Pentagon officials recently met with an activist committed to removing Christianity from the U.S. military, a move that some fear could lead to court martials for service members who share their Christian faith.
The firestorm erupted last month, when Pentagon officials held a meeting on religion in the military and invited Michael “Mikey” Weinstein to the discussion. Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. He has called the practice of Christians in the service sharing their faith “spiritual rape”. He has also led efforts to remove Bibles from lodging affiliated with the U.S. Air Force Academy and successfully pursued a policy that forbids guests from bringing Bibles to patients at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Now Weinstein is asking the Pentagon to vigorously enforce an existing policy against proselytizing in the military. What’s not clear is what that policy actually means. Activists like Weinstein argue that any Christian witnessing should be off limits while others say it should only mean that service members cannot pressure or coerce others to convert. Weinstein claims he was promised by Pentagon officials that service members sharing their faith would face a court martial.
On Thursday, the Pentagon issued a statement in an effort to quiet the protests over this story.
“Service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one’s beliefs (proselytization),” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen said in a written statement.
The statement is quite a change from the one issued in connection with the April meeting involving Weinstein.
“Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense,” that statement read in part. “Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis”
Is the new explanation sufficient for those worried that Christians in the military are losing their religious freedom?
“No, it’s not, not for us,” said retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who is now executive vice president at the Family Research Council. He says the FRC strongly agrees that there should be no coercion of anyone to convert to any faith, but Boykin says there are some critical questions that remain unanswered.
“Given that they brought Mikey Weinstein in and that he has made some very public statements saying that he was given assurances and that he made references to court martials, that he was given assurances there would be court martials, we would like to see the Department of Defense refute those statements. We’d like to get a statement saying exactly what assurances Mikey Weinstein did get from the Air Force,” said Boykin. “So we’ll be satisfied as soon as they tell us either that Mikey Weinstein is lying or give us an account of what those assurances were so that we understand the depth of the issue and the depth of the problem.”
Boykin is requesting a meeting of his own with Pentagon officials. He wants personal assurances from someone in authority that the constitutional freedoms of service members will be protected.
“If they will tell us that and give us the assurance that living their faith and sharing their faith is a protected right then we’ll be satisfied,” said Boykin.
The general says the concern over an erosion on religious freedom in the military is legitimate because discrimination against Christians is well documented and getting worse in the Armed Forces.
“This is a bigger problem than just this particular issue. Given the open hostility toward religion in the military and a number of things that have occurred that demonstrate religious hostility, particularly toward Christians where they’re identified in war games as being threats. They’re identified in documents out of the counter-terrorist center as threats. There are efforts to remove Bibles from Walter Reed. That’s religious hostility,” said Boykin.
“We want some positive statement and some positive action to stop this religious hostility and give us an assurance that the rights of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines will be protected,” he said.
Boykin is not prepared to assign responsibility for the “religious hostility” to anyone in particular, but he says the top of our government is creating a culture for it to flourish.
“I think it is part of the climate that has been established by the administration. I don’t think that (Defense Secretary Chuck) Hagel was probably even aware that they had met Mikey Weinstein and I don’t think the secretary was part of the design here ,” said Boykin. “I think these are medium level leaders in the military that are making these decisions and have to be held accountable on this. But I think it’s consistent with probably exactly where the administration would be very happy if the military would go to where the vestiges of Christianity were essentially removed from our military.
“I would like to think that’s not the case and that somebody over there just fouled up, but I see too much of a pattern of assaults, outright hostility on Christianity to believe it isn’t rooted pretty high somewhere in the Pentagon. But I don’t think it’s the secretary,” he said.
One of Boykin’s greatest disappointments is the absence of high-ranking military officers willing to stand up for their forces and their rights.
“There has not been enough courage demonstrated by the senior leaders. I’d like to see the senior leaders in our military show some leadership, show some courage on this kind of issue. This is so fundamental to the health, morale and welfare of our military and I’d like to see some of the leadership step forward on this issue. Thus far, they have not done so,” said Boykin.
If the pattern of religious hostility persists, Boykin says young people and their families will simply decide military service is not worth the assault on their values.
“There are those in the military that will not stay in the military given the suppression of their faith. And there are many, many across America, many families who will not want their son and daughter in the military. They will see this as an anti-Christian environment and they will see it as a suppression of the faith of their sons and daughters. It will hurt recruiting and it will hurt retention,” said Boykin.