DOD should not allow promotion of religion on branded dog tags
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The headline immediately caught my eye: “ Anti-religion group seeks to deny troops inspirational dog tags .” It’s a shocking claim and seemed unbelievable — open religiosity was one of the components of military life I found most surprising when I joined, and it’s hard to imagine any organization trying to deny troops something as innocuous as dog tags with inspirational sayings on them.
A careful read validated my suspicion: It is not the case that a nonprofit has been denied the ability to donate innocuous dog tags with inspirational sayings to individual service members by a supportive nonprofit.
Rather, the Marine Corps — which is notoriously protective of its brand — denied a license for the private business Shields of Strength to produce and sell dog tags with both verses from the Bible and Marine Corps trademarks on them.
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Dog tags with Air Force and Army symbols and religious verses are still for sale. Additionally, while coverage for this decision has blamed the Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s complaint , the letter from Shields of Strength’s counsel to the Marine Corps Trademark Licensing Office includes a 2011 quote from the Marine Corps that they did “not feel comfortable licensing religious materials” and another from 2017 referencing a DOD policy prohibiting DOD licenses “for any purpose intended to promote … religious beliefs.”
The only surprise is that multiple services appear to have violated that policy by issuing Shields of Strength such licenses, which do risk “creating a perception of DOD endorsement.” Setting aside Constitutional issues, both national trends and recent events support DOD’s policy.
A rapidly-shrinking share of adults identify as Christians; at the same time the percent who identify as religiously unaffiliated is climbing dramatically and there has been slow but steady growth in the number of those who identify as holding non-Christian faiths. The Army, which missed its recruiting goal in 2018, is seeking to expand recruiting outside its traditional stronghold in the South — home of the highest percent of Evangelical Protestants — and into regions where potential recruits are more religiously diverse. During this era of rapidly-changing demographics and recruiting challenges, licensing military trademarks to those seeking to promote their own Christian religious beliefs does not align with the DOD community relations objectives its branding and licensing policy references.
The problem extends beyond recruiting to issues with how well the military supports non-Christians within the ranks.
The Marine Corps drill instructor sentenced to 10 years in prison for tormenting recruits particularly targeted Muslims. Serious concerns have been raised about Evangelicalism and proselytizing in the Air Force . Atheists regularly report uncomfortable , frustrating experiences while serving, alongside outright discrimination . Licensing the use of a service branch’s symbol on replica dog tags along with Christian bible verses does nothing to dispel the perception among troops that this type of intolerance is tacitly allowed — if not outright encouraged.
Larry,
I am a little confused by this. I remember when my dad was in the Navy, they used to put your faith on your dog tag, so if you needed a pastor, they knew what to say to you. Has that changed?
Perrie, from the article (and the quote used above)...
Troops are allowed to wear and carry religious items. Official military-issued dog tags are stamped with the religious affiliation of their choice. No one is denying service members the right to wear a or carry a symbol of their faith
Sorry Larry, I seemed to have missed that part. So this is a much to do about nothing.
I agree.
The Marine Corps is staunchly protective of our symbol in all things. That's nothing new. But the Marine Corps has little to say about personal religious items being worn that DON"T try including the Eagle Globe and Anchor. As long as it doesn't use the EGA or affect the uniform of the day its fine.
Such as the Saint Christopher's pendants many of us worn under our uniforms for our entire tours.
No problem at all.
Yup, That's the point of the article, as described in the link it provides right at the beginning.
Anti-religion group seeks to deny troops inspirational dog tags
Claiming that the Marine Corp and other branches of the US military are being manipulated by anti-religion groups is a flat out lie.
When I joined the Marines, they asked what my religion was - I asked why - they said they needed the info in the event something happened to me that they would know which denomination needed to be notified. I said I was Native American and my "religion" was "spiritual" and they said that wouldn't fly. So, since Dad was Catholic - that's what I told them - wound up on my tags and in my SRB.
Wow 1st, that is crazy. I would hope that now days they have all sorts of religions available for use on dog tags.
Yep, back then they pretty much just accepted Abrahamic religions. There was even an uproar when the military started bringing in "pastors" of different religions, as I recall.
That's a shame.
Hopefully that is changed today.
As far as Chaplains go, the standards are now Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist, with plans for a Hindu Chaplain.
Currently the head Chaplain ( a "protestant" at Bethesda Naval Hospital ) is the honorary Hindu Chaplain.
National cemeteries now include 75 religious symbols
As far as dog tags, it's hard to separate the BS from the myths. Yes there are official looking dog tags out there with
a variety of things like "Jedi" on them, but certainly not what was originally issued. Replacements for active duty are free
but there are a dozen online places where you can buy them with whatever you want on them.
Whether they pass muster in a combat zone is an altogether different "issue".
I can tell you this much.
Unless the Marine Corps has change a lot more than i think it has, there ain't no way anything is being printed on issue dog tags that isn't regulation. I'm looking at mine right now: Name, blood type, SS #, Branch (USMC), Gas mask size and religion. God help the Recruit or Candidate that tries to slip something non regulation past their DI's. Active duty wise i could've cared less what was around peoples necks as long as it didn't resemble a Mr T starter kit: