By: Matthew M. Burke| Stars and Stripes
Date: Wednesday, June 27, 2018

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – An organization that lobbies against promoting religion within the Armed Forces has filed an inspector general complaint against the U.S. Navy over a Bible that was included in a POW/MIA "Missing Man" table display at the U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa.

The complaint seeks removal of the book from the display, eliminating language about the Bible and the phrase "one nation under God" from an accompanying explanatory placard, an investigation into how the book came to be displayed, who authorized it and "appropriate disciplinary measures administered to those responsible."

It was filed Tuesday by the New York-based law office of Donald Rehkopf Jr., on behalf of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and 26 families on Okinawa.

MRFF first filed a complaint about the display with Rear Adm. Paul Pearigen, Navy Medicine West commander, on April 5. The Navy later said it investigated the matter but found that including the Bible was "consistent with Department of the Navy and Department of Defense guidance, as well as the U.S. Constitution."

The dispute over the display began when a group of sailors, Marines and Department of Defense civilian employees stationed on Okinawa reached out to MRFF, asking for help get the Bible removed, according to Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the MRFF.

[...]

MRFF has also successfully argued against religious proselytizing during official military functions and forced the removal of religious historical and holiday displays from common areas on military posts.

The organization claims to represent over 56,300 active duty sailors, soldiers, Marines and airmen, cadets and midshipmen, National Guard and Reserve, DoD civilian employees and veterans.

By: Hemant Mehta | The Friendly Atheist
Date: Wednesday, June 27, 2018

[...]

That's a lie. MRFF is not an atheist group in any sense of the word. They represent atheists, sure, but they also represent Christians, Jews, and other members of the military who want to push back against endorsements of Christianity by their superiors. In many of Weinstein's letters to military leaders, he cites the religious affiliations of the people who reached out to him, and it's not unusual to hear that the majority of them are believers.

In fact, according to MRFF "96% of its current and retired armed forces clients are Christian as are about 80% of the Foundation staffers."

So for Starnes to call them an "atheist" group isn't just untrue. In the view of Weinstein, it's unfair because they represent so many more people than that.
That's why an attorney for MRFF, Randal Mathis, has now sent a letter to Starnes demanding he stop describing MRFF this way under threat of a lawsuit.

[...]