(Religion News) Shave or be shaved. Aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, sailor Edmund Di Liscia faced a stark choice. According to his lawyers, he was told to either shave his beard voluntarily or be held down by his bunk mate and forcibly shaved. For Di Liscia, a practicing Hasidic Jew who had not shaved for more than two years, it was a choice between his loyalty to the U.S. Navy and his religious faith.
Di Liscia is one of several sailors and Marines who are seeking religious accommodation to wear beards while in uniform.
Earlier this year, Di Liscia, along with three Muslim sailors, joined in a lawsuit brought by the [Becket] Fund for Religious Liberty, alleging the Navy’s beard policy amounts to a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
