MRFF picked the wrong Marine to mess with. Update to this story.
A “God bless the military” sign is staying up at the Marine base in Kaneohe, despite cries from a religious freedom group that the message is unconstitutional.
Col. Sean C. Killeen, commander of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, announced his decision Friday in a letter to the group, Military Religious Freedom Foundation.
“This sign will remain in its present location and not be altered in any way,” Killeen said in the letter. He explained that “God bless” is commonly used in Western culture and that there are numerous references to God in the country’s symbols, songs, mottos and oaths. “This sign has the secular purpose of conveying a message of support, does not advance or inhibit religion or any particular faith, nor does it foster excessive government entanglement with religion.”
He added that the sign was erected after Sept. 11, 2001, to support service members who were deploying in response to the attacks and has served as “a secular symbol of general support and encouragement” for more than a decade.
The sign under fire is located at the intersection of E and 2nd streets and says in full: “God bless the military, their families, and the civilians who work with them.”
MRFF claims the message shows a preference for those who hold religious beliefs over those who do not.
MRFF, a mainland nonprofit with a mission of protecting the religious freedom of service members, boasts numerous achievements, including pressuring the U.S. Air Force to drop the requirement that enlistees say “so help me god” in their enlistment oath and compelling a Marine fighter attack squadron to change its name from “Crusaders” to “Werewolves.”
Killeen’s letter was in response to a Sept. 24 letter from MRFF that called the sign a “brazen violation” of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits government from promoting one religion over another, and asked for it to be moved to the chapel grounds or eliminated.[…]
Killeen said his legal team conducted “exhaustive research on the issue” and found several federal cases, including from the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, that support the conclusion that the sign is not a violation of the Establishment Clause.
He added that the base command has not received any complaints from service members concerning the sign.
“We will always support all service members’ rights to pursue and practice their own belief sets, whether religious or not,” he said.
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