{"id":46347,"date":"2021-10-22T10:14:14","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T13:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/?p=46347"},"modified":"2021-10-22T10:18:44","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T13:18:44","slug":"mrff-falsely-claims-us-navy-banned-bibles-on-pow-mia-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/22\/mrff-falsely-claims-us-navy-banned-bibles-on-pow-mia-table\/","title":{"rendered":"MRFF Falsely Claims US Navy \u201cBanned\u201d Bibles on POW\/MIA Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Military Religious Freedom Foundation<\/a>, created and run by Michael \u201cMikey\u201d Weinstein, falsely claimed yesterday that the US Navy had \u201cbanned\u201d a Christian Bible. The context was the presence of a \u201cmissing man\u201d or POW\/MIA table at the Navy Operational Support Center (NOSC) in Alameda, California. (A NOSC isn’t a Navy base, but a small facility that helps Navy Reservists maintain their readiness.) The MRFF routinely complains about Bibles being included in the displays, and this time also took issue with the specific<\/em> Bible on the table. Weinstein\u2019s sometime-research assistant Christine \u201cChris\u201d Rodda put it this way<\/a> [emphasis added]:<\/p>\n

A POW\/MIA table in the facility\u2019s break room not only contains a Christian Bible, but the particular Bible displayed is the Holman \u201cSailor\u2019s Bible,\u201d one of the Holman military Bibles with the official branch emblem that MRFF got banned by the military back in 2012<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

Someone must have had an old edition of this Bible\u2026and decided to add it to the display, not only turning the table, which should honor ALL POWs and MIAs, into a divisive display of Christian privilege but doing so with a Bible that has been banned by the Navy<\/strong> for nearly a decade.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Later, Mikey \u2013 who never met an adjective he didn\u2019t like \u2013 claimed the Bible had been \u201cexplicitly<\/em> banned.”<\/p>\n

One would think that a branch of the US military \u201cbanning\u201d a Bible would be big news, but for some reason it\u2019s never come up.<\/p>\n

Probably because Chris Rodda isn\u2019t telling the truth (again<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In 2004, B&H Publishing Group received permission to add official military emblems to Service-specific editions of the Holy Bible. They sold without incident for years. In 2011, the MRFF began filing FOIAs about the Bibles<\/a> to learn about how they were able to have the emblems. Sometime during that period \u2013 probably when the MRFF started pinging each of the branches \u2013 the Services chose not to renew the trademark permission<\/a> to B&H, though the DoD specifically said B&H could continue to sell the Bibles until it had exhausted its supply. For its part, the publisher replaced the trademarked symbols with generic Service symbols (which are, quite frankly, indistinguishable to most people). Nearly a year later, the MRFF did a victory dance and claimed they were responsible for the end of the \u201cunconstitutional\u201d Bibles, though the DoD said otherwise.<\/p>\n

No part of that sounds like a Bible \u201cban,\u201d explicit or otherwise, by the Navy or anyone else.<\/p>\n

When the Sailor’s Bible sitting on that POW\/MIA table was published, it included the emblem of the US Navy \u2013 by permission of the US Navy. Neither Chris Rodda nor Mikey Weinstein provided any<\/em> evidence to support their claim that Bible was ever banned, disallowed, or otherwise restricted in any way, shape, or form.<\/p>\n

It appears they simply made it up.<\/p>\n

In all likelihood, Rodda and Weinstein know the general public people has grown tired of their attacks on POW\/MIA tables. Even if people agree with the MRFF, the standard battle cry of \u201cI\u2019m offended by a Bible\u201d probably doesn\u2019t bring in the donations it once did. The \u201cbanned Bible\u201d trope was probably an effort to add spice to an otherwise bland announcement, to take advantage of cancel culture opposition and create scandal and gain publicity where there is otherwise little interest.<\/p>\n

As for the POW\/MIA table itself, it\u2019s worth remembering that the point of the memorial is to honor those who were Prisoners of War and Missing In Action. The MRFF has tried to claim that by having a Bible in the display, a POW\/MIA table doesn\u2019t represent all<\/em> POW\/MIAs and must therefore be modified to their<\/em> approved criteria.<\/p>\n

But for all its supposed offense, the MRFF has never once provided a statement from a former POW who supported their attacks on the memorials. By contrast, there are<\/em> former POWs who have<\/em> supported having a Bible on their<\/em><\/span> memorial table. In fact, the MRFF is currently supporting a lawsuit<\/a> by non<\/strong>-POWs to have a Bible removed from a POW\/MIA table. The Bible in that POW\/MIA display came from a former POW<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

How\u2019s that for chutzpah?<\/p>\n

For all the smoke (apparently coming from Mikey\u2019s ears), there is little fire. If the most egregious example Mikey can find of \u201cnoxious illegalities\u201d violating religious freedom is a Bible on a table in the break room of an obscure Navy facility, things don’t seem to be that bad. (Of course, Weinstein is willfully ignoring US troops who are actually<\/em> filing real<\/em> complaints about violations of their religious freedom<\/a> because they don\u2019t meet his criteria of the \u201cright\u201d religious beliefs.)<\/p>\n

And, amazingly enough, despite the fact Weinstein is sorely lacking for actual<\/em> religious freedom issues to \u201cfight\u201d in the US military, he still manages to pay himself hundreds of thousands of dollars a year \u2013 out of the \u201cdonations\u201d contributed to his tax-exempt \u201ccharity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would you stoop to accepting nearly a half-million dollars a year if it required you to bloviate about non-existent crises every couple of months? Weinstein\u2019s supporters may not be getting their money\u2019s worth: Seems like most people do that on Facebook for free<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n