A few months ago, in a post titled “Trump Defense Dept. Appointee Changes Military Religion Regulations to Allow Just About Anything,” I reported on the disastrous changes made to a core Department of Defense religion regulation – changes made as a result of pressure from a group of fundamentalist Christian Congress members, led by Congressman and now-defeated Senate candidate Doug Collins (R-GA).
The regulation, DoD Instruction 1300.17, “Accommodation of Religious Practices Within the Military Services,” was a regulation that, as its name implies, made exceptions to the usual regulations to accommodate religious practices – things like special dietary requirements or the wearing of a beard or piece of religious apparel with the uniform. This instruction has now been replaced with an all new DoD Instruction 1300.17. Renamed “Religious Liberty in the Military Services,” the new DoD Instruction 1300.17 will allow all manner of otherwise prohibited religious behavior as the rule rather than granting special accommodations as the exception.
At the core of the changes is the greatly increased prominence of the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (RFRA). This 1993 act has become the go-to law for fundamentalist Christian legal organizations in their defense of completely unconstitutional promotions of religion. It is the epitome of the right-wing Christians’ view of the First Amendment’s religion clauses as creating only a one-way wall — that the “Free Exercise” clause is only religion clause that matters, and that the other direction of the wall, the “Establishment” clause, doesn’t exist.
For a full explanation of the changes to DoD Instruction 1300.17, see my previous post, but in a nutshell it permits any “action, behavior, or course of conduct constituting individual expressions of religious beliefs, whether or not compelled by, or central to, the religion concerned,” and any government action to prohibit a religious “action, behavior, or course of conduct” is considered “a substantial burden to a Service member’s exercise of religion” if it “prevents participation in conduct motivated by a sincerely held religious belief.”
What does this change mean in practice? That all any military member bent on proselytizing has to do is argue that their action, behavior, or conduct is motivated by a sincerely held religious belief and they can argue that DoD Instruction 1300.17 allows it.
Fortunately, as the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) was relieved to find out yesterday, not all commanders are going to allow this religious loophole to be exploited within their commands.
This was the situation: Thirteen airmen had a complaint about their immediate commander, who had prominently hung in his office a large, framed Christian “fishing license,” proclaiming that he was a “fisher of men,” (Matthew 4:19), an act that would be prohibited by Air Force Instruction 1-1, which states that a commander “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.” When these airmen went to their JAG about this clear violation of AFI 1-1, they were told that the new DoD Instruction 1300.17 now overrides AFI 1-1, and that their commander’s Christian “fishing license” was allowed because it was an expression of his “sincerely held religious belief.”
The thirteen airmen contacted MRFF about the situation, including in their email an interesting suggestion for fighting back against their commander’s license to proselytize:
“If our Commander can get away with this then we will go to his direct report who has an “open door policy" and ask for the ok to post in our various workplaces an ‘Arrest Warrant’ for any USAF superior who is ‘licensed’ to ‘fish’ us in to his Christian faith.
“That is our ‘sincerely motivated religious belief’ in reaction to his.”
MRFF promptly created the following “Arrest Warrant” for these thirteen airmen to post in their work place as a sincere expression of their religious belief against being fished for by their commander:
But when MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein contacted the airmen’s commander’s immediate commander, he found that the “Arrest Warrant” would not be necessary. The commander’s commander agreed with MRFF and the thirteen airmen that notwithstanding the new DoD Instruction 1300.17, the “fishing license” should not be allowed, and ordered that it be taken down, sending Mikey the following email:
From: (Active Duty USAF Commander’s E-Mail Address Withheld)
Subject: [Non-DoD Source] Status Update (UNCLASSIFIED)
Date: November 9, 2020 at 8:11:23 AM MST
To: Information Weinstein
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
Mr. Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation,
Thank you for the useful phone conversation we had this morning regarding the framed religious fishing license display in the office of (Active Duty USAF Officer’s name and rank withheld).
I have ordered that the display be permanently taken down in his office and anywhere else in the (unit name withheld) area and it will not be returning at any other location in the military workplace here at (installation name withheld).
I will be shortly meeting with one of your several Foundation clients in this matter, (Active Duty NCO’s name and rank withheld), per your and his request as well to ensure that this matter is properly closed, used as a teachable moment for all Airmen concerned and we all turn the page.
Thank you for what you all do to support our Great Air Force and Airmen and have a Great Air Force Day.
V/R
(Active Duty USAF Commander’s name, rank, title, unit and installation all withheld)
Following their meeting with their commander’s commander, one of the thirteen airmen emailed Mikey reporting that the “fishing license” had indeed been taken down, and that the “Arrest Warrant” had made the point:
From: (MRFF Client’s/Active Duty USAF NCO’s E-Mail Address Withheld)
Subject: Thank you MRFF: My meeting with the boss
Date: November 9, 2020 at 9:02:52 AM MST
To: Information Weinstein
Mr. Weinstein
I just completed a meeting with our immediate Commander’s boss (Active Duty USAF Officer’s name and rank withheld) regarding the “Christian Fishing License” situation.
The meeting was very short but very positive.
(Active Duty USAF Officer’s name and rank withheld) confirmed that he had a “very educational” telecon with you this morning and that he had decided to tell our immediate Commander to take down his “Christian Fishing License” immediately. In fact he told me that it had already been taken down.
[I called and spoke to another MRFF client who is there and he also just confirmed that it was now removed!]
In our meeting I showed the “Arrest Warrant” to (Active Duty USAF Officer’s name and rank withheld) and he looked shocked and advised me not to frame it and display it in my work area.
I know he got the point!
What you had explained to him (and us) about how such religious displays in the USAF workplace work to harm unit cohesion and morale and discipline was clear to see.
Thank you Mr. Weinstein and (name, rank and title of installation MRFF Representative withheld) and all of the MRFF for getting this done for us and so quick!
If we all get any blowback (could be likely given our immediate Commander’s personality) we will call you all right away.
(MRFF Client’s/Active Duty USAF NCO’s name, rank, AFSC, title, unit and installation all withheld)
Although this situation was successfully resolved by a commander who is not going to allow the new DoD Instruction 1300.17 to permit such expression of religious beliefs, sincere or not, MRFF anticipates many challenges ahead due to this misguided regulation change. Hopefully, however, with a new administration and new leadership at the Department of Defense, the damage done during the present administration can be undone.