Marine Corps under fire after canceling training session amid concerns about speaker’s Christian background

https://www.foxnews.com/faith-values/marine-corps-cancel-training-speaker-christian-background

The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) is facing backlash from both sides of the religious liberty debate after it planned a training session that was later canceled over the speaker’s background in Christianity – fueling Congressional scrutiny of both the military and the nonprofit which appeared to prompt the cancellation.

Air Force veteran Jay Lorenzen was slated to speak at an annual training for JAG reservists on Friday, but that came to a screeching halt after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) relayed its reservist clients’ concerns about Lorenzen’s beliefs influencing his talks. An MRFF press release boasted on Saturday that its president, Michael Weinstein, was able to obtain a cancellation within just 64 minutes.

Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., told Fox News on Monday that he was “appalled” by the USMC’s “willingness to quickly cave to Mikey Weinstein’s atheist demands to eradicate Christianity from our military.”

“While the Department of Defense has a long history of willfully ignoring the religious freedom of its service members, banning a former Air Force Academy professor from leading a Marine Corps training because of his Christian beliefs is absolutely unconscionable. I look forward to discussing this with Department of Defense officials at our meeting on Thursday,” said Collins, a military chaplain.

Weinstein maintains that the USMC’s session was unconstitutional, as evidenced by more senior officials’ quick cancellation.

“The fact that the Marine [senior] leaders called back on my personal cell phone 64 minutes later and simply said ‘done’ following up with that confirming email makes it QUITE clear that the senior leadership in Washington agreed with us 100%.”

Weinstein added that the officials involved in planning the session should receive “visible and aggressive punishment.”

Their actions, he said, were “[a] complete disgrace in violation of the constitutional prohibition against establishing religion,” as well as military policy.

The USMC provided a statement confirming the cancellation but not explaining why.

“A virtual battlefield tour of Gettysburg using a video from the National Park Service was scheduled as part of the annual training. Some of the participating Marines raised concerns about a former military officer who volunteered as an outside virtual presenter. In response to the concerns, the leadership of the unit decided to keep the virtual training internal to the Marines,” said Capt. Joseph Butterfield, Communication Strategy & Operations Officer.

When asked for additional details, the USMC declined to provide additional comment.