US Representative Walter Jones (R-NC) died last week, and he was buried in Farmville, NC. He was widely remembered for the length of his service, his kindness, and also his support of the US military.

It is this latter point that makes his name familiar here. Rep Jones was a staunch advocate for the military — including military religious freedom, which put him in the crosshairs of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein more than once.

In 2009, he introduced a bill to ensure US military chaplains could pray according to the dictates of their faith, even outside religious services. (This issue in particular gained him no favor with Chris Rodda.) In 2012, he signed a letter with 22 other members of the House criticizing the DoD for “bowing to a third party” — Weinstein’s MRFF.

The letter was the beginning of the end of Weinstein’s influence over the DoD, as Mikey trumpeted his impact and the DoD strongly tried to downplay it — to the point Congress included language requiring the DoD to report every time it met with Weinstein to discuss religious liberty.

Rep Walter Jones had a significant impact on public policy, and on military religious freedom.

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