The MRFF is disregarding the message of the display.
A nonprofit group dedicated to safeguarding servicemembers’ constitutional right to religious freedom has lodged a formal complaint with the Navy after a Bible was spotted in a POW/MIA “Missing Man” table display at U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa.
The complaint was filed Thursday by the New York-based Law Office of Donald Rehkopf Jr. on behalf of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and 26 families on Okinawa.
The complaint — addressed to Navy Medicine West commander Rear Adm. Paul Pearigen — demands the immediate removal of the Bible from the hospital galley display, the immediate removal of accompanying written materials that describe the United States as being “founded as one nation under God,” a Japanese translation of these materials and an independent investigation into who put up the display, as well as “appropriate disciplinary measures” for those responsible.
The complainants include sailors, Marines and Department of Defense civilian employees stationed on the island, MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein said Friday.[…]
The fight to remove religious articles from POW/MIA “Missing Man” tables is not new for MRFF. The group has been successful in several other cases, the latest in November when it forced the Denver VA Medical Center to remove religious items from a display.
MRFF has also successfully argued against religious proselytizing during official military functions and forced the removal of religious historical and holiday displays from common areas on military posts.