A secularist claimed decisive victory last month after an Air Force commander at a base in Delaware renounced an email sent by his secretary to his entire squadron, encouraging them to participate in a Christian-themed toy drive.
Mikey Weinstein, president of Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), had previously taken aim at Lieutenant Colonel Donald Tasker’s office in Dover Air Force Base for sending the email, urging personnel to help fill shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, an evangelical program that sends gifts and toys accompanied with gospel messages to children across the world.
After Weinstein called the email (forwarded by Tasker’s administrative assistant, Valencia Branch) an absolutely unambiguous promotion of one religious nonprofit organization, the commander sent a follow-up email to his entire squadron to clarify that he was distancing himself and his office from the religious contents of the first email.
“Recently an email… was forwarded to the entire 436 Force Support Squadron. The invitation included in that email also contained language supporting the Christian faith and encouraged participation in this event as an act of Christian faith,” Tasker wrote. “I want to be absolutely clear that the email in question was not sent at my direction and is not endorsed in any way by me or any level of command.”
Tasker went on to explain what content is and isn’t permissible in government emails.
“They cannot violate the Joint Ethics Regulation, which prohibits the endorsement of any non-federal entity or event by a DoD employee in their official capacity,” he wrote, adding that these messages also cannot appear to promote any religion.
Weinstein called Tasker’s apparent disapproval of Branch’s email a clear victory for MRFF and had threatened to sue the commander’s office if he failed to take necessary action.
“Our clients are delighted that this is a total victory,” Weinstein told the media. “But it’s not a victory for anything other than the U.S. Constitution and the Air Force doing the right thing.”
Even though MRFF’s demands were met after Weinstein’s complaint, he said that Tasker would still have to investigate the incident and punish those who were responsible for sending the unconstitutional email. Reportedly, the situation was brought to Weinstein’s attention by 14 unidentified personnel at the Air Force base, who complained that the email required them to assemble shoe boxes to show children in need that God loves them as well as cares for them.
“Ms. Branch has made it indubitably lucid in her very public endorsement that the prime purpose of [Operation Christmas Child] and the partnership with [Calvary Christian Academy] is to evangelize, proselytize, and otherwise spread her personally preferred version of the Christian religion to impoverished children under the overwhelmingly transparent guise of giving them gifts and, in an indisputable and shocking violation of regulations, has used her official Air Force position to do so,” Weinstein had written in his letter of complaint. “MRFF further demands that appropriate and aggressive remedial actions of punishment be taken against Ms. Branch as well as any others either directly or indirectly involved (which may very well include you, sir, as her immediate supervisor and Squadron Commander).”
However, Ron Crews, executive director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, expressed a different view from Weinstein, saying neither Branch nor her email had violated any policies or the Constitution.
“We should be commending members of the Air Force, not condemning them for wanting to serve orphans,” he said in a statement. “The e-mail announcing a volunteer opportunity in no way violates any Air Force policy or regulations, especially since the program involved is a federally approved charity.”
Operation Christmas Child is run by Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical organization run by Reverend Franklin Graham.
Photo Credits: USA Today
