On June 20, MRFF sent the following letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. A link to the video of the twenty minutes of the special in question can be found in this letter.

June 20, 2008

Hon. Dr. Robert M. Gates
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000

Secretary Gates,

It has come to the attention of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) that a television special in which members of the U.S. armed forces violate a number of military regulations, as well as the U.S. Code, is scheduled to air on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) on July 4 and 5, 2008.

The special, Carman's "Red, White, and Blue Spectacular," originally produced in 2003, and re-aired on TBN in 2005, is a two-hour Christian concert, featuring pre-taped interview segments and footage of uniformed, active duty military personnel, as well as the participation of uniformed military personnel in the concert itself.

MRFF considers roughly twenty minutes of this two-hour special to be in violation of military regulations, the U.S. Code, and the U.S. Constitution, and urges the Department of Defense to review this footage and take appropriate action. The footage can be viewed at http://militaryreligiousfreedom.org/media_video/carman/index.html .

The twenty minutes in question consist of the following:

1. The opening number of the concert, "People of God." During the performance of this song, a military color guard, comprised of two American flags, along with the flags of the various branches of the military carried by members of their respective branches, enters via the aisles and proceeds to the stage, one American flag and two branch flags on each side. Both American flags are then dipped towards the center of the stage, in violation of Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8, of the U.S. Code. The position of the flags, once on the stage, would also appear to violate Section 7 of this chapter, with one of the two American flags, for the sake of symmetry, being displayed to the left of the military branch flags.

2. The interview with LTG Robert L. Van Antwerp (a MG at the time of the filming). LTG Van Antwerp appears in uniform, introduced as the president of the Officers' Christian Fellowship (OCF). The interview was filmed at Fort Leonard Wood.

3. The tour of the Norfolk Naval Base. This was filmed specifically for the special, and includes interviews by Carman of Navy personnel, all in uniform and identified by name and rank.

4. The interview with Col. Ralph Benson. Col. Benson appears in uniform, identified as the Pentagon Chaplain. The interview was filmed at the Pentagon.

5. Footage of soldiers in training at Fort Leonard Wood. This footage was filmed specifically for the special, with the knowledge and permission of LTG Van Antwerp, who was Commander of the U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center and Fort Leonard Wood at the time of the filming.

6. Footage of the U.S. Coast Guard rifle drill team. This footage, filmed on a U.S. military installation, was supplied to the producers of the Carman special by an unnamed "friend." The original purpose of this footage, or permission granted to film it, is not known. Although this segment was not filmed specifically for the Carman special, it differs from the stock footage used in other parts of the special, both in length and context. The perfect timing and coordination of the drill team's movements with the Carman song they accompany would give the appearance to any reasonable observer that this was filmed for the special, and that the drill was choreographed to accompany this music.

7. Throughout the special, including the segments listed above, www.carman.org, the website of Carman Ministries, periodically appears on the screen, giving the appearance of an endorsement of this ministry by the U.S. military. Also appearing on the screen from time to time is a TBN phone number, which along with the involvement in, and airing of, the special gives the appearance of a government endorsement of TBN.

It is the opinion of MRFF that the above described segments are in violation of the same military regulations determined by the Department of Defense Inspector General to have been violated by the U.S. military officers who appeared in the 2004 Campus Crusade for Christ Christian Embassy promotional video, i.e., JER Section 2635.702(b), "Appearance of governmental sanction"; JER Section 3-300.a. on personal participation in non-federal entities; DoD Directive (DoDD) 1334.1, "Wearing of the Uniform"; Army Regulation (AR) 670-1, "Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia." (See July 20, 2007 DoD Inspector General's report, "Alleged Misconduct by DoD Officials Concerning Christian Embassy.")

MRFF requests that the Department of Defense take swift action to halt the July 4 and 5, 2008 airing of the Carman "Red, White, and Blue Spectacular" on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and that any future distribution by Carman Ministries of this special on DVD be prohibited.

Additionally, MRFF demands, as it did in December 2006 regarding the Christian Embassy video, that the DoD Inspector General immediately initiate an investigation into the blatant violations of military regulations, the U.S. Code, and the U.S. Constitution perpetrated by all military personnel who appeared in, or participated in the production of, the Carman "Red, White and Blue Spectacular."

Sincerely,

Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein
President
Military Religious Freedom Foundation

(Note: A second letter was sent on June 23, correcting a minor error in this June 20 letter. The drill team referred to in item number six is an Air Force drill team, not a Coast Guard drill team. The letter correcting this can be found in my original post.)

In response to the letter, MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein got a call the other day from David McWilliams, a former Army colonel who now works for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. McWilliams told Weinstein that MRFF should have let the DoD know about the re-airing of this special back in April, something that would have been impossible considering that TBN's broadcast schedule for July was not available back in April. This excuse for not taking action, of course, can only be used to wriggle out of the part of MRFF's letter requesting that the DoD take some action to try to halt the broadcast of the special this weekend. McWilliams did not address the other, and far more important, part of the letter -- the demand that an immediate investigation be initiated into the military personnel who appeared in this Christian extravaganza and/or participated in its production. This was not a request, but a demand, and MRFF is still demanding this investigation.

David McWilliams was not the only person to focus on the request to stop the re-airing of the special, and dodge the separate matter of the demand for an investigation by the DoD. I've seen a number of similar responses around the web since writing my first piece about this, and, as MRFF's Senior Research Director, would like to respond to one of these responses.

One diversionary tactic used by a few MRFF critics has been to assert that by requesting that the DoD take "appropriate action" to halt the re-airing of the special, MRFF and its lawyers don't understand the limits of what the DoD can do regarding a private entity's airing and distribution of a video. In keeping with what can only be described as an obsession with Mikey Weinstein, this and several other aspects of MRFF's letter were spun and misrepresented on Air Force Captain Jonathan C. Dowty's "God and Country" blog. Dowty is the author of the book Christian Fighter Pilot is not an oxymoron, and his "God and Country" blog, described as a "ministry of ChristianFighterPilot.com," contains more inaccurate information about Weinstein and MRFF than just about any other source. According to the "God and Country" blog post, "MRFF has asked the Defense Department to 'halt' the broadcast and 'prohibit' future DVD sales of the video. It is unclear what legal justification the MRFF would suggest the military use to assert control over civilian broadcasters and private media."

MRFF did not imply that any legal action could be taken against TBN or Carman Ministries, but asked that the DoD take "appropriate action" to halt the further airing and distribution of the video. By appropriate action, MRFF meant that the DoD should make some attempt to stop any further use of this special. The appropriate action envisioned by MRFF would have been for the DoD to inform TBN of the impropriety and illegality of the military's participation in the video, and request that, in light of these issues, they stop airing and prevent any further distribution of it. Whether or not TBN chose to honor such a request would, of course, be their decision. This is why MRFF called this a "request," as opposed to the "demand" for an investigation, which is something that the DoD not only has a legal justification, but an obligation, to initiate.

Capt. Dowty also raises the issue of when the Carman special was filmed: "Weinstein, who calls this a 'repeat' of the 'putrescent disgrace' of the Christian Embassy filming..., appears to have forgotten that this film was actually made prior."

No, MRFF hasn't "forgotten" that the Carman special was filmed prior to the investigation of the Christian Embassy promotional video. The complaint is that the Carman special is being re-aired -- now -- and that it wouldn't exist in the first place if not for the military officers who violated regulations in allowing it to be filmed. This makes it an ongoing problem that those responsible must be held accountable for. In addition to this, the appearance of Lt. Gen. Van Antwerp in the Carman special is not an isolated incident for this officer. In fact, it was the appearance of a photo of Van Antwerp in uniform in an ad for an event in April of this year, run by the Young Business Leaders, a Christian organization in Alabama, that prompted us to look at both his current and prior involvement in religious events. This led us to a number of past events, including an appearance in uniform as a speaker at a Billy Graham Crusade, broadcast to hundreds of thousands of service members on the Armed Forces Network, and, of course, the Carman special.

Referring to the DoD Inspector General's Christian Embassy investigation, Capt. Dowty writes: "In that report, the investigators specifically stated that religion was not germane. The officers were investigated only for their potential endorsement of a non-federal entity."

No, Capt. Dowty, the officers weren't merely "investigated" for a "potential" endorsement. They were found guilty of violating a number of regulations for their endorsement. These regulations are listed in MRFF's letter to Secretary Gates, and, it is because the DoD decided to make the endorsement of a non-federal entity, rather than the endorsement of a religion, the issue in the Christian Embassy investigation, that MRFF is alleging the same violations in the Carman special. The DoD made it a non-federal entity issue last time, so we just used their violations of choice this time.

According to the AP report on MRFF's letter to Secretary Gates, a woman who answered the phone at TBN said she was unaware of any complaints about the Carman special when it was previously aired. Well, this is because MRFF, which was founded in December 2005, didn't exist when the special aired in 2003 and 2005.

I was actually already familiar with the special when I began working for MRFF, having seen it in 2005, at a time when I often watched TBN and found it quite inspirational. I was working very long hours on my book about Christian nationalist historical revisionism at the time, and would turn on TBN whenever I was tired and didn't feel like writing. Without fail, a few minutes of watching TBN would provide me with plenty of inspiration to keep writing, no matter how tired I was. I remember being particularly inspired by the Carman special, which, in addition to its military segments, contains plenty of revisionist history, some of it even put to music.

According to Capt. Dowty's blog post, which completely ignores the other issues in MRFF's letter, like the dipping of the American flag to a Christian pop star, "The primary complaint was an interview with then-Major General Van Antwerp, who was also then-President of the Officers' Christian Fellowship."

Gee, could the good captain be trying to imply to his readers that "then-Major General Van Antwerp" might be retired, and, therefore this whole thing should be a non-issue? Well, just so everyone knows, the "then-Major General" is now-Lieutenant General Van Antwerp, promoted last year and appointed Commanding General of the Army Corps of Engineers, and is in no way some obsolete, retired officer whose violations of military regulations should be ignored by the DoD.

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