Two legal defense funds have taken up the cause of an Army Reserve chaplain who says he was relieved of his duties at a Veterans Affairs medical center for reading a chapter from the Bible that condemns homosexual acts.

The First Liberty Institute and the Independence Law Center sent a letter on behalf of client Chaplain Russell "Rusty" Trubey in which they say VA police officers informed him in June 2024 that he had been removed from his duties following a sermon during which he read from the Bible's first chapter of Romans that offered some people at the service. Trubey's supervisor, Chaplain Brynn White, said the chapter is a "very charged and divisive text."

The letter also alleges Trubey was investigated for several months and threatened with a mark on his permanent record.  

VA didn't respond to Just the News's request to tell its side of the story and verify the accounts Trubey and the legal defense funds made about the matter at a VA medical center in Coatesville, Pa.

The defense funds' letter was sent to Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, asking him to immediately eliminate a speech code imposed by the VA and ensure that Trubey and his fellow chaplains could preach in the way they wanted. 

The defense funds didn't indicate in the press release or letter whether they wanted the VA to reinstate Trubey. When Just the News contacted the ILC to ask whether they wished Trubey to be reinstated, Josue Sierra, the ILC's employee, contacted the lawyers and responded by saying that they are "looking for assurance that chaplains will be free to preach sermons free from censorship or discipline."

"The government has no business censoring anyone’s sermon, including military chaplains," First Liberty attorney Erin Smith said in a statement. "This is just the kind of woke policy that we anticipate Secretary Collins wants to purge from the VA."

Randall Wenger of the ILC said chaplains "do not give up their First Amendment rights to serve." 

In a statement provided by ILC to Just the News, Trubey said: "It's scary to think that in America,  a chaplain can be removed, investigated, and censored for preaching out of the Bible during a chapel service."