Dog tags
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This post was created on the previous version of the MRFF website, and may not be fully accessible to users of assistive technology. If you need help accessing this content, please reach out via email.Dear Sirs:
How can you be against putting some religious quote on dog tags? Get your information straight!! “Separation of Church and State” IS NOT IN THE CONSTITUTION!
It is from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1803. Read your own web sight on the Constitution-“ prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. Are you traitors to this Country and the Constitution?
(name withheld)
Response from MRFF Board Member John Compere
On Jul 22, 2020, at 11:30 AM, John Compere wrote:
It would be much better for you to get your information straight.Military men & women have the right to purchase & posses any religious verses they want & wear them in conformity with military uniform requirements. However, a private commercial business cannot illegally profit off them by misrepresenting & mismanufacturing its souvenir merchandise as official government issued military identification tags in violation of its own licensing agreement with the Department of Defense & applicable regulatory laws. That is why the unlawful practice was stopped by the military.Your presumptuous protest is misdirected & should be redirected at those who disrespect their agreements & our laws rather than at those of us who respect & request compliance with them.Brigadier General John Compere, US Army (Retired)Disabled American Veteran (Vietnam Era)Board Member, Military Religious Freedom Foundation (composed of over 80% Christians)
Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member Mike Farrell
On Jul 22, 2020, at 5:48 PM, Mike wrote:
Hi (name withheld),Did you check to see if God is in there?I think you’ll find, if you’d care to look, that the concept of the separation of church and state is firmly ensconced inAmerican law.We’re not against putting “some religious quote on dog tags,” which you’d know if you’d studied the issue a bit more. Neither we nor the military want religious references or scriptural quotes on official dog tags with the official military emblem on them, because that would amount to government endorsement of same and that would amount to a violation of… wait for it… the separation of church and state.That’s why the various branches of the military, upon discovering that the manufacturer of the dog tags in question had violated its contract with the armed forces, a contract that specifically spelled out the requirement that no religious quotes be used, cancelled them.If you want dog tag facsimiles that praise God or quote scripture, I’m sure you can find them. They just won’t have the official symbol of the branch of the military on them.Mike Farrell(MRFF Board of Advisors)
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Name Whitheld: why are you spewing false information? Nobody at MRFF is trying to stop people from putting religious quotes on dog tags. And the country was not founded on Judeo-Christian anything. It was founded on the principles of the Enlightenment, and also religious freedom for all – which the writers of the first amendment knew requires the strict separation of religion and the state. That’s why such separation is included in the first amendment – see the establishment clause, which prohibits “law respecting the establishment of religion.”
That is a very broad prohibition – it covers not just laws privileging one religion over others, but all laws respecting religion. The writers chose their words very carefully. We know what it means because the writers told us that is what it means. The Treaty of Tripoli, which was ratified by the members of Congress who also ratified the constitution, says in its preamble that the United States is “in no way founded upon the Christian religion.” Please learn your history, before smearing others here with false statements about the founding of the country and innuendo about being ‘traitors.’