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Facebook removes videos of military chaplains referring to God

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Facebook has removed four videos of military chaplains encouraging prayer and referring to God during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fox News reported on Thursday. The posts were taken down after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRRF) complained the videos constituted “illicit proselytizing” of Christianity.

The videos involved Captain Amy Smith and Maj. Scott Ingram and were posted on the Facebook page of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division Sustainment Brigade at Fort Drum. In one video posted on April 17, Smith said: “You are invited to pray, to pray for the family, to pray for the sick, and to pray for our leaders.”

 In another video posted on April 2, Ingram referred to the coronavirus pandemic and said: “God encourages us not to be dismayed by what we see around us, things we cannot control. We can, however, with the best intel in this moment, place our trust in him, walk forward in his strength, and treat others with kindness.”

MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein demanded that Facebook take down the videos, saying they were in breach of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, Fox News reports. Weinstein told the Christian Post the MRFF had “to make these obviously valid demands to ensure church-state separation.” MRFF senior research director Chris Rodda Daily Kos also spoke out, writing in the Daily Kos that: “These videos belong only on a chapel page, not on a base’s or unit’s main page.”

Responding to the incident, Mike Berry of the First Liberty Institute told Fox News:  “America has the strongest military in history, but our brave service members are not immune to the havoc COVID-19 has wreaked.”