Over the last several months, I’ve written about a group of twenty GOP House members and one senator who went on the warpath against the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), writing letters to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper decrying MRFF’s successes in keeping military members free from unwanted religious proselytizing during the pandemic.
To appease these fundamentalist Christian GOP Congress members, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Matthew P. Donovan rewrote one of the DoD’s core regulations on religion, DoD Instruction 1300.17, to allow just about any form of previously prohibited religious behavior and proselytizing, with no regard for the right of service members to be free from unwanted religion.
Leading that group of fundamentalist Christian GOP Congress members was Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), who is now running in his state’s special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated in 2019 by Johnny Isakson. Because this is a special election and there was no primary, Collins is running not only against Democrat Raphael Warnock but also against fellow Republican Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed by Governor Brian Kemp in January 2020 to fill the seat until the special election could be held. While other Republican senators facing reelection are now trying to distance themselves from President Trump, Collins and Loeffler are both running on who is the biggest defender of Trump.
But it seems that same Doug Collins who led the charge for changing DoD regulations to allow his fellow fundamentalist Christians in the military to shove their religion down others’ throats has no regard for military regulations when it comes to running his Senate campaign.
DoD Directive 1344.10, “Political Activities by Members of the Armed Forces,” contains a detailed section on what is and what is not allowed in campaign materials for active, reserve, or retired members of the military running for office.
The only use of photos of the candidate in uniform that is allowed are photos as part of the candidates biographical information, when accompanied by other non-military photos, and when also accompanied by a disclaimer stating that the appearance of the photo in uniform doesn’t imply a DoD endorsement.
4.3.1. Members not on active duty who are nominees or candidates for the offices described in subparagraph 4.2.1. may, in their campaign literature (including Web sites, videos, television, and conventional print advertisements):
4.3.1.1. Use or mention, or permit the use or mention of, their military rank or grade and military service affiliation; BUT they must clearly indicate their retired or reserve status.
4.3.1.2. Include or permit the inclusion of their current or former specific military duty, title, or position, or photographs in military uniform, when displayed with other nonmilitary biographical details. Any such military information must be accompanied by a prominent and clearly displayed disclaimer that neither the military information nor photographs imply endorsement by the Department of Defense or their particular Military Department (or the Department of Homeland Security for members of the Coast Guard); e.g., “John Doe is a member of the Army National Guard. Use of his military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense.”
On his Senate campaign website, Collins includes a biographical page that contains two photos of him in uniform, which would be fine except that he does not include the required disclaimer. But this lack of a disclaimer on his website is a minor infraction compared to what he does in his campaign ads.
DoD Directive 1344.10 is also very specific about what is not allowed in campaign materials (emphasis added):
4.3.2. Members included in subparagraph 4.3.1. may NOT, in campaign literature (including Web sites, videos, television, and conventional print advertisements):
4.3.2.1. Use or allow the use of photographs, drawings, and other similar media formats of themselves in uniform as the primary graphic representation in any campaign media, such as a billboard, brochure, flyer, Web site, or television commercial. For the purposes of this policy, “photographs” include video images, drawings, and all other similar formats of representational media.
4.3.2.2. Depict or allow the depiction of themselves in uniform in a manner that does not accurately reflect their actual performance of duty. For the purpose of this policy, “photographs” include video images, drawings, and all other similar formats of representational media.
Ad after ad on Collins’s Senate campaign Facebook page and Twitter feed contains a photo of Collins in uniform as “the primary graphic representation” or that “does not accurately reflect [his] actual performance of duty.” Using the uniform as Collins does to bolster his political image as someone who will “handle the mob” or who “fought Stacey Abrams” is a flagrant and shameless violation of regulations, as is using the uniform to solicit campaign donations.
The following images are a sampling of Collins’s regulation-violating ads, which were brought to the attention of MRFF by numerous service members and other DoD personnel.
Well, just like Doug Collins likes to write letters about MRFF to the Secretary of Defense, MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein likes to write letters to the Secretary of Defense about regulation-violating miscreants like Doug Collins, and will be sending a letter to the honorable secretary today that says, in part:
“The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has received numerous formal complaints, just in the last 48 hours alone, against Congressman Collins by Active Duty and Reserve military members as well as veterans and DoD civilians to include individuals on your own senior DoD staff, Mr. Secretary.
“Keeping it very brief, USAF Reserve Chaplain (Lt. Col.)/U.S. Congressman Collins is viciously and specifically violating germane DoD regulations by BLATANTLY misusing photographs of himself in military uniform to enhance himself, politically, in his current highly contentious campaign bid to become a United States Senator from the State of Georgia.
“The overt and flagrant violations of these DoD regulations also constitute a severe violation of UCMJ Article 92 (‘Failure To Obey Order or Regulation,’ 10 United States Code, Section 892) as well as potentially other UCMJ Articles.
“Mr. Secretary, it may well be that you, personally, align yourself with USAF Reserve Chaplain (Lt. Col.)/U. S. Congressman Doug Collins’ fundamentalist and extremist Christian religious views as well as his hard-right, conservative ideological and political views.
“Nevertheless, even if that may be so, it in NO WAY serves as an acceptable basis for Collins to horribly malign and tortuously abuse the salient DoD regulatory provisions and their concomitant, clear UCMJ mandates as he is now doing without ANY cognizable consequences WHATSOEVER from DoD, the Federal agency that YOU are charged with leading, sir!
“On behalf of our many clients who reported this reprehensible and illicit behavior by Collins to MRFF, MRFF demands that you issue immediate orders to USAF Reserve Chaplain (Lt. Col.)/U.S. Congressman Doug Collins to timely cease and desist from any further use of photographs of himself in uniform to enhance his current election bid to become a U.S. Senator in Georgia.
“There are plenty of legal and ethical ways in which Collins may continue to pursue his U.S. Senatorial election campaign without violating DoD bedrock regulations and the foundational structure of the military criminal justice system.
“Further, given the ghastly magnitude of malfeasance via the crystal clear violations in this matter, MRFF demands that official, criminal UCMJ charges be aggressively brought against Collins so that he faces a formal trial by court-martial.”