A “God bless the military” sign is staying up at the Marine base in Kaneohe, despite cries from a religious freedom group that the message is unconstitutional.

Col. Sean C. Killeen, commander of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, announced his decision Friday in a letter to the group, Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

“This sign will remain in its present location and not be altered in any way,” Killeen said in the letter. He explained that “God bless” is commonly used in Western culture and that there are numerous references to God in the country’s symbols, songs, mottos and oaths. “This sign has the secular purpose of conveying a message of support, does not advance or inhibit religion or any particular faith, nor does it foster excessive government entanglement with religion.”

He added that the sign was erected after Sept. 11, 2001, to support service members who were deploying in response to the attacks and has served as “a secular symbol of general support and encouragement” for more than a decade.

The sign under fire is located at the intersection of E and 2nd streets and says in full: “God bless the military, their families, and the civilians who work with them.”

MRFF claims the message shows a preference for those who hold religious beliefs over those who do not.

MRFF, a mainland nonprofit with a mission of protecting the religious freedom of service members, boasts numerous achievements, including pressuring the U.S. Air Force to drop the requirement that enlistees say “so help me god” in their enlistment oath and compelling a Marine fighter attack squadron to change its name from “Crusaders” to “Werewolves.”

Killeen’s letter was in response to a Sept. 24 letter from MRFF that called the sign a “brazen violation” of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits government from promoting one religion over another, and asked for it to be moved to the chapel grounds or eliminated.

On Sept. 30, the group sent a second letter to Killeen offering a third alternative — that the base allow signs representing other gods to be erected next to the original one. Some suggestions offered were: “Yahweh Bless …,” “Allah Bless …,” “Goddess Bless …,” and “There is no god to bless … We have each other.”

Mikey Weinstein, founder of MRFF, said on Friday that his group is representing 72 Marines from the base who represent nine faith groups and want nine additional signs erected representing those faith groups.

Marines who most recently approached MRFF are members of the Baha’i faith, the Jedi church and the Church of Satan, he said.

He called Killeen’s decision a “massively unconstitutional” and “obnoxious” ruling based on faulty analysis of case law. Weinstein said he was not surprised that Killeen refused to remove the sign and accused the base command of practicing a fundamentalist Christian supremacy and “establishing an approved Marine solution for only one faith group.”

He said his group is working with law firms in Honolulu to possibly sue in federal district court if his clients are willing to do so.

Weinstein said noticeably absent from Killeen’s response was any reference to the group’s request for additional signs to be installed.

“He hasn’t had the courage here to say, ‘I’m going to disallow the other signs of other faith groups,’” Weinstein said.

He explained that allowing one faith group’s sign to stay up while refusing other groups’ signs is a failure of equal protection under the U.S. Constitution.

He added that service members have come to his organization for assistance because they are terrified of the command and of retribution if they were to complain. He said some of the Marines are bitterly disappointed by Killeen’s decision.

Killeen said his legal team conducted “exhaustive research on the issue” and found several federal cases, including from the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, that support the conclusion that the sign is not a violation of the Establishment Clause.

He added that the base command has not received any complaints from service members concerning the sign.

“We will always support all service members’ rights to pursue and practice their own belief sets, whether religious or not,” he said.