Author and Fox News reporter Todd Starnes is shedding light on the U.S. Army refusing to provide an honor guard for an upcoming "Faith, Family, and Freedom" celebration at a Baptist church in Georgia.

On Tuesday's broadcast of "Washington Watch" with host Tony Perkins, Starnes – who was invited to be the keynote speaker at the church's July 5 event – explained what his investigation has revealed thus far.

"The Army has been rather forthcoming with their information. They say that it is against military policy to allow any of their troops to participate in a religious service; and therefore, they decided to turn down this church," he shared.

"What's interesting about Abilene Baptist Church [is] it's one of the oldest churches in the nation. The first pastor happened to be a Revolutionary War chaplain."

Perkins, president of Family Research Council, participated in color guards numerous times while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. "And we would do them at churches, we would do them at all kinds of events when people requested them," he recalled.

Perkins

Like Starnes, he found the Army very forthcoming with information.

"They said that this [honor guard] was determined to be inappropriate because they were in fact holding a religious service," he said during the broadcast. "It could be at a church and if there was nothing religious about it would be okay – but what would you expect in a church? Would you not expect it to be a religious service?"

According to Starnes, a military honor guard has actually been inside the church building during Sunday services in years past.

Starnes

"I asked the military about that and they said, Well, we went back and analyzed the services and we determined that 80 percent of the service was music and 20 percent was spoken word – and therefore it did not constitute, in the military's determination, to be a church service."

The Fox News reporter added this "by the way" statement to demonstrate the irony of the Army's decision: "The military confirms to us that they will provide an honor guard for this year's 'gay pride' parade in Washington, DC."

That event – presented by Marriott – takes place this weekend (Saturday, June 13).