Guest post by Dustin Chalker
MRFF Director of Non-Theist Affairs
If you’re here, you’ve probably read one of the many misleading quotes, headlines, tweets, or articles alleging that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation opposes our service members’ right to wear novelty tags with Bible verses printed on them. Whether stemming from an innocent misunderstanding, or from the pathetic persecution complex commonly found infecting the psyche of fervent zealots. This claim is absolutely false. Nobody is opposing our service members’ Constitutional right to wear religious paraphernalia. If they are, they’re going to have to fight us.
To be absolutely clear: The Military Religious Freedom Foundation supports the right of all service members to wear personal religious items in uniform (within reasonable military dress code limits, of course). The protected Constitutional right to freedom of religious expression includes wearing novelty tags with scriptural verses or religious emblems printed on them.
The actual issue in dispute is the unauthorized misuse of DOD and military branch logos on one particular line of these products by the for-profit, Christian-based company "Shields of Strength". Official, trademarked government seals and emblems are protected under law from unauthorized uses. "Shields of Strength" cannot use any trademarked logo on its products without the permission of the trademark owner (ie. in THIS case the military branches of the Dept. of Defense). No matter what your position may be in the secularism vs theocracy debate, the fact remains that the owner of the trademark (again the U.S. Dept. of Defense) has lawfully forbidden the use of these seals or emblems to promote any particular political or religious position. Not only does such unauthorized use give "Shields of Strength" an unfair advantage over competitors’ products, but it falsely implies Federal endorsement of their message. It is equally unauthorized for any company to produce government trademark-bearing novelty tags reading Hail Satan, MAGA, God is Pretend, or Ron Paul 2020.
"Shields of Strength" can legally produce Bible verse novelty tags, but like every other company in America they are unauthorized to mix Federal trademarks with religious messages. Instead of a military logo, they can print a picture of a cross or the Bible. If they ever make a Bible verse tag for Exodus 23:1 ("You shall not spread a false report…”), I’ll personally buy a pair for Kelly Shackelford and Ted Cruz.