Why Atheists Are So Angry at Military Chaplains

Mikey Weinstein’s group, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), is at it again. This time MRFF has attacked a chaplain stationed at Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson in Alaska for having the temerity to write an article on a base website page called “Chaplain’s Corner” that included the expression “No Atheists in Foxholes” in its title.

MRFF claims the use of such a phrase denigrates persons of no faith, that the phrase constitutes “bigoted, religious supremacist” language, that the chaplain used the hurtful phrase on purpose to “defile the dignity of service members” of no faith, that his comments are an “anti-secular diatribe,” and that the base commander should remove the article and punish the chaplain and all others who knowingly allowed the article to be published.

Unfortunately, the base commander quickly removed the article and profusely apologized. He was wrong to do so. Despite the MRFF rantings, the chaplain committed no violation of the U.S. Constitution, federal law or military regulations by what he did. It was the commander at the base and his staff who actually wronged the chaplain by buying into the MRFF’s skewed view of what the Constitution and military regulations require. The commander was wrong.

The American Center for Law and Justice sent a letter to the base commander (with copies to both the secretary of defense and the secretary of the Air Force) explaining what the law actually says and means and how MRFF got it wrong (once again).

Robert W. “Skip” Ash is the American Center for Law and Justice’s senior litigation counsel for national security law.