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Family of Serviceman in Kuwait Sues Postal Service 4/16/2003 But Rutherford may have chosen the wrong target
The U.S. Postal Service is facing a lawsuit from a Lenoir, North Carolina, family, charging it with violating their religious freedom. Filed by the Rutherford Institute, the suit contends that U.S. postal regulations regarding shipment of mail to troops deployed to the Middle East infringes on their religious freedom and favors the Islamic faith.
Rutherford filed the complaint on behalf of Jack Moody Jr. on April 9 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Moody had attempted to send a Bible study, Christian comic books, and the book God’s Promises for Your Every Need, to his son Daniel R. Moody, a National Guardsman deployed to Kuwait as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The younger Moody had requested the materials after experiencing a rekindling of his faith.
“At a time when members of our armed forces are risking their lives as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, it is inconceivable that their own freedoms and those of their parents would be curtailed by the U.S. government in an effort to impose political correctness on our armed forces,” John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, told Greenville, North Carolina, television station WNCT.
It's a matter of Customs
But the religious freedom attorneys may have fired at the wrong target. The postal restrictions are from the U.S. Customs Service and stem from the host country’s customs regulations.
“The customs prohibition was put in place by the host country to keep bulk quantities of material of that nature out of the country,” U.S. Customs spokesman Mark Saunders told WNCT-TV. “Each country has [its] own restrictions, because of the level of security risk involved.”
The U.S. Customs regulation in question reads: “Any matter containing religious materials contrary to Islamic faith or depicting nude or seminude persons, pornographic or sexual items, or nonauthorized political materials is prohibited.”
The regulation also bans pork products and alcohol.
“Why did the parents make an issue of it in the first place?” Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, asked The Culture & Family Report. “I am not aware that the Postal Service opens packages addressed to individual service members.”
On a family support site for the Army’s 3rd Infantry, a posting on the subject of mail to service members deployed to Kuwait notes that occasional spot checks are made to packages en route. Letters that seem unusually bulky are also subject to inspection before delivery. That note, That note, dated April 11, also addressed the issues of Bibles directly.
Q: Does this [regulation] mean I can’t mail a Bible? A: No. The intent of this custom’s prohibition was the host country’s concern about distributing these materials to its citizens. Mailing a Bible or other individual religious item as long as it is solely for the personal use of the service member should not be an issue.
The controversy has led the Postal Service to clarify its restriction. "If you're mailing to an individual soldier, it should not be an issue," Mark Saunders, a Postal Service spokesman in Washington, told CNS News.
The updated guidance for mailings now reads: "Although religious materials contrary to the Islamic faith are prohibited in bulk quantities, items for the personal use of the addressee are permissible," Saunders noted.
While that interpretation holds true for close family and friends of the deployed service member, most soldier support efforts – like the USO’s Operation Care Package and Adopt-A-Platoon – require volunteers to adhere strictly to all customs and postal regulations.
Islam is favored, religious freedom group says
Rutherford’s John Whitehead, however, said the regulation endorses the Islamic faith over all other religions.
“This content-based discrimination, singling out certain banned materials, leaves it up to the local postal people to decide what that is,” Whitehead said.
“At a time when members of our armed forces are risking their lives as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, it is inconceivable that their own freedoms and those of their parents would be curtailed by the U.S. government in an effort to impose political correctness on our armed forces,” Whitehead said. “The U.S. Constitution does not bow to the religious intolerance of other nations.”
While that is the case with U.S. civilians, Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, said, “Soldiers do not enjoy the same constitutional rights as everyone else once they take the oath to join the military.”
Deployed military members in Kuwait have enjoyed greater religious freedom than those who served in Operation Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia in 1991.
At that time, non-Islamic worship services were held only in secret. Today, service members in Kuwait and Iraq are enjoying open worship services and baptisms.
Campus Crusade for Christ’s Military Ministry is also very active, mailing “Rapid Deployment Kits” containing a New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs, a 90-day devotional guide, and a booklet titled, “Would You Like to Know God Personally?” all packaged in a Ziploc bag. Nearly 400,000 of these kits have been distributed to chaplains and service members since 9-11, many of them and have been sent to Kuwait and Afghanistan.
This is the second time the Rutherford Institute has challenged regulations restricting the freedoms of U.S. military members stationed in the Middle East. Rutherford is representing Air Force Lt. Col. Martha McSally in her case against the military’s requirement that female service members wear a long, black robe called an abaya when traveling off base in Saudi Arabia.
The Defense Department lifted that requirement in January 2002, although it still encourages women to wear the robes for personal safety and sensitivity to host country traditions.
The Center for Military Readiness did not support McSally’s lawsuit against the military and is taking no position in the Moody case.
“If the actions of the Post Office are based on the needs of the military, I doubt that the court will agree with the plaintiffs,” Donnelly said. “We haven’t heard anything about where the court stands with the abaya lawsuit.”
Donnelly noted that many restrictions placed on troops stationed in predominantly Islamic countries were for the benefit of the military as a whole, such as the military’s need to maintain troop strength in nations with religious concerns over the presence of non-Islamic personnel and practices. |
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