An anti-Christian organization filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Department of Veterans Affairs over a Bible displayed as part of a POW/MIA memorial, calling the Bible’s presence an “outrage.”
“From our perspective, it’s a repugnant example of fundamentalist Christian triumphalism, exceptionalism, superiority, and domination, and it cannot stand,” said Mikey Weinstein, the founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).
Including a Bible as part of a VA memorial would mean “raising one faith over all the others,” Weinstein said.
The offending Bible was donated by former U.S. Army Air Corps Technical Sergeant (TSgt) Herman “Herk” Streitburger, a veteran of World War II. Streitburger, who was held in a German POW camp, carried the small Bible with him during the war.
The press secretary for the Department of Veteran Affairs, Curt Cashour, said that suit or no suit the Bible is going nowhere.
“This lawsuit – backed by a group known for questionable practices and unsuccessful lawsuits – is nothing more than an attempt to force VA into censoring a show of respect for America’s POW/MIA community,” Cashour said.
“Make no mistake: VA will not be bullied on this issue,” he added.
Defenders of the display insist that it is in keeping with longstanding American tradition.
“POW/MIA remembrance displays have a long, cherished history in our nation,” said Mike Berry, chief of staff at the First Liberty Institute.
“Veterans organizations like the Northeast POW/MIA Network should be able to honor and remember those killed, captured or missing with a display that includes a Bible donated by a WWII veteran that represents the strength through faith necessary for American service members to survive,” Mr. Berry said.
Mikey Weinstein and his MRFF have a history of antagonism toward displays of the Christian faith in the military.
Founded in 2005 to oppose the spread of alleged religious intimidation by Christians in the U.S. military, the MRFF has been described as an anti-Christian bigotry group by the American Family Association, which claims the group itself uses intimidation to remove any reference to Christianity from the public square.
The Christian Wire refers to Mikey Weinstein as an “anti-Christian activist” for his war on Christians in the military.
Weinstein has characterized the group’s target as “incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation’s armed forces.”
As Breitbart News reported, Obama administration Pentagon appointees met with Weinstein in 2013 to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith.
Weinstein said that Christians who share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of “treason” and of committing an act of “spiritual rape,” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.”
He also said that Christians in the military who share their faith are “enemies of the Constitution.”
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome
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