c. 2007 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ High-ranking Army and Air Force personnel violated military regulations when they participated in a promotional video for a private evangelical organization, according to a report by the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General.

A Pentagon spokesman said Monday (Aug. 6) it would be up to the Army and Air Force whether to discipline the military brass involved, but said no action is expected against top civilian employees.

The 47-page report, which was released on July 27, found that Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack Catton, Maj. Gen. Peter Sutton and a colonel whose name was not disclosed, and three Army officers _ Brig. Gen. Bob Caslen, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks and a lieutenant colonel, also not identified _ were wrong to take part in a fund-raising video for the Arlington, Va.-based Christian Embassy.

The Christian Embassy is part of the conservative Campus Crusade for Christ International, and sponsors prayer breakfasts and other religious activities for high-ranking federal employees and elected officials.

The dispute over the video surfaced last December against a backdrop of complaints that military officials frequently turn a blind eye to improper proselytizing and show preferential treatment toward evangelicals.

“The officers were filmed during the duty day, in uniform with rank clearly displayed, in official and often identifiable Pentagon locations,” the report said. “Their remarks conferred approval of and support to Christian Embassy, and the remarks of some officers implied they spoke for a group of senior military leaders rather than just for themselves.”

At one point during the 10-minute video, which was filmed inside the Pentagon in 2005, Caslen refers to the Christian Embassy’s special efforts for high-ranking officers through Flag Fellowship groups. He notes that whenever he runs into another fellowship member, “I immediately feel like I am being held accountable because we are the aroma of Jesus Christ.”

Catton, from the Air Force, explains in the video that the Christian Embassy helped him become a “director on the joint staff.”

“As I meet the people that come into my directorate I tell them right up front who Jack Catton is, and I start with the fact that I’m an old-fashioned American, and my first priority is my faith in God, then my family and then country,” Catton says on the video. “I share my faith because it describes who I am.”

Catton later told the inspector general’s office that he believed the Christian Embassy, which hosts a weekly prayer breakfast at the Pentagon, had become a “quasi-federal entity.”

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

The report also singled out retired Army Col. Ralph G. Benson, a former Pentagon chaplain, for providing special access to the organization and “mischaracterizing” the purpose of the video by implying it was “being produced to document the Pentagon chaplain’s ministry rather than to promote a non-federal entity.”

The report cleared Army Secretary Pete Geren and a civilian employee in the Army Budget Office of wrongdoing for appearing in the same video, concluding that their personal endorsements were given “without verbal or visual references to position, title or” the Department of Defense.

The report recommended the “secretary of the Air Force and the chief of staff of the Army take appropriate corrective action.” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington said because the report cleared the civilian employees, any further action to address the conduct by the officers will fall to their respective services.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an Albuquerque, N.M.-based watchdog group founded by retired Air Force attorney Mikey Weinstein, asked the Department of Defense to investigate the video last December.

Weinstein expressed disappointment with the report’s findings, which he said didn’t go far enough to reprimand those involved.

“They suggested corrective action and we wanted to see courts martial,” he said, adding that his organization planned to file a lawsuit against the Department of Defense.

KRE/CM END KOONS700 words, with optional trim to 550

A file photo of Mikey Weinstein is available via https://religionnews.com.