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Religious Busybodies Complaining About Complaints About Religious Busybodies . . . (again)
Posted by KTK

The right-wing hyena mob is working itself up again, this time over some long-overdue common sense that, predictably, offends their smug, religious sense of entitlement.

Apparently the National Cemetery Administration - the group that administers all the national public cemeteries - has a group of volunteer vets, affiliated with the VA, who attend funerals for military veterans and do some sort of flag-folding ceremony. At some point somebody wrote some kind of treacly religious pap about the “significance of the folds in the flag” (there isn’t any - they’re just folds), and the group has been reciting it at the funerals while they fold the flag. It’s filled with pseudo-symbolism (”the sixth fold is for where our hearts lie” - WTF?) and repeated religious references, explicitly Christian or Judeo-Christian. Nobody asked them to do this, and it isn’t a part of the planned services at people’s funerals - they just start doing it during the service without warning, and apparently most people let them get on with it because they’re, you know, sincere and all.

Finally, and obviously, someone complained that they didn’t want someone else’s religious maunderings injected into their family member’s funeral, and the NCA made the obvious decision that their staff - being government workers (volunteer or otherwise) - should not be in the business of doing so. So they issued the long-overdue directive that the flag folders should just fold the flag and keep their Vogon poetry to themselves. They made it explicitly clear that anyone who actually wanted to hear this thing at their family member’s funeral could have it, by requesting it ahead of time - the government is just not in the business of making unilateral religious declarations to a captive audience.

Naturally the wingers are beside themselves, blaming the person who complained (”one person prevents everyone in the country from hearing this heartwarming recitation”), complaining about “kicking God out of the public square”, and whatnot. Not one of the articles I’ve seen notes that the directive does not prevent a family from hearing anything they want at any point in the funeral. Naturally, not one even raises the question whether people acting on behalf of the government should unilaterally preach explicitly partisan religious credos without invitation at other families’ funeral. They’re just certain that some sort of high moral principle has been violated because a bunch of (literally) preachy vets don’t get to give their own religious speeches at other people’s memorial ceremonies without regard to the deceased’s actual wishes or beliefs. A California American Legion officer has apparently ordered that any AL members who volunteer for these funerals are to ignore the regulations and read the thing anyway, without asking permission. Because it’s their feelings that count . . .

Michelle Malkin, naturally, started the outcry, and others are following suit.

“Captain’s Quarters”, which is not the dumbest right-wing blog, toots the party line:

The NCA has taken the cowardly route of banning the ceremony. Instead of telling the one complaining individual to get over himself, or of taking a common-sense approach of simply clearing the ceremony with the family before its recital, the NCA just washed its hands and walked away. Our veterans deserve better than that. They didn’t just wash their hands and walk away, and they didn’t stop serving . . . yada yada . . .

To the credit of his blog, though, there’s some intelligent discussion in the comments, including from a guy who identifies himself as a vet and points out that the government is simply not supposed to assign specifically sectarian religious “significance” to anything (let alone anything as dumb as the folds on a flag), and later posted the official NCA directive which does, in fact, state exactly what CQ claims it does not (i.e., that the families can make a choice to have the ceremony if they wish). In other words, the NCA did exactly what (some of the more level-headed) complainers were insisting they should do, from the beginning, and the complainers were simply acting out of ignorance all along. But of course it’s those damn liberals’ fault.

It goes on. “Stop the ACLU” blames, naturally, the ACLU, even while acknowledging they’re not involved.

While this particular case may not involve groups like the ACLU directly, it is rooted from the political correctness they have planted and fostered.

“Liberty Pundit” blames . . . the ACLU - falsely, and for no reason at all!

You just know the ACLU is behind this somehow.

(Love that “somehow“!)

This while also making a clever suggestion that exactly reproduces the actual directive the NCA issued while still getting all bent out of shape that they issued it:

Here’s a suggestion: how about letting the families of the fallen decide what religion they want to “endorse” at the funeral?

And then gets all scholarly on us:

And to all those Constitutional “scholars” out there, there is no amendment that says the government can’t participate in religion. All the amendment says is that the government will not endorse one particular religion over another.

(He then quotes part of the First Amendment, to back up his awe-inspiring interpretational skills.)

Having government staff saying publicly that the US flag “glorifies God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost” is not an endorsement of one particular religion? How’s that, exactly? You just know the same people who can say something that gaspingly stupid would also shit themselves if anyone said that the folds in the flag “glorify Allah”. But turning their awesome analytical skills on their own beliefs has never been a high point with this crowd.

Well, there’s lot’s more in that vein. Much of it takes the form of insisting, with certainty, that “liberals” or “atheists” caused this - or even stepped in to prevent a religious ceremony for a family that wanted one. (In fact, someone complained that their own father’s funeral was marred by the flag glurge, which they found was so badly garbled that it contradicted that family’s mainstream Christian beliefs. That is, it was the vets offending another vet’s family - over a point of Christian orthodoxy - that caused the complaint and the NCA directive in response. But it’s those liberal atheists who are at fault.)

There’s a deep strain of angry Christian triumphalism in this country that simply cannot abide the notion that their religion isn’t universal and mandatory, or that religious tolerance requires not imposing public displays of, let alone mandated allegiance to, their religious beliefs in areas that properly fall within the individual’s sphere of private conscience. And the merest request that they should actually keep their religious ceremonies to themselves, still less at someone else’s funeral, is an attack on their rights, or religion in general.

Truly strange, and tedious.

For those interested, here is one version of the flag nonsense. Apparently there are several versions, all anonymous, none “official” and none part of any official US flag creed. It was hard to track down; I finally found this one on a Website of redneck humor, blonde jokes, and equally glurge-y religious pabulum. Makes you proud to be an American.

The Folded Flag

What each fold means when folding the U.S. Flag.

1. The first fold represents life.
2. The second is for eternal life.
3. The third fold honors and remembers departed veterans who gave a portion of their lives in defense of our country.
4. The fourth fold recognizes our weaker nature as defined by our desire to seek divine guidance in times of war and peace.
5. The fifth fold is in tribute to the country.
6. The sixth fold is for where our hearts lie.
7. The seventh fold is in tribute to our brothers and sisters in the Armed Forces, no matter where they are.
8. The eighth fold is in tribute to our mothers.
9. The ninth fold honors women, who through faith,love,loyalty,devotion and service have shaped the nation.
10. The tenth fold is a tribute to our fathers for giving their sons and daughters for the defense of our country.
11. The eleventh fold represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon, and glorifies the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
12. The twelfth fold represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

When the flag is completely folded, the stars are uppermost, signifying “In God Trust.” The shape of the folded flag resembles a cocked hat and reminds us of the Revolutionary War patriots who started the whole thing.

Here’s the text of the actual NCA directive, posted (I presume accurately) by the one reasonable poster at Captain’s Quarters. This is the policy that caused the fuss. Note that it explicitly declares that families can have the flag thing read at funerals by government staff - if they request it. It also notes that it was a “gross error” in the text (referring to Isaac, Abraham, and Jacob as “gods”) that caused the complaint - obviously by a religious family. And it does not even cite religious neutrality as the reason for the directive (it cites the lack of any official definition of “the meaning of the folds of the flag”). This is what has caused the entire outrage among the shriekingly ignorant and apparently illiterate right-wing.

Department of Veterans Affairs
Date: September 27, 2007

From: Director, Office of Field Programs

Thru: Each MSN Director

To: Each Cemetery Director

Subj: The Meaning of Each Fold of an Honor Guard Funeral Flag

It has come to my attention that cemeteries may be distributing a handout entitled, “The Meaning of Each Fold of an Honor Guard Funeral Flag” and/or posting the handout in cemetery buildings. I have also learned that our volunteer honor guards may be using the handout as a script and reciting the meaning of the thirteen folds of the flag while the interment flag is folded during the committal service.

There are various versions of the script circulating by anonymous authors. Some of those scripts are religious in nature and also ascribe meaning to the individual folds put into the flag. We have recently received a complaint sent to the President of the United States that there was a gross error in the handout with reference to the 11th fold “…glorifying the Gods Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”.

There are no federal laws related to the flag that assign any special meaning to the individual folds of the flag. The National Cemetery Administration must not give meaning, or appear to give meaning to the folds of the flag by endorsing or distributing any handouts on “The Meaning of Each Fold of an Honor Guard Funeral Flag.”

Effective immediately all national cemeteries are to refrain from distributing any handouts on “The Meaning of Each Fold of an Honor Guard Funeral Flag”; remove any postings from all cemetery buildings and discontinue our VA-Sponsored Volunteer Honor Guards from using the handout as a script at a committal service during the folding of the flag.

The only time the reading of “The Meaning of Each Fold of an Honor Guard Funeral Flag” is authorized in our national cemeteries is when the next-of-kin arranges for military honors with their local VSO and requests the reading during the committal service.

/s/

STEVE L. MURO

Why do we let these clowns dominate our country?

October 27th, 2007 General, Church & State, Religion, Culture, Media, News & Current Events | 12 comments