Monk, certainly experienced his share of hard times in the military at the hands of our government. And another person who should be up here with us is Navy Chaplain wes modder, who i have the privilege and honor of representing as well. And i know that chaplain would love to be here himself to tell you his story. Unfortunately he cant do that. But what i am pleased to share with you all that chaplain modder is sitting here in the audience, right here in the first row. And chaplain modder, will you please stand up. [ applause ] these two men put everything professionally on the line. Both had over 19 years of service in the military. Both risked all of that because of what they believe in. And to do the right thing. And you know, two last points i want to make on this, travis, is first of all, there is a lot of misinformation out there about what rights we give up when we join the military, when we swear the oath of allegiance to the constitution. We dont swear an oath to the president or to the commanding officer, we swear to uphold the constitution of this nation. [ applause ] and second, we cannot forget why our military exists, which is to defend this nation. But i want to remind everybody that right on the heels of world war ii, we had just declared victory on world war ii and our nation was facing a new threat. A threat different than what we had seen before. And it was a war of ideas. And president truman commissioned a committee to do a study on the need whether there was a need to have chaplains in the military. What purpose did chaplains or religion serve in the military and this committee submitted a report back to president truman saying our troops need to be ideologically prepared for battle every bit as much as they are physically prepared for battle because were in a war of roid yeahs and that is why it is so vitally important that we protect and enable our Service Members to be able to be ideologically prepared for battle. And that is part of our mission at liberty institute. So thank you for allowing me to share. [ applause ] thank you. And well come back to more of that shortly. For now i would like to Master Sergeant monk to share his story of how hes been effected living out his faith in the military quite recently. So Master Sergeant, please share. Sure. Um, you know, through my experience, ive ive been so close to god. That is how ive been impacted by this. But id like to point out, you know, in the military right now there was a saying that says you can serve god and country. But never before like its going on right now, the men and women that are serving this great nation are asking themselves, do i serve god or country . If chaplain modder cant speak about biblical principles, what chance does airmen, marine, soldier have. His case has sent a Chilling Effect across our services. And ill tell you what, hes been an example to me, and to many others. Because when you stand up and you fight back, you win. [ applause ] and i would just say this. You have to understand that when you sign up and you serve this great nation in our military, you basically are signing a blank check to old uncle sam. And it is payable it is a blank check payable up to your life. Okay. And guess what . Uncle sam has got no business coming between you and the great i am. [ applause ] when our servicemen and women and deploy overseas and fight for their freedoms, when they come home, they deserve to be able to exercise the very freedoms they risk their lives for. Our men and women, when they report back to the base, they are not going to check god at the gate. [ applause ] so id like to follow up with you, just real quick and then well move on. But as you walk through what happened to you in the military and feel free to share what you like to with that, how was your faith effected and through your interactions with military and everyone that came into your life as a result of standing for your faith . Well, i will tell you, you know, ive been talking to chaplain modder and many of you around here, and you know, when you go through Something Like this, god comes right up to your front door and says hello. You know what i mean. He gets right in your face and lets you know that hes got it. And we had friends call and email and they would call the house and say, hey, i know you must be upset, you must be really freaked out about all of this. And i would say no, what is going on. And they would say, how can you be so calm. Well, how can i not be calm when the creator of the world is working in my life. And i can see it so apparently. And so never more have i been so committed and so close to god at this point. So he has strengthened me and my family and hes he has just given me a resolve to take this fight and reclaim religious freedom for our military members. [ applause ] next, im going to ask aaron and Melissa Klein to share they are seated at the end of the table. In doubt, you have heard of their situation, what happened to them. They are a business. Sweet cakes by mel issa out in oregon. They sought to serve the lord through their business and not separate their desire to make a living and support their family. Yet because of this they drew the ire of a number of activists and those who were opposed to their world view. They sought to live out their faith through the Business Service weddings and cakes, but couldnt violate their conscious but supporting a samesex wedding. As a result they were sued and their case has wound its way through the courts. It is now before the oregon court of appeals and one of a number of cases involving wending vendors in which they are seeking to vindicate their statutory rights to religious freedom. These are important cases playing out these days and are the stories of these, they are documented on free to believe. Com. But the kleins are at the heart of one of the stories well see what the legal system has for them. But weigh want to hear we want to hear from them personally and hear about how their faith has been strengthened, regardless of what happened in the courts, but are only ruling against them because of a biased of many playing part in the system in which their case is winding its way through. They are reaching an end due to a predetermined world view and using the law to do that. It is very clear. But at the heart of this is spiritual matters, the people in the system who are ruling against the kleins, worship certain ends. The kleins worship god and want to stand for him and that is what we want to hear from you all tonight and just share a little bit about how your faith has been effected through this experience and why it is important to show your faith through your work and your business serving those who want to celebrate a marriage. Um, well, i would definitely say that for me, its kind of hard to admit this, but before this all happened, i really struggled with my trust in the lord. And when this all happened, god completely rocked my world. And he showed up like philip said, showed up at my doorstep pretty much. And i saw the hand of god move in my life like ive never seen. And my faith in him and my trust has just absolutely sky rocketed. And i get a lot of people that will say, im so sorry that you guys are going through this. And all i can do is think to say to people, please dont be sorry because for me, like, ive had the most awesome experience of seeing god move in my life. And i wouldnt trade that for the world. And i go through this over and over again for that. God, to me, is hes my life. [ applause ] you know, when we opened up our shop, right before we opened, you know, like i said, he was my life and our life. And in our family. And we decided we were going to dedicate our shop we had our pastor come out and we dedicated our shop and i wanted to i wanted everything that i did in my shop to glorify god. Because i felt like god gave that to me. He blessed that to me and to us. And so i just wanted to give everything back to him. And so we did, we dedicated our shop. And i get a lot of people too that tell us that, you know, youre in business. You cant do business and have your religion or your faith at your workplace. And to me, i sit there and i say my religion and my faith is my life and it will go everywhere with me, its going to go to work, its go to go to church, its going to go to the store its going to go [ applause ] i dont believe god on a coffee table at home. He goes everywhere with us. And ill let you share your part. For me, the whole idea that the state is going to tell me i have to choose between my faith and making a living to support my family, that is an atrocity. [ applause ] but going through this, i can say this, i hold on to the scripture. Romans chapter 5 said that suffering breeds perseverance and perseverance faith, and faith character and character hope. And that hope is the hope we have in jesus christ. And that hope has gotten us through this, with a mile on hur face because we know that we serve the one true god. [ applause ] and there is no bureau crattic court or no court in this nation that will ever take that away from me. Thanks guys. Well back to you more shortly. For now i want to get to our last panelist, matt shlack. He is the chairman of the american conservative union. He has had a long history here in washington, d. C. He served with president george w. Bush in his white house. Hes worked on capitol hill. Featured in many news media and generally had extensive experience here in washington, d. C. So ill ask matt to share his observation on some of the issues awe develop policy and protections for people seeking to live out their faith. Weve heard those effected, like those of us at frc, we dont want to face these continuing to occur. And matt, how do you see the religious freedom protections developing in terms of who should be able to support them . Shouldnt people who dont necessarily agree with someone asserting religious freedom claim be able to say i support the idea of this persons individual rights and i want them to be protected. What are your thoughts on that . Well, first of all, i wod like to hear more from all of you. I feel unworthy to be sitting up here. But the fact is this im going to Say Something that is controversial and i dont mean to be offensive but i dont think this is an issue of faith. Im a person of deep faith. But i think this is about america. No matter what your creed is, no matter what your politics are, america is bigger and better than what were seeing. Were seeing a system that is based on the constitution that has run off the tracks. And the strong arm of the federal government, when it gets off those tracks, destroys peoples lives. And we heard from the president that you didnt build it and i guess now he wants to destroy it. But we can we have to stand up and reorient ourselves and not be pushed back. Theyre going to tell you that you are intolerant and using your faith in a way that is against the american tradition of the constitution. And that is just quite simply wrong. And you know that from even your high school civics. That that is wrong. In america we balance our rights there are a lot of people in america who have no faith. They have the right to exercise or not exercise the religion they choose. Christians, all of us who are christians, have the right to express our religion. And things have changed in our culure very quickly. So travis, not too many years ago it would have been liberals in congress. And on the bench. Who would have said we need religious protection for minority religions, maybe religions we dont know very much about because in america were pluralistic and people have the right to practice these religions. Sometimes they include practices that a lot of us thought were know very did not comport with our religious views. But in america we did that. Look at how things changed. You have conservative judges saying i dont know if we need these religious laws. But now the faith that the founders professed and the religion that people came to this land to practice, now all of a sudden were being told that is not consistent with the constitution. And i think it is a dark time and i think we all have to get educated on the laws. There are laws, bills proposed, in the senate and the house and we all need to get educated and advocate. But we need to be hopeful. And we need to be tolerant and be accepting. We need to show them that we are not the ones, we are not the ones who are trying to change the very nature of our country. Were actually trying to take our country back and put it back where it needs to be. So i ken aurth you all to get engaged and help in this battle. [ applause ] just to follow up real quickly with you before we come back around again. But could you talk a little more about maybe who else could see could we see supporting these types of laws and who should support individual First Amendment rights . Well, First Amendment rights should be accepted by everybody in this room and i know they are and everybody across this land. As a matter of fact, if you have a problem with the very First Amendment to the constitution, i dont know why you want to be in america. It is what makes us so unique and so special. Once again i dont think it is an issue of faith, travis, i really dont. I dont think the First Amendment is a christian amendment, i think it is an american amendment. And christians at our founding were openminded enough to say we just want to go to a land where the individual is respected and the individual has rights and those rights are permanent. And let me just say one other thing about amendments. We all know, because we learned in school, amendments have to go through a process, in order to change the constitution, you have to go through a democratic process. That democratic process is great for our country. I havent agreed with every amendment added to the constitution. But that process engages the American People in a conversation about what their country wants to look like. When five justices of the Supreme Court jam a law through the constitution in an undemocratic way, without the country having democratic conversation, can you see what happens. It is harsh and ugly and doesnt get us to the democratic consensus that we need to get to. So i would encourage all of you, i think that is something that liberals and conservatives and people across faith lines, they need to link together and make sure that the religious protections we shouldnt have to pass this law, but because of what the courts had done, we now need to pass this law. And we need everyones help to do it. [ applause ] so to come back around full circle, i would just like to come back to casey. And casey, i would like for you to comment on something which you did not mention in your opening remarks, but i look for you to talk a little bit about what you did in support of kim davis quite recently . Well, travis, a few days before miss davis went to jail, i woke up about 3 00 in the morning and lord had impressed on me to that i wasnt doing enough for her. I needed to do something for this woman that was about to go to jail. And the thought came that to get on my bicycle, on the most eastern portion of kentucky, and ride it across the state to raise awareness of what has about to happen to this lady. And so i, like a lot of us, i guess, i tried to pass that idea off. I cant do that. Im too busy. Ive got to work. I cant. And the longer i tried to get away from that idea, the bigger it got and the more real it got and the more ridiculous it sounded to me not to do it. So i got up on a thursday morning at 4 00 and drove to the eastern most portion of kentucky and started out. And i told kim when it was over with, i said, kim, this was this was something i done completely and totally for you. But i want to you realize that along the way, god has shown me a lot of things that it was as much for me as it was for you. I believe that when we do for others, when we do for others before we do for ourselves, god will always bless us. And there is a thought that came to me and along the trip, and i thought about ive got this dog at home that that he loves to go on a ride with me. No matter what. He wants to go. And hes when i let him go, he never asks me where were going and he never asks me how long were going to be gone or asks me about the dangers along the way or how hes going to get home, he just likes to ride with master. [ applause ] and i believe i believe that we should have that attitude. And instead of telling the lord to move over and let us drive, we should let him drive and just be proud to ride with him. [ applause ] mike, i would like to turn back to you real quick. As we deal with these religious liberty issues in the military, what impact do you think this has on the broader military in terms of morale and issues beyond the simple idea of protecting religious liberty as a principal. We want to do that but are we seeing effects in other areas in the military. Absolutely. I dont think it takes a Rocket Scientist to realize that what is happening on the religious Liberty Front in our military is really having it going to have and will continue to have farreaching impact beyond just this idea that that is Just One Service member and their issue. If you look at the Historical Data in our military, youll see that people in the military identify as people of faith, of all different types of faith. We have a pluralistic and diverse military. And historically people of faith have comprised about 70 to 75 of our military force and that means their the backbone of our military. All right. And as ive gotten involved in these issues and seen what is happening, ive had people from across this country come to me or contact me and say, i served in korea, i served in vietnam, i served in desert storm or iraq and afghanistan and im now a mother or a father and ive got kids and their patriotic and they want to serve. But im telling them no. Im keeping i dont want my kids to join because i dont like what is happening to our military. And so what were seeing is there is a a lack of people of faith who are willing to raise thur right hand and swear an oath of allegiance to the constitution to support and defend it and they are not joining the military. And you are also seeing people who, at a certain point in their career, just like myself, realize maybe the military really isnt somewhere i want to spend the next 20 or 25 years. Maybe it is time for me to get out. And you are seeing this void and this vacuum. And it has to be filled by something, right. As i mention, if people of faith form the backbone, they are not joining the military and getting out of the military and what does that leave us with. A spineless military. And when we ha