Air Force removes Bible from POW-MIA display
By Todd
Starnes
Published
March 31, 2014
FoxNews.com
On
March 14 Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told members of the House
Armed Services committee that there was no war on religious
liberty.
“The
single biggest frustration I’ve had in this job is the perception that somehow
there is religious persecution inside the United States Air Force,” the general
told lawmakers. “It is not true.”
Rep.
John Fleming (R-La.) told me the Air Force seems to be the worst offender when
it comes to attacks on religious liberty.
"Read More"
If
that’s true, perhaps Gen. Welsh could explain why a Bible was removed from a
POW/MIA Missing Man Table at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. The removal of
the Good Book was first reported by the Gannett-owned newspaper Florida
Today.
Base
officials confirmed to Fox News Monday that the entire Missing Man Table display
had been removed from a dining hall because of the Bible. A press statement said
the inclusion of the Bible ignited “controversy and
division.”
Missing
Man Tables are a long honored military tradition. The tables serve as a reminder
of the plight of brave Americans who are missing in action or who are being held
prisoner of war. The display includes a white table cloth setting with an
inverted glass, a plate with lemon and salt, a single rose, a candle and a
Bible.
Each
item is an integral part of the Missing Man Table & Honors Ceremony,
according to the National
League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast
Asia.
“The
Bible represents the strength gained through faith in our country, founded as
one nation under god, to sustain those lost from our midst,” the official
ceremony document states.
However,
someone at Patrick Air Force Base objected to the Bible’s placement on the
table.
The
following is the Air Force’s explanation of what happened:
"The
45th Space Wing deeply desires to honor America's Prisoners and War (POW) and
Missing in Action (MIA) personnel. Unfortunately, the Bible's presence or
absence on the table at the Riverside Dining Facility ignited controversy and
division, distracting from the table's primary purpose of honoring POWs/MIAs.
Consequently, we temporarily replaced the table with the POW/MIA flag in an
effort to show our continued support of these heroes while seeking an acceptable
solution to the controversy. After consultation with several relevant
organizations, we now intend to re-introduce the POW/MIA table in a manner
inclusive of all POWs/MIAs as well as Americans
everywhere."
The
Air Force did not say when the Missing Man Table would be returned. Nor did they
say whether the Bible would be included in the display. They also declined to
explain what they meant by the word “inclusive.”
Retired
Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, now an executive vice president with the Family Research
Council, denounced the Air Force Academy’s actions.
“I’m
still looking for somebody in a leadership position in the Air Force with an
ounce of courage,” he told me. “They buckle to an extreme minority group every
time and constitutionally they are simply wrong.”
Rep.
John Fleming (R-La.) told me the Air Force seems to be the worst offender when
it comes to attacks on religious liberty.
“It’s
very disconcerting that all it takes is for someone to be offended by that – and
it comes down,” he said. “The First Amendment is very clear on this. Speech may
offend some people – in this case maybe Christianity offends some people in the
Air Force – but that doesn’t matter. We’re stil allowed to speak about our
closely held beliefs.”
Fleming
accused the Air Force of ignoring the law.
“Since
when does one unnamed, unknown individual have veto power over the First
Amendment rights of all people in the military and in this case the Air Force?”
he asked.
Ann
Mills-Griffiths, is the chairman of the National League of POW/MIA Families. She
told me she was glad the Air Force base is going to reinstall the Missing Man
Table, but she wonders if the new display will include the
Bible.
She
said the Bible is “part of the Missing Man Honor Ceremony and we hope it will be
restored to what it was.”
“Our
country is one nation under God,” she said. “It doesn’t seem outrageous or
unreasonable to have the Bible on the table.”
Ron
Crews, the executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty,
told me he hopes the Air Force will restore the Bible to its rightful place. He
called it a symbol of hope and courage for military personnel and their
families.
“It
is sad when military traditions honoring our POWs and MIAs are trumped by
pursuits to remove any vestige of the faith that has sustained our warriors
since Valley Forge,” Crews told me.
Earlier
this month, a cadet at the Air Force Academy removed an inspirational Bible
verse from a white board hanging outside his dorm room. Air Force officials said
the cadet “voluntarily” removed the verse after someone
complained.
However,
Liberty Institute attorney Michael Berry said he was told by officials at the
Air Force Academy that had the cadet not voluntarily removed the verse, he would
have been ordered to remove it.
Berry
told OneNewsNow.com the incident was a clear denial of the cadet’s right of
freedom of religious expression.
“He
said, well, the Air Force’s official policy – and this is coming from the very
top, from the Pentagon level – is that the term ‘free exercise of religion’ does
not extend to speech of this kind,” Berry told the news organization. “Either
verbal speech or writing a verse on a whiteboard, he said, would not fall under
the protection of free exercise of religion as it is written in the First
Amendment.”
I
would certainly be remiss if I did not extend my thanks to the staff of Florida
Today, for first reporting this latest incident of religious liberty under
attack.
General
Welsh's remarks from March 14 bear repeating. He claimed there is no religious
persecution happening in the Air Force. If that’s the case, sir, what have you
done with the Bible?
Todd
Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio
stations. Sign up for his American Dispatch
newsletter, be sure to join hisFacebook page,
and follow him on Twitter. His
latest book is "God Less
America”.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/03/31/air-force-removes-bible-from-pow-mia-display/?cmpid=NL_opinion
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Air
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4/2/2014
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