Soldier alleges religious bias at Lakenheath - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Soldier alleges religious bias at Lakenheath

An atheist serviceman has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Defense Department of several counts of religious discrimination, including at least one instance on an Air Force base.

Army Spc. Dustin Chalker and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation are accusing DoD of a laundry list of violations of separation of church and state.

Chalker and the MRFF cite more than a dozen violations from military installations around the world that promote the, “practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense and the United States Army,” reads the suit.

Among the violations, the suit complains about a mandatory suicide prevention briefing from an Air Force Chaplain that borrowed heavily from a wildly popular Christian self-help book.

Chalker alleges that at a commander’s call at RAF Lakenheath, England, last March, an Air Force chaplain gave a talk on suicide prevention that heavily referenced concepts from “The Purpose-Driven Life,” a self-help book based on evangelical Christian theology.

Mikey Weinstein, president of the MRFF and an Air Force Academy graduate, said the shocking part of the presentation at Lakenheath was that it was approved by leadership at the base.