OnCALL.(SP).17 .pdf

Spring 2017 - Issue 8

PURSUING a nation
where all chaplains,
and those whom they
serve, freely exercise
their God-given and
constitutionally
protected religious
liberties without fear
of reprisal.

On CALL

A Message From Our Outgoing Executive Director




7
I was, telling about service members

just two years ago and is now chaplain

being persecuted just for their faith in

endorser for the Evangelical Free Church in

Jesus Christ.

America. He brings experience as one who

Thank you for all of your prayers and
financial support to allow me to serve



you in this way. Your support has

served at the Pentagon and has passion to
see that those who serve in our military are
able to live out their faith even while they
protect our liberties. I know you will

Executive Director CH (COL) Ron Crews USA (Ret.)

made this work possible. Your help

testifying before the House Armed Services Committee

allowed us to work with members of

It has been a joy and an honor to be a

congress to include a Right of

founding member and the first Executive

Conscience clause in the 2013 National

Please join us for our Passing The Torch

Director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious

Defense Authorization Act. This

Reception on 28 August, 5:00-7:00 P.M.,

Liberty. God has been so faithful to us over

language is now law and has already

440 1 St. NW, Suite 600; Washington, D.C.,

the past six years as we walked the halls of

been used to help service members live

where we will officially transfer leadership.

congress speaking to members about

out their faith. Thank you!

You may RSVP at:

religious liberty issues in the military. I
never imagined myself testifying before the
House Armed Services Committee, yet there

It is now my joy to welcome Chaplain
(COL) Phil Wright, USA Retired, as your
new Executive Director. Phil retired

continue your support for Chaplain Alliance.
Our work is needed now, more than ever.

st

http://chaplainalliance.org/events

Ron Crews with Senator Joni Ernst (Below)

Did you know?
Chaplain Alliance (CALL) speaks on behalf of over half of the
nation’s uniformed chaplains. CALL exists to ensure that chaplains
can defend and provide for the freedom of religion and conscience
that the Constitution guarantees all chaplains and those whom they
serve.

Chaplain
Alliance for Religious Liberty (CALL) – 571-293-2427 – Ron Crews, Executive Director - www.chaplainalliance.org
571-293-2427

In The News:
- June 2017: The Department Of Defense
has begun mandatory transgender
sensitivity training for soldiers.
- May 2017: Chaplain Alliance For
Religious Liberty commended the Trump
administration for its executive order that
declared that the administration’s policy
is to protect and vigorously promote
religious liberty. Executive Director CH
(Colonel) Ron Crews, United States Army
(Retired), said he’s cautiously optimistic
after President Donald Trump signed the
religious freedom executive order.
- April 2017: Executive Director CH (COL)
Ron Crews was interviewed on In The
Market With Janet Parshall on the
ongoing assault in the military against our
chaplains.
- March 2017: Chaplain Alliance sent a
letter to the acting Secretary Of The Army
regarding the outgoing Secretary Of The
Army’s decision to sign a directive just
hours before his resignation that wastes
valuable resources on a plan to provide
“training on implicit or unconscious bias.”
- March 2017: Executive Director Ron
Crews wrote an op-ed for Real Clear
Defense urging President Trump to fulfill
his promise made on the campaign trail
to protect religious liberty.
- March 2017: CALL responded to the
Freedom From Religion Foundation’s
demands that chaplains at Pease Air
National Guard Base, New Hampshire not
be allowed to offer invocations at onbase events with a letter to the
commander advising him that federal
law, military regulations, and the
Constitution all allow prayer and Bible
readings by chaplains at military events.
CALL later commended the Air Force for
ignoring the complaints and continuing
chaplain prayers.

- March 2017: Executive Director Crews
met with Representative Jody Hice (R-GA)
to discuss chaplaincy issues and religious
liberty in the military.



Incoming Executive Director CH (COL) Phil Wright USA
(Ret.) (Left)
CH Wright and his wife, Julie (Above)

A Message From Our Incoming Executive Director
As the incoming Executive Director of CALL, I thought you might want to know a
little about me. I have been married to Julie for 33.5 years and we have 4 children who
know the Lord by His grace. After high school, I served as an enlisted airborne
infantry soldier. We were going out regularly to train and the battalion chaplain would
come to do services. I did not go to services but he had a profound impact on me,
which I was slow to realize.
Ten months later, I got on my knees and confessed to God that I did not have Jesus in
my life. With no church background, this had to be a God-thing. I did not know what
the outcome would be but I was a changed soldier. 12 years later, having graduated
from UCLA and Talbot Seminary, I found myself back in the Army as a chaplain for
the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) assigned to the airborne infantry
where I saw soldiers like me earlier, lost and without hope.
That was the beginning of 28.5-year career, jumping out of airplanes (the Army’s
“dope on a rope” program), doing road marches with rucksack on my back and eating
MREs that tasted horrible. I did all of that to share the Gospel with those Soldiers, their
leaders and their families trying to bring them godly direction and hope. I was
fortunate all my assignments were with some form of infantry, highly unusual for a
chaplain. As I think about it, it had to be a God-thing, for through it all, God sustained
me (no parachute accidents) and allowed me to prosper as a chaplain. Finally, I served
in the Pentagon at the time that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was being repealed, unaware
that God was preparing me for future responsibility with Chaplain Alliance for
Religious Liberty which formed in response to that event. After retiring to become the
Endorser for the EFCA I went to a regular meeting of CALL in December 2016 and
was asked by several members to pray about becoming the executive director.
My wife Julie and I had plans to move to Colorado Springs to be near family so when I
told her what happened I expected her to say that I could not serve because we were
moving to Colorado. Imagine my surprise when Julie said, “let’s pray about it”. We
did and we put our name forward and on 5 June 2017 the members voted for me to
succeed Ron. My vision for CALL is to continue to lead CALL with the same integrity
and humble spirit that Ron has displayed the past six years. CALL will continue as a
“God-thing”, serving military chaplains and those they serve as we contend with those
who wish to eliminate God from the public and private square. It will be my goal to
honor God as I serve, safeguarding religious liberty for our chaplains and those they
serve!

Contact the On CALL Editor for fact checking all stories in this newsletter:
info@chaplainalliance.org