West Virginia State Senator Mike Green,

I read this evening with interest an article at alliednews.com (see here) regarding changes in the chapel at the Beckley V.A. Medical Center mandated by the Department of Veterans Affairs. In the article you are quoted as asking, "If the policy has been in effect since July 1953, what has occurred now to where this has become an issue..." I would like to take a moment to suggest a possible answer to your inquiry; however, first allow me to introduce myself.

My name is David Miller. I am a disabled U.S. Navy veteran who served the United States honorably for nearly four and a half years (I briefly extended my four year enlistment at the request of the Navy). In addition to my service, my grandfather served as an infantryman during the Second World War - he fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was one of only three men in his company of 120 who survived the battle. He went on to march across Germany with General George Patton and even helped liberate two Nazi death camps. (In your biographical information available through the West Virginia Legislative website I found nothing that indicates you served in the United States Armed Forces - either you did not serve or whomever entered the data on the website is guilty of an oversight.)

In addition to serving my Country honorably and never shrinking from my pledge to defend the Constitution of the United States of America, I am also Jewish. During my years of accessing services through the Department of Veterans Affairs I have encountered multiple egregious instances of religious discrimination. On more than one occasion, while confined to a hospital bed and wired to a heart monitor, I was subjected to aggressive proselytizing by a Protestant/Christian chaplain, despite my expressed wishes not to be visited by a Christian Chaplain (and I could name many other egregious examples but will not now in the interest of brevity). Further, after multiple episodes of discrimination I lodged a formal complaint and as a result experienced reprisals the very next day when the V.A. discontinued my treatment for kidney stones (the doctor's explanation for this was simple: he said, "You're a religious Jew, why don't you try prayer or meditation."). It was only through the energetic and relentless advocacy of Mikey Weintstein, the founder and director of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, as well as the support of friends and organizations like jewsonfirst.com and two separate Jewish Federations, along with the subsequent direct intervention of Mr. Ross Perot that I was able to travel from my home in Iowa City to Dallas, Texas to receive treatment for my kidney stones at the V.A. Medical Center there.

So, to answer your question: there have been egregious cases of
religious discrimination that have caused the Department of Veterans Affairs to investigate its various facilities to ensure that all discriminatory practices are ended. (I have certainly not been the only veteran to experience and report religious discrimination at the hands of the Department of Veterans Affairs and their individual facilities.) During their investigation the Department of Veterans Affairs has discovered, much to their chagrin, that some of their long-standing policies (and Federal Law) enacted to protect the religious freedoms of its veterans have in fact been ignored by local V.A. facilities all over the Country. The Beckley V.A. Medical Center is by no means the only facility that had been failing to comply with department policies and Federal Law. However, would you argue that just because a facility fails to comply with the law for an extended period of time that failure should be institutionalized and set in stone, never to be changed? If a government agency engaged in discrimination based on race and that discrimination was brought into the light of day, would you argue that since it had been allowed to continue for a time it should be allowed to continue on in perpetuity? One hopes not.

Surely, as an elected official, you don't honestly believe one religion should be favored over another by the U.S. Government? I know
that in the article, referenced above, you are quoted as stating, "This country was founded on Christian beliefs." However, for some
unknown reason you must not be aware that explicit evidence to the contrary is found in the Barbary Treaties, signed in Tripoli on
November 4th, 1796 and ratified by the United States Senate on June 10th, 1797. Article II of said treaty begins with the following, "As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion..."

Sir, I am a religious Jew. Even after I've served my Country honorably, do you honestly believe I should be afforded fewer rights or even just less respect than Christian servicemen and women simply because I'm Jewish? John Leland, the famous Baptist Minister so intimately involved in the struggle for religious liberty during the founding of our Nation, said himself, "The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever....Government should protect every man in thinking and speaking freely, and see that one does not abuse the other. The liberty I contend for is more than toleration. The very idea of toleration is despicable; it supposes that some have a pre-eminence above the rest to grant indulgence, whereas all should be equally free, Jews, Turks, Pagans and Christians."

In conclusion, Senator Green I urge you to look beyond the narrow
wishes of your coreligionists and seek the welfare of all U.S servicemen and women. As an elected representative of the people, one should expect no less. I can only hope it is your desire to seek the benefit of all and not denigrate your office by pursuing the welfare of one group at the expense of others.

Respectfully,

David Miller
Director of Veterans Affairs
Military Religious Freedom Foundation
[email protected]

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