Statement from Mikey Weinstein Regarding Lt. Col. Hollis' Laughable Assignment to Investigate Maj. Gen. Dondi Costin's Blatant Violation of the Constitution, Air Force, and Department of Defense (DoD) Regulations
Apart from being an Army chaplain, Lt. Colonel Hollis is the senior chaplain at Arlington National Cemetery.
So, rather than investigate this matter themselves, the DoD/IG has not only irresponsibly enlisted a chaplain to do their job, but has unbelievably chosen a chaplain who has no problem violating the very same regulation by giving an invocation in uniform at a private organization's event herself ?
On the official DoD website, there is an image of Lt. Colonel Hollis giving an invocation at the annual *Wreaths Across America event at Arlington. Wreaths Across America is a private organization that places Christmas wreaths on all the graves at Arlington and other cemeteries every year. Just like the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty (CARL), Wreaths Across America is a private organization, or non-federal entity as the military calls it.
Lt. Colonel Hollis is endorsed by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which is a denomination that is opposed to same-sex marriage and believes that homosexuality violates the scriptures. So, of course, she'd probably agree with the blatantly anti-LGBT views of CARL's chaplain endorser members, even though her endorsing agency isn't an actual CARL member.
*The issue at hand has nothing to do with the particular organization Wreaths Across America, other than it's being an example of Lt. Col. Hollis endorsing a private organization in uniform, in violation of the same regulations that the chaplains she has been appointed to investigate violated.
