In March 2018, a helicopter crash in Iraq tragically took the lives of seven members of the U.S. Air Force. Among the seven was one airman who was described by a close friend as being “ardently anti-theist.” So, naturally, the friend was appalled to see his unit’s official Facebook page memorializing his dead friend with a poster sporting an image of Jesus welcoming the fallen airmen into heaven, the last thing that his ardently anti-theist friend would have wanted to be memorialized by.
An official Air Force Facebook page overtly promoting Christianity under any circumstances is a violation of Air Force Instruction 1-1, Section 2.12 of which states (emphasis added):
Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for their own free exercise of religion, including individual expressions of religious beliefs, and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion. They must ensure their words and actions cannot reasonably be construed to be officially endorsing or disapproving of, or extending preferential treatment for any faith, belief, or absence of belief.
Creating a poster that blatantly promotes Christianity and posting it on an official Air Force Facebook page to memorialize a group of airmen, with no regard to what the beliefs of those individual airmen might be, is completely unconscionable.
The anti-theist airman’s friend was not going to stand for his friend being memorialized in such a completely inappropriate manner, and eventually got his unit to remove the poster, but not without a fight, as he related in an email to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation:
From: USAF Member/MRFF Client’s E-Mail Address Withheld
Subject: Thank you
Date: July 22, 2019 at 6:00:14 PM MDT
To: Mikey Weinstein
Hello Mikey,
I wanted to take a few minutes and thank you and the MRFF for your great work and more specifically the help you provided me. I’ll recap for those watching at home.
In March of 2018 I was deployed into combat operations in Iraq when my unit suffered a serious helicopter crash that tragically killed all seven members on board, one of whom was a very close friend of mine. In the days after the crash my Wing thought it appropriate to litter the official Facebook page with prayer hands and release the memorial poster attached below showing Jesus welcoming and embracing my dead comrades into his heavenly realm. I think you’ll agree that the intent is none other than blatant Christian religious propaganda. While I will admit that some of the members killed were indeed practicing religious members, the rub is that my friend was not only openly gay but very ardently anti-theist. I think it’s safe to assume that he would be staunchly opposed to such an overt insinuation of Christianity, let alone any other faith, on his behalf. That would probably suit those "pure believers” who have chosen gays as a perfect demographic to hate just fine.
After repeated attempts to have the sectarian Christian religious symbols removed I was told they would not be taken down due to the number of people that had potentially taken solace in them and the fear of offending the person that created the memorial poster. Keep in mind it was openly admitted the original creator was unknown. It wasn’t until I made a comment that my next call was to my elected representative that I was asked for five minutes to resolve the situation. Magically, that seemed to do the trick…a modern-day miracle some would say. During this time, I had also reached out the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) for assistance and your quick reply was most helpful, particularly considering the circumstances.
The actions simply prove to me once again that Christian religious zealots will stop at nothing to shove their self-righteous ideals down my throat, even if that means disregarding the wishes of those they proclaim to be memorializing. Make no mistake, this was not done for those we lost, it was done for the Christian religious crusaders.
Again, thank you for your prompt responses and most of all for your and the MRFF’s willingness to endure the hatred of those who seek to shove the Christian religious faith down our throats.