The Fort Drum Chapel Facebook page has only 348 followers. The Facebook page of Fort Drum’s 10th Mountain Division Sustainment Brigade has 7,828 followers. If you were a chaplain bent on proselytizing, which page would you want your videos on?
You’d want those 7,828 soldiers and family members to get your message to “walk with God” while “asking God, where are you, where are you in the midst of this COVID-19?”
Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has been seeing an uptick in a particular type of complaint — overt proselytizing videos on official military Facebook pages.
While many chaplains are doing a very good job of putting out videos that can benefit all of the service members who they serve, which are perfectly appropriate to the situation and the delivery medium of their unit’s Facebook page, and should be commended, others seem to be trying to capitalize on fears and anxieties, and the large audience of their units’ Facebook pages, to push their religion. These videos belong only on a chapel page, not on a base’s or unit’s main page.
A few weeks ago, MRFF got Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, NY to remove one such chaplain video, and we’re happy to report that the next video from that same chaplain was absolutely fine, with him apparently joining the ranks of chaplains who are putting out useful, morale-boosting videos that can benefit all. That followed the removal, also pursuant to MRFF’s demands, of a so-called “Spiritual Resiliency” video, which was in reality a seven-minute Christian proselytizing video, from the Air Force Reserve Facebook page.
A few days ago, MRFF received complaints from soldiers at Fort Drum in New York about the videos of two chaplains, posted on the official Facebook page of the 10th Mountain Division Sustainment Brigade, rather than on Fort Drum’s chapel page where they belong.
A few hours after a demand from MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein to Fort Drum’s commander, these videos were removed.
So everybody can see what these soldiers were complaining about, here is a description of the videos. Copies of the actual videos are at the end of this post.
While the Army has insisted over and over that “Spiritual Fitness” does not mean religion, Fort Drum Chaplain (CPT) Amy Smith, in two videos, says that two of the post’s “Spiritual Fitness” facilities, the “Spiritual Fitness Trail” and the “Fort Drum Labyrinth,” are for religious worship.
In a video posted on April 17, Chaplain Smith, repeatedly using the words “pray” and “God,” says that the so-called “Spiritual Fitness” trail “is designed to be used as a prayer walk;” that there are “nine different stations where you’re invited to pray;” that it is a place to “connect with God” that “helps us to get in tune with him.”
In a video posted on April 8, Chaplain Smith compares walking the Fort Drum Labyrinth to “our walk with God” and “asking God, where are you, where are you in the midst of this COVID-19?;” that when you get to the center, “you can hear God’s voice, and you can hear him and you can sense him;” that the labyrinth “is designed to get me closer and connect with God,” and be “in line with God, in direction with him;” that “it’s a tool to use to exercise our faith, to trust God in the midst of all this chaos.”
Not only should these proselytizing videos not be posted on anything other than a chapel page, they clearly say to non-religious soldiers that these spiritual fitness tools are not for you.
The other Chaplain videos complained about are two videos by Chaplain Ingram, which are nothing short of Christian sermons.
In a video posted on March 25, Chaplain Ingram, quoting a New Testament Bible verse, criticized those who do not believe in the Bible by saying, “When we think of biblical faith, many think it is some kind of magical thinking or not rooted in reality, but I assure you it is not.” Chaplain Ingram proceeds to repeatedly say “our faith,” as if everyone of faith is presumed to be of his faith. He goes on to say that “Our hope, like our faith, has God as its object,” and “this is why reading, meditating on, and living out God’s word — the Bible — is so important.
In Chaplain Ingram’s second video, posted on April 2, he says, after quoting a Bible verse, that “God encourages us not to be dismayed;” that “we can place our trust in him;” and that “together we can walk forward in supernatural strength.”
After the successful outcome of the command’s removal of these videos, Mikey Weinstein said:
“On behalf of MRFF’s 8 active duty Army client complainants in the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York, half of whom are practicing Christians, we at MRFF want to thank the Army’s senior leadership for so expeditiously pulling those illicit proselytizing videos off of the official command Facebook page of the 10th Mountain Division Sustainment Brigade. (Especially the one where a Christian Army chaplain exhorts soldiers to query God as to where God is during this COVID-19 pandemic)
“I personally spoke on the phone this morning to the senior leadership staff of Major General Brian Mennes, the 10th’s Commanding General, as well as subordinate senior staff of Colonel Matt Bresko, the Commander of the10th Mountain Division Sustainment Brigade. These senior Fort Drum staffers were professional and courteous and seemed to understand well the position of MRFF in advocating for our active duty Army clients under their command.
“MRFF is pleased, but also NOT so pleased.
“Yes, the Army has swiftly removed these unconstitutional religious videos at Fort Drum pursuant to MRFF’s demands for our soldier clients (as well as under the same circumstances at U.S. Army Garrison Fort Hamilton, New York just 11 days ago on April 9, 2020). Nevertheless, MRFF and its military clients would greatly prefer that the Army would have taken this action sua sponte (‘ON ITS OWN’) without having to cause MRFF to make these obviously valid demands to ensure church-state separation in the first place on behalf of aggrieved Army personnel who justly fear reprisal, retribution, revenge and retaliation for taking their grievances up the chain of command."