MRFF complained to the medical center’s chief of staff, demanding that hospital administrators “immediately remove this unconstitutional, illicit and clearly sectarian Christian nativity scene display from your America Building facility.”
“The in-your-face presence of this incontrovertibly nonsecular Christian nativity scene is causing egregiously deleterious impact to the good order, morale, discipline, unit cohesion and mission accomplishment of those both under your command at WRNMMC and those honorable military members and veterans who comprise your patient constituency,” complained Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein, founder and president of MRFF.
Weinstein’s letter went on to describe the presence of the Nativity scene as a “terribly unfortunate matter of unconstitutional, illicit Christian supremacy, dominance, exclusivity and exceptionalism” that is “just plain WRONG on SO many levels!!”
Weinstein said in his email that he was writing on behalf of “41 WRNMMC patients, staff and their families on this matter … 27 of them are practitioners of the Christian faith themselves and the others are from the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Native American faith traditions as well as some from the non-faith traditions such as Agnosticism, Atheism and Secularism and Humanism.”
Soon after the complaint was acknowledged by the medical center’s chief of staff, MRFF received confirmation that “the nativity scene had been moved to one of the facility’s chapels, the only place where such a display belongs.”
Pictures posted by MRFF showed the new location of the Nativity set, stacked on a cart, relegated to the back of a chapel within the WRNMMC complex.
“It’s unfortunate that the Pentagon surrendered to a bunch of anonymous Christ-hating bigots,” conservative Christian commentator Todd Starnes wrote on X.
“But their days of power and influence in the pronoun-confused, woke Defense Department are numbered,” suggested Starnes, hopeful about president-elect Donald Trump’s yet-to-be confirmed choice for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.
“I predict that Pete Hegseth will have no problem telling Mr. Weinstein and his godless band of thugs to pound sand,” Starnes said.
“What about the remaining 7795 combined staff/patients in beds? I suppose it’s okay to trigger or demoralize them by not having a display that lifts them up?” an X user asked. “Seriously, instead of ripping out displays, can’t we find a way to respect and celebrate the fact that in this great country, everyone has the right to celebrate the holidays as they choose?”
“Can they do that also for the satanic statues being placed around the country?” another asked. “I think they’ll find many Christians who were offended.”
“But this is not religious liberty,” they added. “It is removing religion from the public square.”
Located just outside of Washington, D.C. in Bethesda, Maryland, the WRNMMC complex occupies a large tract of land across the street from the sprawling National Institutes of Health (NIH).