Written by Don Byrd
May 1 is the National Day of Prayer, and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is shedding light on a church-state concern regarding: the involvement of uniformed military personnel at a major Prayer Day event run by a Christian organization. A letter last week to the Pentagon details those concerns:
The planned participation by uniformed U.S. military personnel in this private fundamentalist Christian religious event, run by a non-federal entity, is an unequivocally clear violation of the plethora of DoD regulations and instructions listed below. So, too, is the very public appearance of an active duty U.S. Army chaplain, should he appear as anticipated at this private religious event wearing his U.S. Army uniform, as other U.S. armed forces chaplains have sadly done at past NDP Task Force events.
An Appeals Court upheld the National Day of Prayer as constitutional in 2011, overturning a lower court’s decision to the contrary the previous year.
You can read general National Day of Prayer concerns of the BJC’s Brent Walker here.
