Officials at Alabama's Redstone Arsenal are reviewing its procedures in the wake of an April sex-assault awareness presentation that some attendees said offered Christianity as the lone path to recovery from such an assault.
The April 27 presentation was not mandatory, Redstone officials said, but was one of several programs that fulfilled a mandatory Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention requirement. One of the speakers at the event, Tajuan McCarty, discussed her personal story as a victim of human trafficking, including her reliance on faith in Jesus to overcome the ordeal.
The Army civilian, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, was one of more than three dozen individuals who have reached out to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation regarding the presentation, MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein said Monday. Redstone Arsenal has received no formal complaints.
The attendee told Army Times that the speaker "said the only reason why she was standing there today was because of Jesus, and the only way you could overcome something like rape and sex trafficking was if Jesus was your king."
Weinstein's group has filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act seeking details on how the presentation was arranged and how it falls under the installation's SHARP training program.
Redstone officials "typically do not ask speakers to modify their own personal experience," when giving such presentations, according to a Friday statement to Army Times. Weinstein called that assertion "ridiculous. ... What if they had a white supremacist up there?"
The MRFF claims more than 40,000 clients throughout the military and frequently issues demands to military installations and leaders regarding issues of religious endorsement — a recent example involved multiple, successful requests by the group to military bases and Veterans Affairs Department facilities to remove Bibles from prisoner-of-war "missing man table" displays.
SHARP presentation planners weren't aware of the specific content of McCarty's presentation; she and another speaker were provided by the Huntsville -Madison County Human Trafficking Task Force, according to the statement. McCarty replied to an initial email seeking comment but did not answer specific questions regarding her presentation.
Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.
