An Army officer, who intertwines Bible stories throughout his faith-themed fitness blog, is drawing criticism for inserting religion on a website run by the government.
Col. Thomas Hundley, a US Army logistics officer writes a fitness blog on the official website of the Defense Health Agency. In addition to authoring a weekly fitness column, Hundley is also the founder of Fit for A King Fitness Ministries LLC, of North Carolina.
At issue is a blog post he penned on Jan. 4, titled “Monday Motivational Message: A Little Something to Work With.” The post includes mentions of God, prayer and the Bible.
Hundley often writes about conversations he’s had with family members about passages in the Bible.
“As we sat at the kitchen table, [my grandfather] gave me just the nugget I needed to apply to my health and fitness.” He said: ‘You don’t need a whole lot to make it in this world. You just gotta give God a little something to work with.”
Hundley takes it a step further and tells his fellow members of the armed forces they can improve their “spiritual fitness through increased prayer.”
The president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation filed a complaint with the Army Regional Health Command, after other service members criticized Hundley for including religion on an official government website. Mikey Weinstein said Hundley’s use of an official blog to “plug his religious views” is “proselytizing and unconstitutional.”
“Col. Hundley has absolutely no business or authority under American law to be conflating his Army officer rank, title and position with his professed evangelical Christian faith,” he said.
Weinstein is now reportedly representing 18 clients who are “opposed to the religious slant” in Hundley’s writings. According to military.com, Weinstein received a letter from the deputy commanding inspector general for the command, which said the complaint would be “handled by another agency.” However, according to Weinstein, that other agency was not identified.
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