Was Trump’s Veterans Secretary Involved in V.A. Bible in a Box Scandal?
The revelation that the story justifying the V.A. “Bible in a Box” was false has raised the question on whether right-wing religious liberty activists faithful to Donald Trump were creating a political football that the President could kick for a goal in the New Hampshire Primary. The story that a 100-year-old World War II had carried the Bible with him in a German prisoner of war camp an during a subsequent escape was used to justify the placement of the religious object on a Prisoner of War/Missing Persons table at the Manchester Veterans Affairs Medical Center after it had originally been removed.
Critics of the Bible placement have been skeptical of the story promoted by Bob Jones of the Northeast POW/MIA Network as it seemed highly unlikely a heavy bomber crew member could let alone would carry such an object with him, when smaller GI Bibles were available. Under the articles of war, Bibles were freely available to allied prisoners of war. Furthermore, the edition of the Bible placed on the table resembled editions published after the end of World War Two.
It has now been revealed the Bible in question was given to World War Two veteran Herman “Herk” Streitburger by his mother after he returned to The States at the war’s conclusion. The Bible was never with Streitburger while he was serving in the U.S. Army Air Force, let alone accompanied him during an 18-month ordeal of being shot down, captured, imprisoned, and then marched out of the camp ahead of the advancing Red Army, to escape and be recaptured briefly and then taken in by Allied soldiers.
Another curious aspect of the Manchester Veterans Medical Center “Bible in a Box” scandal is that Secretary of Veterans Affairs Director Robert Wilkie was sworn in on a Bible that looked the same as the Streitburger Bible. This Bible, Wilkie claimed, was with a relative who had it with him during World War One, including combat.
In his swearing in speech, Wilkie mentioned the Bible that he was being sworn in on, 100 years old like Herk Streitburger:
The Bible that I will take my oath on reminds me of the 100th anniversary of the end of the war to end all wars. It was a Bible taken into battle by my wife’s grandfather who had probably never ventured beyond three or four counties in North and South Carolina. But by the time he was 18, he was marching up the Champs-Élysées into the cauldron of the Meuse-Argonne.
The troubled Department of Veterans Affairs became even more troubled after the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20, 2017. Trump has already had five V.A. Directors, with Wilkie starting his second term on July 30th of last year after serving two months as interim director in the wake of David Shulkin getting sacked in March 2018. In the first 18 months of his administration, Trump had five V.A. heads, whereas his predecessor Barack Obama had only three in eight years one of them acting head for a month between the two secretaries, .
Occupying such a precarious position, a reasonable person could assume that Robert Wilkie, a frequent visitor to the Manchester VAMC, might himself have become involved in putting the Bible into the Box and keeping it on the POW/Missing Persons table. That would explain the vociferousness of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ response after the Bible in the Box triggered a lawsuit. The Manchester VAMC staff had removed the Bible from the Missing Man table after complaints were made its placement violated the constitutional prohibition on promoting religion in federal facilities.
Mikey Weinstein, the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, had asked for the removal of the Bible, after receiving complaints from 13 members. The Manchester VAMC staff did remove it, but it was then returned and locked in a Plexiglass box. The MRFF then filed a lawsuit on behalf of a 14th veteran, and Wilkie’s Department of Veterans Affairs took a militant position that startled Weinstein with its vehemence.
This hadn’t happened before, quite like this.The V.A.’s actions electrified the Evangelical Christian community.
Wilkie’s V.A. declared that it was a guardian of religious liberty. The V.A. would soon issue new regulations opening up veterans hospitals to religious displays, an incredible development in light of generations of established constitutional law, even in light of the Blandensburg Peace Cross decision that loosened up Establishment Clause law. The developments beg the question on whether the evangelical Christian community dedicated to removing barriers on the open expression of religious expression in public facilities was part of a premeditated effort to turn the Manchester VAMC into a political battle ground.
Unlike the Missing Man Table displays in other veterans hospitals, the Manchester VAMC display was “in your face,” right in the main foyer, against the right wall when a user entered the facility. Significantly, it was across from the pictures on the opposite wall of President Trump and Secretary Wilkie. In contrast, the Missing Man Table in the Bedford, Mass. veterans hospital is in the cafeteria, as befitting a display is a metaphor for a pilot’s mess (itself a metaphor for the Last Supper). The Bedford Missing Man table does not have a Bible or any other religious book on it as part of the permanent display.
The placement of the table was bound to cause controversy, tailor made for those Evangelical militants who believe that their beliefs are “True” and not only believe that they have a right to force them on you but are determined to do so. The Manchester VAMC POW/Missing Man display can be seen as deliberately provocative when one understands that the lie circulated about the provenance of the Bible was crafted to make it congruent with constitutional arguments being floated during the oral arguments of the Blandensburg Peace Cross case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
An even more curious development possibly linked to the Manchester VAMC Bible in a Box was the last-minute cancellation of Vice President Mike Pence’s trip to New Hampshire to attend a conference on the opiate crisis. It was announced that the trip was aborted due to future developments in New Hampshire. Born Roman Catholic, Pence converted to Protestantism and is an avowed Evangelical Christian.
Around the time of the aborted flight, the federal government had requested more time to answer the MRFF lawsuit. The Blandensburg Cross decision that ruled the World War One war memorial did not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution now provides the V.A. with legal cover to open up its facilities to religious objects. Prior to that, for an object like a Bible to pass constitutional muster, it had to have historic value. It was the historic value of the Bladensburg Cross, including its great age, that made it “secular” for the sake of constitutional law, according to this edition of the Roberts Court.
The fake story about the Bible in the Box having accompanied a veteran during imprisonment in a POW camp and subsequent escape gave a legal fig leaf to the V.A. that this religious object had historical value, as it had been an artifact of war. A Bible of a dead soldier found by a G.I. after the Battle of the Bulge would be an historical artifact; the family Bible of the same G.I., bought after the war and having no contact with war other than being the possession of a war veteran, would not be considered historic.
In the Union Leader article, the 100-year-old veteran Herk Streitburger himself was declared historic, a national treasure, but that doesn’t mean his family Bible given to him after the war is. There is no “laying on of the hands” in the secular world of war memorial artifacts.
After the Bladensburg Cross decision, appeals to the historicity of a religious object can be dropped. Perhaps that was the change Trump and Pence were dealing with. On the New England POW Network site, the pretenses of historicity over religion have been dropped. It hails the Bladensburg decision for allowing public displays of religious objects.
A reasonable person could assume that it was their intention all along to have a religious display at the Manchester VAMC. A reasonable person also could assume that the fake story was crafted along Bladensburg Cross arguments, indicating a connection with the Christian liberty litigators. Evidence was fabricated to create a religious display in a politically important state, as it was widely anticipated that the Court would rule in a way limiting applications of the Establishment Clause.
In the news coverage of the MRFF lawsuit, Fox News published a story
The liberty activists believe that they have their victory. But what of the poisoned fruit that is the Bible in the Box? A lie that was used to justify its placement before Blandensburg. The honor of Herk Streitberger and all veterans has been compromised.
Without that lie, the display would have been terminated before the lawsuit was filed that generated such controversy that could be parlayed politically after Bladensburg. Apparently, the religious liberty warriors do not believe lying to the staff at the Manchester VAMC is a sin, nor do they believe that manipulating an elderly vet is unethical.
Questions remain: Was the V.A. Bible in the Box a premeditated affair to promote militant religion rather than its stated aim to honor POWs and missing comrades? What exactly was Manchester VAMC frequent visitor Wilkie’s play a role in this? Did he use the Bible in the Box to promote the reelection of Donald Trump, thus currying favor with him and protecting his job?
And finally, if Willkie did play presidential politics by manipulating a war memorial, did he violate the Hatch Act that prohibits government officials from politicking?
