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Sunday Edition

Air Force Looks Into
‘Inspirational’ Video

By Eric Lichtblau

Sunday, March 15, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Air Force has begun an investigation into whether an e-mail message from an Air Force commander in Europe directing air personnel under her command to an “inspirational” story on a Catholic Web site violated the military’s official position of religious neutrality.

The commander, Col. Kimberly Toney, who leads the 501st Combat Support Wing in Europe, sent the thousands of air personnel in her wing a message last month recommending that they “take a few minutes to enjoy the attached video and meet a truly inspirational individual.”

The video highlighted the life story of Nick Vujicic, now 26, who was born without arms or legs and who credited his faith in Jesus with helping him overcome his physical limitations.

Some Air Force personnel who watched the video said they believed that it breached the military’s ban on endorsing particular religious views. Some viewers said they were even more bothered by articles and commentary on the Catholic Web site, 4marks.com.

One image on the site satirized President Obama’s support for abortion rights by showing him wearing a Nazi uniform and waving a flag with a swastika in an image labeled “ObamaHitler.” Another article, also critical of Mr. Obama’s stance on abortion, called him “a veritable forerunner of the Antichrist.”

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit watchdog group that monitors possible religious bias in the military, said it had received about 60 complaints from military personnel about the colonel’s e-mail message.

Among them was one from Master Sgt. Jeffrey L. Thompson, who works under Colonel Toney at the Royal Air Force Alconbury base in England and objected to military officials at the base about the e-mail message.

“A commander shouldn’t send out any type of e-mail that’s perceived as endorsing a particular faith system,” Sergeant Thompson, who is Catholic, said in a telephone interview. “It crossed a line, I thought. My faith stays in my home life and my church life.”

Colonel Toney sent out a second e-mail message to the personnel in her wing last month apologizing for sending out the link “to what I believed was an inspirational message about hope and encouragement.” She said she was unaware when she sent the link that the Web site contained “inappropriate” material.

Although Sergeant Thompson said he was prevented from filing a formal complaint because the Air Force said he had not suffered any personal harm, the Third Air Force Command in Europe has opened a broader investigation into the episode, officials said Friday.

“The purpose of this process is to look at all of the information and make a determination as to whether there’s been any sort of violation of policy and, if so, what action is warranted,” said Darlene Cowsert, a spokeswoman for the Air Force’s European command.

Colonel Toney could not be reached for comment.

Officials at the Air Force, which was hit with controversy in 2004 over charges of pro-Christian bias at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, said they had made significant strides to enforce a position of official neutrality on religion.

“We feel that the policy is clear, and we’re consistent with our message, but unfortunately there are isolated cases that come up,” Capt. Thomas Wenz, a spokesman at Air Force headquarters in Northern Virginia, said of the recent episode.

But Mikey Weinstein, who heads the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said the incident represented a “textbook case” of improper religious influence.

“There’s a pervasive pattern of constitutional abuse when you have a wing commander who sends out a direct, proselytizing e-mail with a link to a Web site that slanders the president of the United States,” he said.

Mr. Weinstein’s group is suing the Defense Department in federal court over what it charges is a pattern of religious bias, and the Obama administration is set to respond to the lawsuit later this month. As a result of the Toney episode, Sergeant Thompson said he was considering joining the litigation as a plaintiff.

A version of this article appeared in print on Sunday March 15, 2009, on page A27 of the New York edition.


This breaking news story has also been covered by:

The Public Record Logo

Air Force to Probe Whether
E-Mail Endorsing Religious
Website Broke Rules

Sunday, March 15, 2009

By Jason Leopold

The Air Force has launched a formal investigation to determine whether an e-mail distributed to thousands of Air Force personnel in Europe directing them to visit a far-right, Catholic website where President Barack Obama was compared to Adolf Hitler and the Antichrist violated the military’s position on religious neutrality.

Last month, The Public Record broke the story about a Jan. 16 e-mail Air Force Col. Kimberly K. Toney’s sent to eight different Air Force installations in the United Kingdom and Norway which included the subject line: “Inspiration of the day - A Giant of a Man - Meet Nick Vujicic,” who was born without limbs.

“Every day, all around us, we meet people who make a difference in our lives,” said Col. Toney’s e-mail that directed personnel to the website 4marks.com. “Please take a few minutes to enjoy the attached video and meet a truly inspirational individual who will provide you with an opportunity to think about life and how we handle challenges in our personal and professional day-to-day lives. Keep doing the GREAT things you do and don't ever let the challenges get you down. Live, learn and enjoy! Thank you!”

The electronic communication pointed Air Force personnel toward a five-minute video clip about 25 year-old Vujicic whose story of hope and courage is rife with religious overtones. A synopsis of the video says,  “God has given [Vujicic] the strength to surmount what others might call impossible. Along with that, the Lord has placed within him an unquenchable passion to share this same hope and genuine love that he's personally experienced with more than two million people all over the globe."

The New York Times followed up on the The Public Record’s Feb. 5 exclusive and reported in the newspaper’s Sunday edition that the Air Force opened a formal inquiry into the matter.

“The purpose of this process is to look at all of the information and make a determination as to whether there’s been any sort of violation of policy and, if so, what action is warranted,” Darlene Cowsert, a spokeswoman for the Air Force’s European command, told The New York Times.

Using official government e-mail to endorse religion is a violation of longstanding military rules and regulations and the U.S. Constitution's 1st Amendment and Clause 3, Article 6 of the body of the Constitution completely prohibiting any "religious test.”

But Mikey Weinstein, the founder and president of the watchdog group the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said the “investigation” is a “sham.”

“What we’re faced with here is a fundamentalist Christian para-church –military-corporate-proselytizing-complex,” Weinstein said in an interview. “It is far easier to find 'happy clients' of Bernie Madoff than it is to find American servicemen and women who've been able to successfully solve the profound institutional command bias in order to even lodge complaints of unconstitutional religious intolerance within the Department of Defense. The Air Force should be ignominiously ashamed of itself and heads should roll.”

Weinstein said the “unconstitutional religious oppression is so out of control in the Department of Defense that MRFF is proposing publicly for the very first time that all Defense Department personnel be immediately required to swear out an additional oath besides the one they all swear to protect and defend the Constitution: "The Oath of Equal Character."

The oath, Weinstein said, was initially proposed by one former and one current Air Force Academy professor and is written from a “Christian’s perspective,” but one would expect that the term “Muslim,” “Jew,” “atheist,” “Buddhist,” “Hindu,” “Wiccan,” “nontheist,” or any other chosen identification would be applied as applicable.”

I am a [Christian]. I will not use my position to influence individuals or the chain of command to adopt [Christianity], because I believe that soldiers who are not [Christians] are just as trustworthy, honorable, and good as those who are. Their standards are as high as mine. Their integrity is beyond reproach. They will not lie, cheat or steal, and they will not fail when called upon to serve. I trust them completely and without reservation. They can trust me in exactly the same way.
On Feb. 9, four days after The Public Record broke the story, Col. Toney apologized for disseminating the e-mail. She said she was unaware that the website she directed the 3,000 or so military personnel to visit contained offensive content.

"I recently sent an e-mail to our 501st Team that contained a link to what I believed was an inspirational message about hope and encouragement," Toney wrote, according to a copy of the e-mail obtained by The Public Record. "Regrettably, I was unaware at the time that the Web site hosting this link contains information and links to information, the content of which is inappropriate. I sincerely apologize for this oversight, especially to those individuals who may have been offended, and want to ensure all are aware that my intent was solely to provide a tool that might offer beneficial insight toward overcoming adversity."

Col. Toney’s e-mail rankled dozens of Air Force personnel who privately complained that her letter improperly endorsed religion.

“Traveling extensively to over 19 nations, he's been extremely humbled by the continuous opportunities that the Lord has given him to share his testimony along with the hope that he has in Jesus with people in so many nations and situations. His greatest joy in this life is to introduce Jesus to those he meets and tell them of His great desire to get to know them personally by allowing Him to become their Lord and Savior.”

One of the e-mail’s recipients, Master Sergeant Jeffrey L. Thompson, said Col. Toney’s e-mail smacked of illegal proselytizing, was "hostile to our commander-in-chief" and “negatively impact[ed] the human relations climate of the wing by sending a message of exclusion to those who do not share that faith.”

Additionally, MSgt. Thompson said he is particularly “troubled that wing leadership linking to, or promoting, the website may violate [Uniform Code of Military Justice] Article 88-Contempt Toward Officials.”

“These are not forum discussions, but are posted articles and videos that make up the message of the 4Marks.com website, just as the video and article of Mr. Vujicic do,” wrote MSgt. Thompson, who is based Royal Air Force Alconbury base in England. “The 4Marks.com website... seems to part of a network that is contemptuous and disparaging toward our president...I do not know what resolution is needed to put right this situation. As a commander you wield a tremendous amount of power over the four Air Base Groups and the 8 installations in the U.K. and Norway that make up our wing. What you say, write, or send out sets our direction and instructs us how to get there.”

Personnel who acted upon Col. Toney’s recommendation and surfed 4marks.com stumbled upon a series of presidential campaign articles and videos about Barack Obama on the site, one of which said the president is “a veritable forerunner of the Antichrist” who wants to “kill babies.” In another article, Obama is depicted as Hitler, wearing a Nazi uniform and holding a Nazi flag. Vice President Joseph Biden is called a “pseudo catholic,” and an “American Judas.”

MSgt. Thompson, who said he is a Roman Catholic, was told by an official with the Military Equal Opportunity office (MEO) in January that Col. Toney’s e-mail was not intended to come across as proselytizing and because he did not personally endure any suffering as a result of her widely distributed e-mail and therefore was prevented from filing a formal complaint.


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