Today, Friday, Apr 8, 2016

From: Marie Vanover
To: Mikey Weinstein

Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein, Esq
President and Founder, Military Religious Freedom Foundation

Re: Violation of DoD Policy and Constitutional Law at WPAFB

Thank you for your email. We have reviewed the situation and the Bible has been removed.

Marie Vanover
Director, WPAFB Installation Public Affairs

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Today, Friday, April 08, 2016

From: Mikey Weinstein
To: Marie Vanover

Marie Vanover
Director, WPAFB Installation Public Affairs

Thank you very much, Ms. Vanover

Mikey Weinstein

Founder and President, Military Religious Freedom Foundation

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Today, Friday, April 8, 2016

From: Marie Vanover
To: Mikey Weinstein

Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein, Esq
President and Founder, Military Religious Freedom Foundation

You are welcome. Per our conversation, we did not replace the Bible with another book.

Marie Vanover
Director, WPAFB Installation Public Affairs

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Tuesday, April 05, 2016

Col. Timothy Ballard
Commander, WPAFB Medical Clinic

CC: Col. John M. Devillier, WPAFB Installation Commander via Executive Assistant, Mrs. Boeing
CC: Mikey Weinstein, President Military Religious Freedom Foundation

CC: Ashton B. Carter, Secretary of Defense , 1000 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-1000

Gentlemen,

Numerous Soldiers and Airmen at your base, of a variety of differing faiths, have complained to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation about a POW/MIA table prominently displaying a Christian New Testament Bible.

The DoD cannot, per Constitutional law, clauses and case law (which as Officers you are sworn to uphold) endorse, promote, or favor one religion over another.

Health care clinics are for healing, not proselytizing.

AFI 1-1, Section 2.11 states "Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for an individual's free exercise of religion or other personal beliefs and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion".

AFI 1-1, Section 2.12 states ". Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for an individual's free exercise of religion or other personal beliefs and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion. Airmen must insure that in exercising their right of religious free expression, they do not degrade morale, good order, and discipline in the Air Force."

By choosing to elevate one religion above all others, (or none), you as the command team are directly leading to degradation of morale, good order, and discipline- as it demoralizes Soldiers and Airmen of varying faiths (or none) to see celebrated status of Christianity over their own; and the sharp divide between Soldier's and Airmen's personal beliefs if forced into a public setting pit Soldier against Soldier; Airmen against Airmen.

A Bible turns a ceremonial display meant to honor all POW/MIA (65K) into a religious display. Out of the 65K POW/MIA in the history of the U.S. Armed Forces, only 70% were Christian.

The Christian Bible CANNOT be representative of ALL faiths and all ideologies, to claim such would be immoral and illegal.

Mind you, Article IV of the Soldier's Code of Conduct which governs POW rules States we do NOT need to believe in "God", but implicitly States we MUST hold faith in our fellow prisoners.

Furthermore, our country is NOT "founded, one Nation under God" - that came about from 1950's McArthy-ism.

In our country, lest the majority lead to tyranny over the minority, we do not accommodate the majority, but seek equality for all.

I am sure you are aware of the immense public scrutiny the Department of Veteran's Affairs in Akron, Ohio, and Youngstown, Ohio came under during the process in which MRFF successfully had their unconstitutional Biblical displays removed. I am certain you do not wish the same for WPAFB.

It is my demand on behalf of my MRFF clients, and constitutional law that ONE of the following courses of action be implemented immediately:

1. Move the display (and any others like it on the installation) to the air base Chapel,

2. Allow other books of faith on the table, to include atheist's ideology. Any Soldier or Veteran should be free to leave their book behind that they feel best represents them,

3. Remove the Bible and leave the table truly neutral to honor all veteran's, of all faith (or none),

4. Replace the Bible with a "prop book" as the VA has done, and each individual viewing the table may come to their own conclusions as to what the book represents faith or ideology wise.

Please remit your official reply NLT 08 1600S APR 2016.

Respectfully,
MRFF Staffer

Friday, April 8, 2016

From: (Name Withheld)
To: Mikey Weinstein
Subject: Re: Response to E-Mail 

I'd like to offer profuse and sincere thanks to Mikey and the MRFF for addressing an unfortunate situation at Wright Patterson AFB. The POW-MIA display in the hospital dining facility was displaying the bible as representative of the faith of all uniformed men. This both fails to represent my faith and only honors a subset of those who have served honorably and been captured or are missing. We owe all these service members the respect they deserve. 

The MRFF had numerous complaints about this display and they addressed these concerns promptly, professionally, and without personal bias. I cannot thank the organization enough for their tremendous efforts. I encourage them to continue their excellent work, ensuring personal faith and patriotic service are not inappropriately intertwined. 

Rather than promoting one faith over another, or the absence of faith overall, the MRFF is ensuring that the military defends the freedoms we hold dear: that every soldier has the freedom to practice their chosen faith free of coercion. 

Sincerely,
(Name Withheld)