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Posted on 02/09/2009 8:14:15 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
RAF MILDENHALL, England — An Air Force colonel is being criticized for improperly referring airmen under her command to a far-right religious Web site.
Col. Kimberly K. Toney sent a e-mail Jan. 16 to the 501st Combat Support Wing inviting airmen to enjoy a linked video highlighting an inspirational individual on 4marks.com, a Roman Catholic Web site.
The video featured Nick Vujicic, a 25-year-old who was born without arms or legs. According to the video’s introduction, Vujicic finds his "greatest joy in this life is to introduce Jesus to those he meets and tell them of his (Jesus’) great desire to get to know them personally by allowing him to become their Lord and Savior."
Air Force Master Sgt. Jeffrey L. Thompson, a member of the 501st, sent a letter to Toney that complained she had inappropriately advanced her faith in an official capacity.
"My own impression of your e-mail was an organizational endorsement of Christian faith, because the e-mail, article and video compelled us to witness an exercise in religious-specific faith that I felt was in conflict with DOD neutrality on religion," Thompson said in his letter.
Thompson, who says in the letter that he is a Roman Catholic, had no further comment Monday.
No formal complaint had been lodged in connection to Toney’s e-mail as of Monday, U.S. Air Forces in Europe spokesman Senior Master Sgt. Stefan Alford said. Thompson states in his letter to Toney that he intends to file an official complaint.
"He has yet to fill out the required paperwork and start the complaint process," Alford said. "Right now there’s no complaint, no investigation."
Alford said Toney first received the video through a colleague.
In the Feb. 2 letter to Toney, Thompson contended in his letter that the e-mail violated Air Force regulations regarding religious proselytizing. He also said the Web site 4marks.com "explicitly promotes an atmosphere that is hostile to our commander-in-chief, which is potentially detrimental to the good order and discipline of our unit."
One posting on the Web site features President Barack Obama in a Nazi uniform with a Hitler-style moustache, while other content claims Obama "wants to murder babies that have survived abortion."
"As a commander you wield a tremendous amount of power," Thompson stated in his letter. "What you say, write, or send out sets our direction and instructs us how to get there."
Toney declined to comment and instead said she would release a statement.
In that statement she apologized for the e-mail and said she did not realize the Web site and links contained "inappropriate" content.
"I sincerely apologize for this oversight, especially to those individuals who may have been offended, and want to ensure all are aware that my intent was solely to provide a tool that might offer beneficial insight toward overcoming adversity," she said in the statement sent to all members of the 501st.
Toney has commanded the 501st and its approximately 3,000 military personnel distributed across eight bases in the U.K. and Norway since 2007.
In his letter to Toney, Thompson also wrote that he had contacted the Military Equal Opportunity office about filing a complaint. He also says that the airman with whom he spoke at the office divulged his identity to Toney — a violation of numerous Air Force regulations.
The MEO office worker did not return repeated requests for comment.
"[The worker] informed me that he has told you my identity regarding this issue," Thompson wrote to Toney. "I appreciate that his intentions were good, but approaching the wing commander on what I perceived as a foul has made me very nervous.
"No one wants to be on the wrong side [of] their wing commander," Thompson said in the letter.
Others also saw Toney’s e-mail as an inappropriate mingling of religious beliefs and official military duty. Military Religious Freedom Foundation head Mikey Weinstein said his organization heard from "in excess" of 60 people regarding the e-mail. Weinstein released the correspondence to Stars and Stripes.
Thompson reached out to the foundation, based in Albuquerque, N.M., for help, Weinstein said.
The foundation claims more than 11,000 military "clients" have contacted the group when they felt their religious rights were being affected, said Weinstein, who is an Air Force Academy graduate, former military attorney and onetime member of President Ronald Reagan’s legal counsel, according to the foundation’s Web site.
If I was able to press suit against any idiot who sent me a forward with which I disagreed...
This, frankly, is horse manure. We have a First Amendment that guarantees us the right to practice religion as we see fit. I fail to see how inviting individuals to see a source of another man’s inspiration as activity worthy of censure.
It’s time to put an end to this nonsense. And something tells me this Thompson cat is a pretty third-rate Catholic.
He’s against abortion, therefore he’s a kook? I swear, the definition of “far right” gets more and more inclusive every day.
Roman Catholics are “Far Right” ?
Who Knew?
hahahahahahahahaha
Of course, this is not a joke. It is a prosecution of a Constitutionally guaranteed Freedom.
Good to see stupidity can also rise high in the AF ranks.
What a moron. Either that or amazing he made it to Master Sergeant with an axe to grind.
Every member of the military voluntarily relinquishes certain First Amendment rights.
Secondly, the wing commander sent out the email as the wing commander. There is no way around the fact that in her official position as a commander she was advocating a specific religious point of view. Huge foul.
She can practice her religion however she chooses, but while she is in the military, regardless of her rank, she cannot impose it on anyone, in any form. The fact that she is a colonel and a wing commander pulling this stunt is astounding and reflects poorly on the Air Force processes for selecting senior leaders.
The military has chaplains for very specific reasons, and this is one of them.
The spokesman's trite remark “no complaint, no investigation” is asinine. That means anything goes as long as nobody complains.
Finally, she demonstrated very poor judgment in sending the email. I would hope she is relieved for lack of confidence.
4mark.com is a "far-right religious Web site"? That's news to me!!
I hadn’t noticed its being “far-right,” but not much is, from where I sit.
“Secondly, the wing commander sent out the email as the wing commander. There is no way around the fact that in her official position as a commander she was advocating a specific religious point of view. Huge foul.”
Interpretations of the Constitution that forbid advocating a specific religious point of view are wrongly decided.
If a person were making the adoption of those views a condition of employment, or of preferential treatment, that would be a horse of a different color. That might approach the establishment of an official religion, which is what the constitution forbids.
However, telling someone where information may be found, to which he may or may not listen, at his own discretion, is no more an imposition than a map on a bookshelf. Sure, the map tells you how to get to Pink, Oklahoma, but it is not forcing you to go.
There is no constitutional prohibition on religious speech. No one has a right to be forever free from hearing—or overhearing—religious speech.
How in the hell do you equate sending an email with “imposing” a viewpoint on someone? Your comment is pure BS. Period.
That is far from asinine. I'm sure there are a variety of facts which haven't come to light yet - maybe she sent a variety of messages from differing faiths in the past, maybe the airmen had been sending various forwards around with similar stories of people overcoming adversity. If someone is breaking a rule, there is a set procedure to rectify that wrong - it begins with filing a complaint. You cannot find her guilty of an infraction without due process - THAT is a right not surrendered by members of our military.
That's precisely what the wing commander did, a fact that is obvious to anyone who has a clue about life in the armed forces.
It is an abuse of her position as a commander. Command influence is a critical element of the success of the military. It sets an environment.
When the wing commander advocates a specific religion, or even multiple religions, it is a misuse of position. Unfortunately the Air Force has a number of instances of this in the past few years.
Even chaplains are forbidden from proselytizing in the military.
Here's a thought experiment: suppose she had sent a similar email as a Muslim expressly supporting Islamic terrorists? These terrorists are absolutely convinced they are following their religion. I wonder what your reaction might be.
Finally, it is inherent in a commander's responsibility to investigate possible wrong-doing regardless of how he or she becomes aware of it. The spokeman’s remark on “no complaint so no investigation” was and still is asinine.
How many minor gripes are scuttlebutt in a given command? Should the commander investigate them all? Or should he spend his time investigating the ones which are seemingly so egregious that they warranted a formal complaint?
I agree it seems that way. But for all we know, the spokesman was caught unaware and it may be the first they’ve heard of it. I don’t want to throw them under the bus if this Master Sgt. or this Weinstein guy thought it made more sense to go to the press before things got started internally.
I can also see Weinstein’s point of view. We overlapped at the Zoo for a couple of years. There is a pervasive born again Christian culture at the Zoo then and now, and also in the Air Force.
He's Jewish and I think justifiably takes umbrage with a lot of the “if you ain't born again you ain't s***” attitudes.
Very disturbing, if true. Please post evidence, links?
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