The “Missing Man” display
The influential Family Research Council in Washington is declaring victory in a fight over the presence of Bibles on the “Missing Man Tables” set up at many military installations.
The tables honor the missing in action and prisoners of war with a table that features a white cloth, a single rose, salt, an inverted glass, a lemon, a vase tied with a red ribbon, a Bible, a candle, the American flag and empty chairs, all symbols.
Atheist organizations had been arguing for, and in some cases succeeding it getting, the removal of the Bibles.
But the Veterans Administration has ruled that the government is required to”remain neutral” on the “use of any religious items” in such displays, and “neutral doesn’t mean hostile,” the FRC reported.
The dispute was profiled just a few months ago by martial arts superstar, television and movie actor, and WND columnist Chuck Norris, who cited the “desecration” of military memorials:
“Back on Feb. 29, Todd Starnes, host of Fox News & Commentary radio, reported that ‘a Bible and Bible verse were removed from a POW/MIA display inside an [Akron] Ohio Veteran’s Administration clinic.’
“On Apr. 6, Military.com reported that a second VA clinic in Youngstown, Ohio, ‘substituted a ‘prop’ book for a Bible … at a table set up to honor American prisoners of war and missing in action,’ known as ‘Missing Man’ tables.
“On April 19, the Army Times reported: ‘[O]fficials at Tobyhanna Army Depot removed a Bible with the depot’s name on its cover from a prisoner-of-war memorial display in the installation’s administration building about 24 hours after receiving a complaint [about it].’
“Also in April, senior staff at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas, also removed the Bible from its POW/MIA ‘Missing Man’ Memorial without a direct demand to do so,” he wrote.
He explained the items on the table are symbols, “Each item holds special significance, and the Bible represents the ‘strength gained through faith to sustain us and those lost from our country, founded as one nation under God,’” Norris explained.
He continued, “As I have to do a few times a year, I need to remind and sometimes educate people that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t prohibit such practices as placing a Bible in a public or government Veteran display; it actually protests the practice.
“Atheists and other progressives would have you believe that the First Amendment establishes an impenetrable and impassable ‘separation of church and state.’ But that phrase appears nowhere in the First Amendment, which actually reads: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. …’”
He charged that organizations “such as the Military Religious Freedom Foundation” who are opposing the presence of Bibles “are not preserving First Amendment rights. They are perverting the meaning of the Establishment Clause (which was to prevent the creation of a single national church like the Church of England) to deny the Free Exercise Clause (which preserves our rights to exercise our religious freedoms as we want, privately and publicly). Both clauses were intended to safeguard religious liberty, not to circumscribe its practice. The framers were seeking to guarantee freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.”
In a “Washington Update” from the FRC this week, it said, “The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs smacked down the far-Left extremists in the military who were systematically desecrating a display honoring the military’s POWs.”
The report noted that the MRFF had pressured a number of installations to remove the Bible, “falling prey to the idea that the Scriptures’ inclusion was somehow unconstitutional.”
FRC reported, “As our own Lt. General Jerry Boykin (U.S. Army-Ret.) has said before, U.S. servicemen and women know the enemy – and the Bible isn’t it!”
“A Bible resting passively along with other tradition[al] elements of this display does not promote any single religion … Please recall that our country was founded, in part, upon the realization that all people are endowed with God-given rights that include free expression and freedom of religion.”
Boykin, the FRC said, “commended the VA for making the right decision – especially when it comes to honoring the sacrifice of those who’ve suffered through captivity in wartime or are still missing.”
He said, “This guidance is long overdue because, unfortunately, various VA officials have been misled by militant secularist groups that have shown contempt for this display tradition and disregarded the families of the MIAs and the POWs themselves.”
The memo, from Meghan Flanz, an acting assistant secretary of human resources and administration, specifically explains, “The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise of religion. The First Amendment has been interpreted to prohibit the government – including its employees acting in their official capacities – from endorsing, favoring, or inhibiting religion.”
Specifically, employees are allowed to express their faith in the VA workplace, veterans may do the same, and even members of the public, cards with religious messages are allowed, songs with religious content are allowed, and outside displays with “religious and secular items” are allowed on VA properties.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/09/24/victory-declared-in-fight-over-powmia-missing-man-memorials/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2016/09/23/victory-declared-in-fight-over-powmia-missing-man-memorials/
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