Another Pentagon Complaint

As previously reported on the Religion Clause, TruthOut is reporting that Weinstein’s MRFF is again complaining about an outside Christian organization having access to the Pentagon.  This time it was David Kistler’s HOPE ministries.

The article makes it unclear whether it is the theology that is the issue (since much of the article is a mockery of Kistler’s views) or the fact it was a religious organization.

While the writer makes it appear that it is “intuitively obvious” that the Pentagon again violated the ‘Constitutional separation of church and state,’ that is not the case.  Chaplains routinely host outside visitors of varied religious persuasions for the spiritual benefit of their servicemen, which is their legal duty.

While Weinstein may disagree, the Constitution and the courts have supported the religious influence of the chaplaincy and its programs in the military.

Air-Dropped Soccer Balls Offend Afghanis

The Best Intentions… 

According to the International Herald Tribune, the US military apologized for offending Afghani Muslims when it gave them soccer balls that had the Saudi flag on it.  The Saudi flag has the words Allah and Muhammad on it; those names in any form are considered sacred to Muslims.  The thought of kicking those sacred names was apparently offensive.

Soccer (or football, outside the US), is wildly popular in most other parts of the world, and has even been a source of national pride in an otherwise sometimes fractious Iraq.

National Review: CNN Espousing “equivalency of ideology”

Joe Carter of the National Review wrote an article on CNN’s “God’s Warriors” in which he noted that while many people are concerned about CNN juxtaposing assassins and Falwell, what CNN is really doing is proposing “equivalency of ideology.”  That is, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are “equal.”  He notes, for example, that while “theocracy” is a theology most aligned with Islam, it is more often attributed to Protestant Christians.  In fact, 

more than half of American evangelicals are either Baptists or nondenominational — groups that don’t even want a centralized church government much less a central government controlled by the church.

The Culture and Media Institute also wrote an article on the CNN series.  It contains some positive and negative things about the shows, including Amanpour’s comparison of Christian calls for “modest dress” as equivalent with the Taliban calls for burkas.

“God’s Warriors” on CNN, 21-23 August 2007

As previously posted, CNN’s special on “God’s Warriors” runs this week.

The CNN site lists the topics as:

Judaism: Murder in Hebron and Settler vs. Soldier
Islam: Holy Killing and Martyrdom
Christianity: Christians and Falwell and The Culture War

With murder and holy killing juxtaposed with Falwell and a culture war, it is fairly easy to see why some are worried that CNN will equate evangelical Christians with radical Islam.

Their “objectivity” remains to be seen.

ACLJ Represents Pentagon Officers

The ACLJ recently responded to the release of the Pentagon Inspector General’s report.  They said

We think the legal conclusions of the Department of Defense Inspector General are incorrect as a matter of fact and as a matter of law. 

They also stated that they represent two of the officers, including the retired Chaplain who was the focus of much of the report.

See the FRC response and original post below.

FRC Responds to Pentagon IG Report

According to One News Now, Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, is concerned that organizations like Weinstein’s MRFF may “extrapolate” the IG’s recent decision regarding Pentagon officers’ participation in a Christian Embassy video (see recent post below).

The IG found that the officers violated Joint Ethics Regulations regarding endorsement of a “non-federal entity while in uniform,” but also noted that the violations had nothing to do with religion.  Weinstein has proclaimed on his website that the report proves

…the intentional dismantling of the Constitutionally mandated wall separating church and state by some of the highest ranking officials in the Bush Administration and the U.S. military…

Perkins points out that the issue at stake was not Constitutionality or the Establishment Clause, as Weinstein insists, but non-religious ethics regulations.

Perkins expressed concern that “extrapolation” to the appearance of punishing the officers’ involvement with a religious organization (which was not the case) may “intimidate…military personnel from being associated with religion.”

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