The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group led by retired Air Force lawyer “Mikey” Weinstein has asked the Defence Department to investigate whether seven Army and Air Force officers violated regulations by appearing in uniform in a video for Christian Embassy – an evangelical Christian organisation.
In the video, filmed inside the Pentagon, four generals and three colonels praise the group that evangelises among military leaders, politicians and diplomats in Washington. Some of the officers describe their efforts to spread their faith within the military. “I found a wonderful opportunity as a director on the joint staff, as I meet the people that come into my directorate,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack J. Catton Jr. says in the video. “And I tell them right up front that I’m an old-fashioned American, and my first priority is my faith in God, then my family and then country.”Pete Geren, a former acting secretary of the Air Force who oversaw the service’s response in 2005 to accusations that evangelical Christians were pressuring cadets at the Air Force Academy, also appears in the video. The Christian Embassy “has been a rock that I can rely on, been an organization that helped me in my walk with Christ,” he says.
The 10-minute video is on the group’s Web site, Christianembassy.com. The organisation was founded nearly 30 years ago by the late Bill Bright, who also founded Campus Crusade for Christ. The Christian Embassy Web site says the group holds prayer breakfasts each Wednesday in the Pentagon’s executive dining room and organises small groups to help military leaders “bridge the gap between faith and work.”
Army Brig. Gen. Bob Casen refers in the video to the Christian Embassy’s special efforts to reach admirals and generals through Flag Fellowship groups.