Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Help me fact-check this letter

Below is a letter to the editor I received a few days ago.
While it's impossible, to fully fact-check every letter we publish, and people can often disagree on the interpretation of true facts, this letter makes some bold statements of outrageous conduct if they are true.
I told the writer I'll be happy to print it if I can be shown that the statements are factual. While you should always take everything you read with at least a grain of salt, you should also have some confidence in what you read in a "mainstream media" publication.
I'd like some help.
Can anyone show a credible source proving or disproving any of these statements?
To get us started, I found a listing on Snopes.com about No. 5. that shows it was a policy -- quickly rewritten --  not of the Army, but of the hospital. Wounded veterans were complaining that they were getting unwanted visits from persistent evangelists, so the hospital brass wrote some poorly-crafted guidelines.
Most of us would these soldiers deserve some protection whilere they're healing in a hospial bed.
There may be good reasons to oppose President Obama, but No. 5 isn't one of them.


To The Editor:

Four years ago President Obama said he wanted to change America. He certainly has -- little by little -- he denies our Christian heritage and curtails our religious freedom.
For example:

1. April 2009 — He ordered a monogram symbolizing Jesus’ name be covered while speaking at Georgetown University.
2. April 2010 — He disinvited Franklin Graham from the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer because of complaints from the Muslim community.
3. October 2010 — He begins to omit the phrase “the Creator” when quoting the Declaration of Independence.
4. June 2011 — The Dept. of Veterans Affairs forbids references to God and Jesus during burial ceremonies at Houston National Cemetery.
5. September 2011— The Army issues guidelines for Walter Reed Medical Center “No religious items (Bibles, reading materials) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit.”
6. November 2011 — The Air Force Academy rescinds support for Operation Christmas Child because the program is run by a Christian charity.

These are only a few of the times President Obama has shown hostility to people of the Christian faith; there are actually many other examples.
This information is taken from the August issue of the American Family Association Journal.

- A reader
  (I'm withholding the name until the letter is published)

The following comes from the Army Times via Snopes.com:
The policy in question was established after receiving complaints from Warriors and their families at both Walter Reed Army Medical Center and National Naval Medical Center who were approached by unsolicited faith-based groups visiting the inpatient wards. Patients and families reported that these groups were proselytizing and making disparaging remarks about Warrior’s service, sometimes using threatening and condemning language. According to the patients, some visits were persistent and repeated.
The WRNMMC policy was not intended to nor did it ever have the effect of limiting religious expression of patients. The policy as written was incorrect and should have been more thoroughly reviewed before its release. It has been rescinded.
Family members have been and will always be allowed to bring religious materials and texts. Subsequently, the new “Patient Visitation Policy” WRNATMILMEDCEN INSTRUCTION 5720.4D was reissued on 24 January 2012 with all incorrect verbiage and implications removed.walterreed.asp#2kd8ZTxDF2Cvq6AF.99

The full listing: http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/walterreed.asp