Guest post by
Mike Farrell
MRFF Advisory Board Member
According to Wikipedia, the First Liberty Institute is a nonprofit legal organization based in Plano, Texas. “Supporters describe the organization as focused on religious freedom and the First Amendment and on providing assistance to individuals and organizations ‘in legal battles over religious freedom and first-amendment issues’. Critics generally describe it as a Christian-right and/or Religious-right advocacy organization with a strong anti-LGBT agenda.”
I’ll let you decide.
First Liberty, in an opinion piece, recently described the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) as an “anti-faith group” and those associated with it as “anti-faith activists.” Neither is true.
First Liberty made that claim in condemning the MRFF for pointing out that their client, Shields of Strength, had unlawfully used the official emblem of the U.S. Marines and other branches of our military together with Christian Bible passages on their dog-tag facsimile. Shields of Strength did so in violation of the agreement they had made that specifically prohibited the use of official military emblems on items that promote a religion. As they know, Department of Defense regulations specifically say “DoD marks may not be licensed for use in a manner that creates a perception of DoD endorsement of any non-federal entity or its products and services. DoD marks may not be licensed for any purpose intended to promote ideological movements, sociopolitical change, religious beliefs (including non-belief), specific interpretations of morality, or legislative/statutory change.”
Realizing the company was violating its agreement, the Department of the Navy notified Shields of Strength to discontinue any use of the official emblem of the Marines and the Navy. Shields of Strength did so, but continues to improperly manufacture and sell the same items emblazoned with the emblems of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force. And, it should be noted, the organization has publicly acknowledged that the purpose of their product is to proselytize for Christianity.
Rather than acknowledge that its client was violating its agreement and advising it to cease marketing dog-tags that suggest government endorsement by the Army and Air Force, First Liberty chose instead to attack and defame the MRFF for protecting the separation of church and state.
One might think that an odd choice for an organization that proclaims itself as dedicated to religious freedom. One might assume it is more an organization dedicated to the freedom of Christians to do as they choose, including ignoring the law.
A simple fix, of course, would have been to have Shields of Strength remove the official emblems of our military branches from their dog-tags, stop pretending they are endorsed by our government, and be honest about what they are doing. No one, including the MRFF, would object to them if that were the case.
Why, then, did Shields of Strength make an agreement they didn’t intend to keep in the first place? Why does First Liberty defend their behavior and in the process attempt to smear the MRFF as being “anti-faith”?
As a long-time supporter of the MRFF and now a member of its Board of Advisors, I’ve learned a lot about religion and bigotry and how they too often go together.
The MRFF’s mission is a very simple one: protecting the right of the women and men in our military to their freedom of religious or non-religious choice, a freedom guaranteed them by the U.S. Constitution and our country’s commitment to the separation of church and state.
This is, one would think, a pretty simple issue for Americans to understand and appreciate. But for a surprising number of my fellow citizens it is clearly not at all simple. Much of the confusion that exists arises, I think, from ignorance. Some don’t understand that the separation of church and state is achieved by simply disallowing any act, appearance or inference of promotion or preference for one faith or belief system over others by any part of the U.S. Government.
However, since Christianity, in one or another of its forms, makes up the predominant religious belief in our country, some tend to think of America as a “Christian country.” It is not, by dint of our laws, and that is surprising to some, though not a major concern for most. For others, often the most zealous of believers, that fact is resented, feared and hated, deemed a heresy that must be corrected because they believe theirs is the one and only true faith which all must accept or be damned to the fires of hell.
That being the case, when the MRFF points out that a religious tract, symbol, speech, prayer or other artifact is inappropriate when placed, associated with or attached to a military unit, uniform, speech, slogan, etc., because it crosses the line into implied government promotion, it is not meant as an attack on the religion in question, it is done in the service of protecting the laws of our land, protecting the right of the women and men in our military to believe or not believe as they choose, and protecting the separation of church and state.
It astonishes me, I must say, that that fact is so hard for some to comprehend. The level of vitriol aimed at the MRFF, but mostly at its founder, Mikey Weinstein, for having the temerity to insist that the line of separation be honored, is mind-boggling. Because Mikey’s name bespeaks Jewish heritage, we are regularly forced to deal with the ugliest of anti-Semitic attacks, accusations that we are Satanists, Communists, Atheists, haters of Christianity, haters of Jesus or, as First Liberty would have it, “anti-faith.”
We are none of those things. We are Americans who love our country and believe its laws and traditions need to be guarded and supported. We are people of many and varied religious and non-religious beliefs. And a quite interesting part of the mix, for an organization deemed “anti-faith” by First Liberty, is that upwards of 95% of our scores of thousands of staff, supporters and clients are in fact Christians. They’re just not the kind of Christians who want to shove their faith down the throats of others.