Guest post by Lawrence Wilkerson (Colonel, U.S. Army - retired), Member of the Advisory Board of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell
Reprinted from LA Progressive
Recently, I sent this email to the Pentagon:
Under Secretary Donovan,
I understand that a meeting is scheduled for Thursday on the Hill at which there will be representatives from all the military services and some of the MOC, including Rep Doug Collins and Rep Doug Lamborn, who have raised their concerns about the DOD's recent actions to uphold the U.S. Constitution with regard to separation of church and state. I also understand that the MOC will cite the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) as a source of their concerns with regard to those who have influenced, in their view, the DOD to uphold the U.S. Constitution.
As an advisory member of the board of the MRFF – one who assumed the position when advisory board member and former USN SEAL Glen Doherty was killed in Benghazi in 2012 – I have become fully conversant with the Foundation's important mission to assist in keeping the military in synch with the Constitution with regard to religion. As such, I understand how important it is for the MRFF to be present when those who would have the military act otherwise than in concert with the Constitution put forth their views in official channels.
Consequently, I respectfully request that I be permitted to attend the meeting planned for this Thursday.
Upon your approval, I request that the meeting details be sent to me by Ms Warner or her staff, to include requirements mandated by DOD and the Congress given the present COVID-19 pandemic.
Lawrence B. Wilkerson
Colonel, USA (Retired)
Advisory Board Member
Military Religious Freedom Foundation
I included my cell phone number so that Under Secretary Donovan's Director of Operations and official scheduler, Jill Warner, copied on my email, could pick up the phone and almost instantly respond, in the negative or affirmative. Or one of her staff could do so. Not an arduous action for them, to be sure, nor time-consuming. A terse email response would have worked too.
But I heard nothing.
In fact, through other channels I learned – too late for corrective action – that the meeting in question was called by and to be hosted by the members of Congress who had recently complained to the DOD; the two specific Congressmen I heard about were Doug Lamborn (R-CO) and Doug Collins (R-GA), as mentioned in my email to Undersecretary Donovan. DOD was not responsible for the meeting, just for attending.
I must assume the meeting took place today (Thursday, 23 July). I'm not absolutely sure it did because I was not there. Whether or not I would have been there had I directed my email not to DOD but to the specific Congressmen, Lamborn and Collins, is hard to say except that I don't believe either man would have welcomed me. Why?
Simply because these Congressmen's position is not simply untenable with regard to the Constitution, it reflects an almost laughable – but dangerous nonetheless – political position, one I would have exposed "in their midst,” so to speak. That position in its essence is this: military chaplains have the right, indeed the responsibility, to use their position in the military to recruit disciples for their particular brand of religion, which in this case is a very narrowly-based fundamentalist approach to Christianity.
Sane and sober people would laugh, as I said. But these members of Congress, by their very own arguments, are not sane and sober; instead, they are advocates for a militarized Christianity which sees members of the military as vulnerable, easy-to-convince, much-needed "warriors for Jesus.”. All that's necessary, therefore, is to deliver them the "word,” and that is the task of military chaplains. Indeed, it is their primary task, and as such any interference with the execution of that task – interference such as the MRFF registers almost daily – should be strictly and forthwith forbidden by DOD.
Since I was a member of the US Army for 31 years and thus am still a very sincere advocate of its continued good order and discipline, as well as Constitutional propriety, I do sincerely wish I had been at the meeting that, for me, never was.