Faith-Based Shields of Strength Attacked by Atheist Group
Dec 5, 2019
Mikey Weinstein from the atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation has found a new pet project: Banning Bible verses on military service members’ dog tags.
Why this project and why now? Back in July, FOX News did a news story featuring faith-based company Shields of Strength, which has been putting Bible verses on military dog tags for 20 years. An outraged Weinstein then contacted the Department of Defense demanding that the military branches stop allowing Shields of Strength to use the military emblem.
Soon after, each military branch either pulled or threatened to pull the trademark licenses that had been issued to business owner Kenny Vaughan, who has produced more than 4 million dog tags with Scripture on them.
Then in August, Army Trademark Licensing Program Director Paul Jensen wrote to Vaughan, “You are not authorized to put biblical verses on your Army products. For example, Joshua 1:9. Please remove ALL biblical references from all of your Army products.”
On behalf of Vaughan, First Liberty Institute sent a demand letter to the Army earlier this week calling for a reinstatement of the trademark license. Mike Berry, chief of staff and director of military affairs for First Liberty, wrote in the letter to Jensen, “Your directive that SoS remove all Biblical references from its Army-licensed products is unconstitutional and violates RFRA.”
Shields of Strength has donated hundreds of thousands of dog tags to Department of Defense units and individual service members.
“The most valuable thing I have to offer is God's word,” said Vaughan. “I've seen it change lives forever, and there's nobody I want to help more than our United States military because they stand in the gap for us.”
Army says faith-based group can no longer put Bible verses on dog tags after complaint
FOX News
NOTE: FACT provides links to external websites for educational purposes only. The inclusion of any links to other websites does not necessarily constitute an endorsement.
Why this project and why now? Back in July, FOX News did a news story featuring faith-based company Shields of Strength, which has been putting Bible verses on military dog tags for 20 years. An outraged Weinstein then contacted the Department of Defense demanding that the military branches stop allowing Shields of Strength to use the military emblem.
Soon after, each military branch either pulled or threatened to pull the trademark licenses that had been issued to business owner Kenny Vaughan, who has produced more than 4 million dog tags with Scripture on them.
Then in August, Army Trademark Licensing Program Director Paul Jensen wrote to Vaughan, “You are not authorized to put biblical verses on your Army products. For example, Joshua 1:9. Please remove ALL biblical references from all of your Army products.”
On behalf of Vaughan, First Liberty Institute sent a demand letter to the Army earlier this week calling for a reinstatement of the trademark license. Mike Berry, chief of staff and director of military affairs for First Liberty, wrote in the letter to Jensen, “Your directive that SoS remove all Biblical references from its Army-licensed products is unconstitutional and violates RFRA.”
Shields of Strength has donated hundreds of thousands of dog tags to Department of Defense units and individual service members.
“The most valuable thing I have to offer is God's word,” said Vaughan. “I've seen it change lives forever, and there's nobody I want to help more than our United States military because they stand in the gap for us.”
News Source
Army says faith-based group can no longer put Bible verses on dog tags after complaintFOX News
NOTE: FACT provides links to external websites for educational purposes only. The inclusion of any links to other websites does not necessarily constitute an endorsement.
