Rebuttal to the Sept. 29, 2017 Stars and Stripes Op-Ed of Reverend Tommy Vallejos

It is ironic to have to remind Reverend Vallejos of one of the Ten Commandments - not to lie. Yet, in his Opinion letter published on September 29, 2017, he makes at least two false statements. First, no one, to include the Military Religious Freedom Foundation [MRFF], is "persecuting" Chaplain (Captain) Sonny Hernandez for his "personal faith." Second, the Reverend's claim that the Air Force did not follow up on MRFF's complaints against Chaplain Hernandez is likewise demonstrably false - all he had to do was read the September 22nd article in the Stars and Stripes which noted that, "the Air Force is reviewing IG complaints made against Chaplain Hernandez that were referred to the Air
Force Inspector General's office." [...]

Can a person of faith serve in the military? As a retired military veteran, a Hispanic, and a man of deep faith, I was shaken to my core after reading a recent story about Chaplain (Capt.) Sonny Hernandez coming under fire for sharing commonly held biblical principles with his fellow Air Force servicemembers ("Air Force chaplain controversy: religious freedom vs. personal faith," Sept. 21).

[...]

Thankfully for Hernandez, the Air Force did not follow up on the complaint filed by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a group whose mission is to eradicate any religious influence in the military on the basis of instilling a "separation of church and state" — taken to mean that public life must be free of faith or any degree of religious influence. [...]

"Please don’t jump down my throat," Taylor Grin thought as he approached his training instructor with a request.

It was 2013, and Grin was a few weeks into Air Force basic training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. He had just learned which religious services were available to trainees — Catholic, several Protestant denominations, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist, among others.

[...]

The clash also has been noted by advocates for secular and minority beliefs such as the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which in the past had been fielding about 110 complaints a month about chaplains, many involving unwanted proselytizing. This year, it jumped to between 250 and 400 monthly complaints, said Mikey Weinstein, a former Air Force officer who helped start the group.

[...] Finally: Speaking of radical religious extremists who place their personal religious beliefs above protecting and defending the U.S. Constitution, we're joined by the indefatigable founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, MIKEY WEINSTEIN, to discuss a U.S. Air Force Reserve Chaplain who appears to be doing exactly that. Weinstein, a registered Republican and former White House legal counsel for Ronald Reagan, details his group's legal complaints against Capt. Sonny Hernandez (pictured above), whose recent writings declare that Christian service members who support the Constitutional rights of those who follow other religions are, in fact, tools of Satan. Yes, really. [...]

Judgmental religionists reject the theistic tribute "In God We Trust", biblical human creation by God in God's image (Genesis 1:27), and God's biblical judgment authority (Romans 2:1-3). In God they do not trust because they presumptuously preempt God by judging and condemning God's creations.

Provoked by a pernicious president, intolerant individuals now hurl hypocritical hatred at transgender persons and oppose their military service just as they have done against African-Americans, Native-Americans, Jewish-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Muslim-Americans, female Americans, and homosexual. Americans. [...]