God and Country

Update: Respected Christian leader John Piper agrees with calling Obama’s statement “blasphemous.”

The ACLU is applauding the Military Access to Reproductive Care and Health (MARCH) for Military Women Act, which would allow US military facilities to conduct abortions if paid for privately.

This sentence pretty much summed up the ACLU position:

It’s not hyperbole to say that overturning the ban on privately-funded abortions on military bases can save lives.

Yes, they actually said killing innocent children “saves lives,” but in the current culture that shouldn’t be too surprising.  The Baptist Press noted President Obama said pro-life laws — which are an effort to protect children — are “impeding progress.”

“After decades of progress there’s still those who want to turn back the clock to policies more suited to the 1950s than Read more…

Update:  Former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt says the Marines should be considering Christianity, not Buddhism:

“I think getting rid of anxiety is important. We need to decrease the suicide rate among our Marines,” he agrees. “But Buddhism is not the way to do that. I think Christianity is intellectually a better way to promote healthy mental awareness.”

Like Chaplain Lee, Klingenschmitt wonders where the normally vociferous critic Michael Weinstein is right now [emphasis added]:

Klingenschmitt wonders why Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has not complained about this.

“He ought to be up in arms about Buddhism being forced on our Marines, but he’s pretty silent on this because he’s really not interested in freedom of religion; instead he’s interested in silencing Christianity,” the former chaplain reasons. “So his deaf silence about this Buddhism issue proves that he’s a hypocrite.”

Klingenschmitt prevailed when Weinstein filed a lawsuit against him.  Now Klingenschmitt is suing Weinstein.

The Associated Press finally picked up the story discussed earlier about an early December announcement the US Marines were experimenting with “mindfulness,” or “Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training” based in some parts on eastern religions.

Marine Corps officials say they will build a curriculum that would integrate mindfulness-based techniques into their training if they see positive results from a pilot project. Mindfulness is a Buddhist-inspired concept that emphasizes active attention on the moment to keep the mind in the present…

“Some people might say these are Eastern-based religious practices but this goes way beyond that,” said Jeffery Bearor, the executive deputy of the Marine Corps training and education command at its headquarters in Quantico, Va.. “This is not tied to any religious practice. This is about mental preparation to better handle stress.”…

The goal is noble, even if it seeks to minimize the inherently religious aspects of the very objectives they are pursuing.  Faith — including, notably, the Christian faith — has long been thought to play an important role in an individual’s dealings with stress.

Perhaps someday the government will be able to publicly acknowledge the value of religious faith — and thus encourage such faith among US servicemembers.  For now, retired Chaplain (BrigGen) Douglas Lee said Christianity is so stigmatized the military is desperately looking for ways to fight stress and suicide — even to religions other than the hope that can be found in Christianity.

“I personally believe that part of the problem is that because of the attacks on traditional Christianity and Judeo-Christian values, the course guys are struggling because they don’t see anybody talking about hope…So they’re desperate to find some way to reduce the suicide rate.”

Lee also noted it was no small irony that people like Michael Weinstein and the Freedom From Religion Foundation have had nothing to say about the military borrowing aspects of religion — so long as it isn’t Christianity:

Lee contends those groups would be complaining loudly if the Camp Pendleton class incorporated Christian practices.

He’s right.  Weinstein normally has a vitriolic list of alliterative adjectives when the military so much as glances in the direction of Christianity.  But he’s probably all for government-endorsed religious elements if they undermine the plans of the super-secret Christian Triumvirate shadow government trying to take over the world.

(The MRFF discovered their plans for a secret underground bunker, so they’ve had to change their headquarters.  Rumor has it they favor chicken sandwiches and waffle fries.)

Also at the Washington Post.

In early December the Washington Times posted a lengthy article on the US Marines “expanding use of meditation training” — essentially, aspects of yoga and Eastern religions.  The article was little different than the ones noted here over the past several years, documenting the increasing official acceptance — and even mandatory use — of the physical aspects of some Eastern religions.

More recently, the FRC‘s Tony Perkins criticized the military’s incorporation of “meditation:”

In the military, it’s out with God — and in with the goofy!…As part some new training, Marines are being asked to join weekly yoga and meditation classes…

Former Army Captain Elizabeth Stanley…insists the new age Read more…

In an interesting bit of timing, given the Air Force Chief of Staff’s recent health and welfare inspection, Maxim magazine was covered by the New York Times in a story highlighting its ubiquity within the military.

Why?  Basically, troops can’t get racy magazines like Playboy or Penthouse shipped to the war zone overseas — but Maxim, while it may skirt the line, doesn’t cross it:

Maxim, a testosterone-fueled magazine featuring adolescent humor and plenty of scantily clad actresses, has become for today’s Army what Esquire was to soldiers fighting in World War II and Playboy was during the Vietnam War…

The sale of “explicit” magazines on military bases comes up in the news every few years.  At one point, Lifeway publishers was attempting to create a Christian alternative to the popular magazines.  For now, the rules actually “benefit” Maxim:  Read more…

The ACLU and four female servicemembers have sued the Department of Defense because the DoD officially excludes women from (some) combat roles.  (This is the second such suit to be filed this year, though “ACLU” may get a little more attention than “University of Virginia.”)  The justification is largely similar to that which supported the repeal of DADT and the recent legalization of marijuana in some states: People are doing it anyway, so it might as well be made official. 

In fact, the ACLU almost explicitly borrows the DADT mantra Read more…

As previously noted, about 100 people attended a dedication of the new memorial cross in the Mojave National Preserve, erected after a decade-long battle led by the ACLU failed to have it permanently torn down.

“Judges and lawyers may have played their roles, but it was the veterans who earned this memorial, and it is for them it rises once more,” The Associated Press quoted attorney Hiram Sasser of the Texas-based Liberty Institute as saying.

Don Byrd, writing for the Baptist Joint Committee (whose purpose is ostensibly to “defend[] the first freedom of the First Amendment”) said allowing religious symbols to remain on public display was “disturbing.”  He also Read more…

The Mojave Cross on Sunrise Rock in the remote Mojave National Preserve will finally be re-erected in a Veterans’ Day ceremony this weekend.

The cross had become the focus of a legal case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2000. The ACLU sued the federal government, asking that the cross be removed because the Christian symbol Read more…

Atheist Jason Torpy tilted the irony meter recently when he touted his recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery. 

The event provided the opportunity to remember the service of all those hundreds of thousands at Arlington Cemetery, our nation’s most sacred shrine.

The atheist considers Arlington so “sacred,” in fact, he thinks the government should yank the crosses out of it – something even the ACLU doesn’t advocate.

The ACLU has enlisted the help of former servicemembers (“military heroes,” since everyone who was in the military is a “hero”) in a concerted ad campaign to get abortion funding approved in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2013.  Similar attempts have been made virtually every year and have failed.

Advocates are launching a full-court press in favor of allowing the military to fund abortions in cases of rape or incest, but some Capitol Hill insiders say past failures bode ill for the measure’s survival.

An amendment allowing abortion funding Read more…

The Liberty Institute launched a campaign called “Don’t Tear Me Down” aimed at protecting military memorials.  (While the push is new, the effort has been ongoing for some time.) The effort is initially focused on the Mount Soledad cross, but they accurately note the attacks on memorials could have a far wider impact:

“The ACLU is so driven to purge religious displays from the public Read more…

Joined by the ACLU, US Marine Sgt Gary Stein sued the US military yesterday seeking an injunction that would prevent or delay the Marines’ effort to discharge him.  Judge Marilyn Huff denied the injunction he requested, saying he did not show he would suffer irreparable harm from the separation board, which leaves open the possibility he can gain an injunction should the board recommend discharge.

His administrative discharge hearing is scheduled for today, though an actual decision by the responsible authority would likely occur later.

The lawsuit can be viewed here.  Within it, Stein makes interesting allegations, Read more…

Gary Stein has a “Tea Party” Facebook site.  He’s also a US Marine.  In 2010 it attracted the attention of the military, who wanted to make sure he knew the rules.  He reviewed and acknowledged them, and the Facebook page continued, with the military’s awareness.

Recently, however,

Marine Sgt. Gary Stein first started a Facebook page called Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots to encourage service members to exercise their free speech rights. Then he declared that he wouldn’t follow orders from the commander in chief, President Barack Obama.

While Stein softened his statement to say he wouldn’t follow “unlawful orders,” military observers say he may have gone too far.

“Military observers” is an awkward way of trying Read more…

After being repeatedly called out for decrying one cross and not others, atheist and former Army Captain Jason Torpy, of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, finally addressed the “controversial” issue of Arlington National Cemetery:

Other memorials are biased toward Christianity and ought properly to be removed to private property.  The Camp Pendleton cross is just one of many…

The Argonne Cross at Arlington, a 1921 monument erected “In memory of our men in France” also excludes all non-Christians.  This cross now memorializes a time when our military had nearly no recognition for anyone not Christian and was segregated by both race and gender…

In deciding to include the Argonne Cross with others “to be removed,” this initially seems like an opportunity to applaud Torpy’s intellectual Read more…

The US Naval Academy practice of conducting a noon-meal prayer is making its near-annual trek through the media.  This time, Talbot Manvel, an “adjunct instructor” at Annapolis, wrote an article in the Baltimore Sun saying the USNA puts “tradition ahead of the Constitution.”

So how is the academy defying the Constitution? It has established a religious practice: prayer at its mandatory noon meal for its midshipmen (students). They are marched into the mess hall, called to attention to listen to announcements, and then to prayer by a chaplain before sitting to eat. They are not permitted to leave, and thus they are forced to listen.

(Manvel becomes the latest Naval Academy instructor to publicly malign his employer.)  Manvel’s article is rife with error.  He cites Mellen v. Bunting, in which the 4th District Court held mealtime prayers at VMI were unConstitutional — a ruling the Supreme Court declined to review.  However, he ignores the ruling’s own qualifier:  Read more…

Ensign Michael Izbicki, a 2008 US Naval Academy graduate, previously sued the US Navy to gain status as a conscientious objector.

A Connecticut news outlet reports Izbicki has been granted an honorable discharge; he, in turn, is dropping his lawsuit.

Importantly:

He’s not getting out of the Navy scot-free. As part of his honorable discharge, Izbicki will have to reimburse the Navy for his education at the Naval Academy. Normally men and women attend the service academies free of charge.

Update: Also covered and with background at the Christian Post and GetReligion.org.

Via the ADF.