Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington.
‘In 2011, a local patient visitation policy was issued at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that was written to prevent unsolicited proselytizing from religious groups, including the distribution of their religious items to patients who had not asked for them,’ the Pentagon said in a statement sent to CNN.
‘Due to the wording of that policy, religious groups interpreted the policy to be an outright ban on visitation and distribution of religious items,’ the statement continued. ‘The policy was subsequently re-written to eliminate ambiguity, stating that, *Patients determine their visitors.* ‘”
-Barbara Starr, “Military perplexed after Trump says soldiers couldn’t get religious items,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, May 5, 2017 7:22am