TheScroogeReport

Reaction to flag-folding recitation ban comes strong and swift 

The flag-folding recitation ban issued by the National Cemetery Administration to halt the ceremony in the state’s 125 national cemeteries has raised some strong reaction by U.S. war veterans and other groups.

This morning, I’m asking what is the proper response to yet another attempt to extract the mention of God in public?

I’ve come to the conclusion that this is about more than the separation of church and state. It’s about the desire to distance oneself from anything remotely associated with God. It is a spiritual battle between belief and non-belief within ourselves…individually and socially.

So what is the proper response to a threat to your belief in Jesus?

Perhaps the answer is to simply pray and act accordingly.

Here’s two actions right here:

American Legion
Charlie Waters, parliamentarian for the American Legion of California, said he’s advising memorial honor details to ignore the edict.

“This is nuts,” Waters told the Press-Enterprise by telephone from Fresno. “There are 26 million veterans in this country and they’re not going to take us all to prison.”

American Family Association
Sign the petition to President Bush asking him to rescind the action to ban the recitation now in use. It will immediately go to the White House.

Please forward this to your friends and family and urge them to sign the petition.

Petition link: Email form to President Bush

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Related: American Legion To Defy “Meaning of Each Fold” Ban

Church and State

California American Legion has drawn a line in the sand in regards to a recent ban on reciting the meaning of the 13 folds during veterans’ funerals.

The group is calling on the Department of Veterans Affairs to reconsider the ban that effectively removes “God” from honor guard flag folding ceremonies at veterans’ funerals, as reported in WorldNetDaily.

As first reported in Riverside’s Press-Enterprise, a single complaint lodged against the words for the 11th fold during flag-folding recitations recently prompted the National Cemetery Administration to ban the entire recital at all 125 national cemeteries

The 11th fold celebrates Jewish war veterans and “glorifies the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

Several legion leaders say the ban might as well be rescinded, because it will be ignored anyway.

This from WorldNetDaily:

A memo from Steve Muro, director of the Veterans Affairs’ office of field programs, bans use of a recitation about the meaning of the 13 folds of the flag, which produce the famous star-covered triangle. The recitation references God several times.

“Effective immediately all national cemeteries are to refrain from distributing any handouts on ‘The Meaning of Each Fold of an Honor Guard Funeral Flag,’ remove any postings from all cemetery buildings and discontinue our VA-Sponsored Volunteer Honor Guards from using the handout as a script at a committal service during the folding of the flag,” the directive said.

Outrageous ban

“We in the California American Legion have called on the VA to reconsider and rescind its outrageous ban and allow the families of the deceased veterans to determine what will or will not be included in the military funeral service,” said Rees Lloyd, director of the Defense of Veterans Memorials Project for the American Legion Department of California.

“Our American Legion Riverside Post 79 MHD Team 12 has also stated we will defy the ban and follow the wishes of the families,” he said. “Such issues should be decided by the veterans’ families, not by bureaucrats and lawyers in Washington, D.C., covering their own behinds in [fear] of lawsuits by the ACLU and others of its ilk on behalf of disgruntled atheists, agnostics, liberal secular-cleansing fanatics, or Islamist jihadists who are offended by references to God.

“We will defy them and the VA itself and conduct the military services as the families dictate, not as government bureaucrats and bureaucratic lawyers dictate,” he said.

The folds, they say, represent:

1. Symbol of life

2, Symbol of our belief in eternal life

3. In honor and remembrance of the veteran departing our ranks who gave a portion of his life for the defense of our country to attain a peace throughout the world

4. Our weaker nature, for as American citizens trusting in God, it is to Him we turn in times of peace as well as in times of war for His divine guidance

5. A tribute to our country, for in the words of Stephen Decatur, ‘Our country, in dealing with other countries, may she always be right; but it is still our country, right or wrong’

6. Where our hearts lie. It is with our heart that we pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

7. A tribute to our armed forces.

8. A tribute to the one who entered into the valley of the shadow of death, that we might see the light of day, and to honor mother, for whom it flies on Mother’s Day.

9. A tribute to womanhood

10. A tribute to father

11. In the eyes of a Hebrew citizen, represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon, and glorifies, in their eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

12. In the eyes of a Christian citizen, represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies, in their eyes, God the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost.

13. When the flag is completely folded, the stars are uppermost, reminding us of our national motto, ‘In God We Trust’”

It was No. 11 that caused the problem, according to Muro’s memo.

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Related: Flag-folding Recitation Banned at Veterans Cemeteries Nationwide

Update: Legion leader: ‘There are 26 million veterans…they’re not going to take us all to prison’