Bible Removal from Naval Air Station’s POW-MIA Table Demanded by Civil Rights Group
Military Religious Freedom Foundation Claims Bible Placement Violates Constitution
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has asked the commander of the U.S. Naval Air Facility in Atsugi, Japan to remove a Christian Bible from the base’s Prisoner of War/Missing in Action table.
In 2019, the MRFF backed a federal lawsuit filed against the Manchester Veterans Administration Medical Center in New Hampshire, for putting a Bible back on its POW/MIA table after removing it due to complaints relayed by the MRFF.
In a letter to Captain John M. Montagnet, USN, MRFF President Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein informed the base commander that he has received complaints from NAF personnel who are upset over the Bible placement. NAF personnel contacted the MRFF and asked it to take action, as they’re afraid of retaliation should they object publicly, Weinstein said.
A civil rights organization with 74,000 active duty personnel and veterans as members, the MRFF‘s mission is to preserve the separation of church and state mandated by the Constitution’s Establishment Clause.
Mikey Weinstein is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he experienced anti-semitism first-hand.
The presence of a Christian Bible on an official display at a military base or government facility, according to the MRFF, is a form of state-sanctioned privileging of one religion over another, an act expressly forbidden by the U.S. Constitution. It also promotes intolerance.
Weinstein pointed out the action being taken by the Department of Defense to root out extremism in his appeal to Captain Montagnet:
DOD Secretary Lloyd Austin has made it quite publicly clear that he WILL be the lodestar for racial and religious diversity, equity and unity at DoD. What you are allowing to happen, via either deliberate malfeasance or gross misfeasance, with the blatant placement of only ONE religious faith’s sacred doctrinal book (which just “coincidently” happens to be the majority faith’s book) on that POW/MIA table at NAF Atsugi runs DIRECTLY counter to this promise promulgated by DoD Secretary Austin and the United States President he serves! It is also viciously violative of the United States Constitution’s First Amendment No Establishment Clause, construing Federal caselaw on same, a host of DoD Directives, Instructions and Regulations, the U.S. Navy’s Core Values as well as the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
V.A’s “Bible in a Box”
The MRFF is no stranger to battles over the military maintaining the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state. It’ most recent victory was the removal of a banner promoting a Christian Bible School with the slogan “Jesus Power Pulls Us Through” from a fence at Fort Sill, Oklahoma
The Manchester VAMC’s “Bible in Box” became a national story after the filing of an MRFF-backed lawsuit in federal court. Vice President Mike Pence became involved in the controversy, after Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie reversed decades of VA policy and permitted religious displays and proselytizing at V.A. facilities.
The V.A. immediately removed other religious texts placed on the POW/MIA table left to the privileging of a Christian Bible.
The Manchester VAMC had attempted to justify the placement of the Bible on the table, under the old rules, as an historical artifact. It was claimed the “Bible in a Box” was taken with a WWII bomber crewman with him on a mission and was with him in a German POW camp after he was shot down.
That story was revealed to be a lie. The Department of Veterans Affairs then came up with the rule change justifying the bible placement, indicating the “Bible in a Box” affair might have been premeditated.
The U.S. District Court in New Hampshire denied the Veterans Affairs Department request to dismiss the lawsuit.
As of June 2021, the controversial “Bible in a Box” remains on the Manchester VAMC’s POW/MIA table.
Anti-Semitism & Extremism in the Military
The MRFF has been the target of right-wing organizations and media due to its success in championing the separation of church and state at military facilities.
Mikey Weinstein’s religion has been the target of hate mail. He has received so much hate mail — and credible threats to do him harm — his wife Bonnie has compiled them into a book, When Christians Break Bad.
The Biden Administration seeks counter the rise of white separatism among active-duty military personnel. The Department of Defense has created a task force tasked with eliminating extremism from the military. Virulent anti-semitism is prevalent among the members of white supremacist hate groups.
Writer Talia Lavin has not only written about white supremacists, including those in the military, she has been targeted with anti-semitic rhetoric by a least one active duty service member. U.S. Army Reserve SGT Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a security contractor at Naval Weapons Station EarlIn, was an anti-semitic white supremacist who was arrested at the Capitol Riot of January 6th.
The threat of not only anti-semitic violence but violence against members of ethnic/national groups and religions targeted by white supremacists is a reality in today’s political climate. Many observers believe that the privileging of the Christian Bible by the federal government could have serious, possibly fatal consequences, if the constitutional mandate of the separation of church and state is ignored.
