Religious Facebook posts

Published On: April 25, 2020|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|0 Comments|

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In a time of crisis people need the help and support of chaplains. The US military has a stunning history of providing such support to US personnel, even in wartime situations.
It is lamentable, sad, and wrong that recent calls for prayer were removed from Facebook at the urging of a mistaken individual.
(name withheld)

Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member Mike Farrell
On Apr 25, 2020, at 1:20 AM, Mike wrote:


Dear (name withheld),
 
We agree that chaplains serve an important duty in the military and are a valuable asset. As you may
know, however, there are military regulations that must be adhered to in order to protect the separation of church and state.
We agree that military personnel have every right to pray. We have no objection to prayer. We object to inappropriate proselytizing. You see, chaplains have a face book page whereon they can do all the praying and lecturing and teaching and enlightening they’d like. But that’s a separate page from that of the unit leader or commanding officer. That page may not be used to promote one particular belief system over others because doing so amounts to government endorsement of a particular faith and violates the separation of church and state.
Mike Farrell
(MRFF Board of Advisors)

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