NEWSMAX – Religious Freedom Group Urges Pentagon to Pull Out of Prayer Day Event

Published On: April 18, 2014|Categories: News, Top News|1 Comment|

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A military religious freedom organization has denounced a National Day of Prayer event next month on Capitol Hill as basically a rally for conservative Christian evangelicals and urged the Pentagon not to support it.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has written to the Department of Defense and to the White House to plead with officials to withdraw military speakers from the occasion or allow uniformed ceremonial tributes, the Military Times reports.

The group claims that the Pentagon would be showing favor to, and thus essentially endorsing, far-right fundamentalists in the military if they are involved in the event, which lists evangelist Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Rev. Billy Graham, as its honorary chairman.

“The planned participation by uniformed U.S. military personnel in this private fundamentalist Christian religious event, run by a non-federal entity, is an unequivocally clear violation of a plethora of DoD regulations and instructions,” the letter said.

“The U.S. military absolutely cannot endorse these searingly sectarian events by its public participation in them.”The letter goes on to say that the foundation demands that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel “aggressively investigate and appropriately punish any of the individuals and/or organizations that would have allowed for uniformed personnel to participate in this sectarian spectacle.”

Organizers of the May 1 event have been hyping the military’s involvement in promotional materials, which they claim will include a band, color guard and an unnamed speaker, the Times said.

The foundation’s director Mikey Weinstein noted that the protest follows complaints by two dozen senior Pentagon civilians and officers who raised their concerns to his office about military personnel being included in the festivities. They wished to remain anonymous in fear of retribution, Weinstein said.

The MRRF has no problem with the National Day of Prayer, but is highly concerned about the growing influence of Christian conservatives in military culture, says the Times.

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One Comment

  1. bernard valentin April 23, 2014 at 6:36 pm

    Mikey, Why do you call yourself he “Military Religious FREEDOM Foundation”, But you only want to ban the freedom to pray. You are a true Christ-a-phobe.
    At the very least be a mane FOR ONCE and admit your hatred of all things good.

    “aggressively investigate and appropriately punish any of the individuals and/or organizations that would have allowed for uniformed personnel to participate in this sectarian spectacle.”
    Really? Thinking it is against the law to pray if you are in the armed forces was not in the constitution when i read it….. Oh yeah i read the AMERICAN constitution, not the Communist Manifesto you follow.

    Why does the right alway want to silence those whom they do not agree with?

    Enough said. Delete this message quickly like all the others before one of your “readers” gets some facts and thinks for themselves.

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