DISPATCHES FROM THE CULTURE WARS - Nah, There's No Military Proselytization Problem

Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media and the host of Declaring Independence, a one hour weekly political talk show on WPRR in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Nah, There's No Military
Proselytization Problem

Friday, February 13, 2009

By: Ed Brayton

Here's a story that illustrates the kind of problems the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has to fight against. Check out what this high-ranking officer did:

An Air Force colonel is being criticized for improperly referring airmen under her command to a far-right religious Web site.

Col. Kimberly K. Toney sent a e-mail Jan. 16 to the 501st Combat Support Wing inviting airmen to enjoy a linked video highlighting an inspirational individual on 4marks.com, a Roman Catholic Web site.

The video featured Nick Vujicic, a 25-year-old who was born without arms or legs. According to the video's introduction, Vujicic finds his "greatest joy in this life is to introduce Jesus to those he meets and tell them of his (Jesus') great desire to get to know them personally by allowing him to become their Lord and Savior."

But wait....there's more:

In the Feb. 2 letter to Toney, Thompson contended in his letter that the e-mail violated Air Force regulations regarding religious proselytizing. He also said the Web site 4marks.com "explicitly promotes an atmosphere that is hostile to our commander-in-chief, which is potentially detrimental to the good order and discipline of our unit."

One posting on the Web site features President Barack Obama in a Nazi uniform with a Hitler-style moustache, while other content claims Obama "wants to murder babies that have survived abortion."

"As a commander you wield a tremendous amount of power," Thompson stated in his letter. "What you say, write, or send out sets our direction and instructs us how to get there."

Kudos to this lower-ranking officer for having the guts to stand up to this. But it looks like the military's protections for whistleblowers need some work:

In his letter to Toney, Thompson also wrote that he had contacted the Military Equal Opportunity office about filing a complaint. He also says that the airman with whom he spoke at the office divulged his identity to Toney -- a violation of numerous Air Force regulations.

The MEO office worker did not return repeated requests for comment.

"[The worker] informed me that he has told you my identity regarding this issue," Thompson wrote to Toney. "I appreciate that his intentions were good, but approaching the wing commander on what I perceived as a foul has made me very nervous.

"No one wants to be on the wrong side [of] their wing commander," Thompson said in the letter.

MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein said his organization received more than 60 complaints about this email, presumably from those within the 501st, but only one of them was brave enough to make their complaint public. That should tell you how scared people are of standing up to this sort of thing in the military.

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