Two days ago, the USS Arlington posted a photo of two Seamen raising a church pennant above the American flag on its Facebook page:
Quartermasters Seaman Rashaun Plowden and 2nd Class Mary Carlton raise a church pennant above the American flag during worship services aboard USS Arlington (LPD 24) on Jan. 13, 2013.
An atheist (who is not in the military) took umbrage, unaware of his self-contradicting outrage. First [ellipses original]: Continue reading
An atheist thinks this is an illegal “Christian shrine.”
Multiple military war memorials are now under attack by atheists who consider the presence of a Christian cross offensive.
Former soldier and current atheist Jason Torpy, the one-man association of military atheists (MAAF), has previously lodged complaints with the US Marines over the Camp Pendleton cross (which has yet to be resolved). He is opposed to the cross in Arlington National Cemetery for the same reason.
This follows the national trend of several activist organizations that have been threatening cities and towns with lawsuits if they fail to remove memorials which contain Continue reading
Jason Torpy, the former Army soldier and atheist vicariously offended when he saw the Camp Pendleton cross on the internet, may have another target.
As noted previously, crosses are used frequently in US military memorials around the world. Torpy has already demanded that the Argonne Cross be removed from Arlington National Cemetery, and that the US Marine Corps remove locally raised crosses on Camp Pendleton — something he only knew about because he read a local (positive) news article.
Now, another memorial may face the same atheist anger. Four US Army Ranger trainees lost their lives in a training incident nearly 20 years ago, and their fellow soldiers remember them:
On Feb. 16, 1995, four young men training to become a part of the elite military force died of hypothermia after a river rose rapidly and flooded a swamp they were training in during a mission.
A modest wooden cross marks the spot…
Photo credit: DEVON RAVINE \ Daily News
Rangers make an annual trek to the location: Continue reading
A few recent articles highlight the service of US military chaplains around the globe, doing far more than the stereotypical Sunday morning chapel service:
As the Army begins to open certain career fields to women, chaplains are affected: The 101st Airborne just received its first female chaplain in Chaplain (Capt) Delana Small. In so doing, she became a part of the “legendary Band of Brothers.” Her assignment was a result of the Department of Defense “Women in the Service Review.” The DoD article is full of praise for the new chaplain.
In Africa, US chaplains met with their military counterparts from nine East African nations for the “third annual…African Military Chaplain Conference” in Djibouti.
While Africa isn’t in the news too much, save a few isolated mentions, it is noteworthy that US military chaplains are engaging at the rate they have.
Another article covers the touching, yet surprising, story of the service of military chaplains at Arlington National Cemetery:
Led by senior chaplains Continue reading
The website created by the Defense Department to document recipients of military medals (an attempt at deterring “stolen valor”), now includes the nation’s second highest military honor:
The site launched with the names of Medal of Honor recipients for actions since 9/11, and now lists recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross, Air Force Cross and Navy Cross. The services are continuing to compile the lists of Silver Star recipients to add to the site, officials said.
Atheists within the culture (and even “military atheists”) are actively trying to tear down military memorial crosses around the United States — from San Diego to Arlington National Cemetery.
When do you think atheists will go after the service crosses given to America’s “heroes,” second only to the Medal of Honor? Is that as much an offense as a memorial cross in a cemetery?
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 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 Continue reading
Air Force Chaplain (Capt) Christian Lapaul Williams provides a moving first hand account of his role at Arlington National Cemetery. Worth the read.
Jason Torpy, the one-man Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, is an atheist and former Army officer. While his MAAF is ostensibly a “community support network,” he recently revealed the true motivation behind his ideology.
In a recent display of internet frustration, Torpy took fellow atheists to task for not banding together and being “anti-” enough. The context was a comment that people don’t join groups for things they don’t believe in, spoken by Neil deGrasse Tyson, a self-described agnostic (who says he is “often claimed by atheists”):
Do non-golf players gather and strategize? Do non-skiers…come together and talk about the fact that they don’t ski? I can’t do that. I can’t gather around and talk about how much everybody in the room doesn’t believe in God.
This is the same point raised by many people Continue reading
Update: Liberty Counsel has agreed to defend the town of Woonsocket for free.
The awkwardly named Freedom From Religion Foundation has apparently demanded that a war memorial in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, be removed because it has a cross on it. The memorial
was erected nearly a century ago to honor the city’s war dead, including three brothers killed in World War I.
The town’s mayor had an interesting response to the call to tear down the 91-year old memorial:
Mayor Leo Fontaine told the Woonsocket Call he will not remove the cross “under any circumstances.”
However, the town is reportedly strapped for cash and may not be able to afford a legal defense.
Atheists and critics of various stripes — including Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and Jason Torpy — have Continue reading
Some in American society today seem to think resurgent zealots are trying to push Christianity on society through their use of crosses, even within the US military.
Facts, however, show the long tradition of use of crosses as military memorials.
THIS SIMPLE CROSS WAS ERECTED at the western tip of Betio as a monument in memory of the 2nd Division Marines who were killed in the battle for Tarawa.
Crosses have been raised on Continue reading
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 Continue reading
Update: FoxNews reports on the “investigation” of the cross. The ACLJ has written a letter to Camp Pendleton explaining the appropriateness — and Consitutionality — of allowing the cross to remain. They, too, highlight the Argonne cross in Arlington mentioned below. In reference to the Utah trooper crosses mentioned below, the Highway Patrol logo has been stripped from the crosses and a disclaimer has been added in a bid to avoid their court-ordered removal.
It didn’t take long: When Jason Torpy of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers saw the LA Times report on the Camp Pendleton cross, he was quick to call it
a “wonderful gesture” in remembrance of the fallen Marines, but said its location on public land “makes us feel like the federal government privileges Christianity over non-Christians like us, makes us feel like second-class citizens…”
[T]heir desire to erect a large cross to honor their memory is perfectly acceptable, so long as it is on church land or their own property, not on federal land.
Further, Torpy claims the Marines’ cross is an intentional effort to by the government to afford preference to Christianity:
Military service is being exploited Continue reading
As noted last week, Arlington National Cemetery’s Jewish Chaplains’ Memorial was added to Chaplains’ Hill and dedicated yesterday. Despite the claims of some military atheists, speakers at the event noted there are chaplains on the front lines of America’s battles, serving the troops who serve their country:
“The 14 men we honor today were rabbis in uniform,” said Maj. Gen. Cecil Richardson, the Air Force chief of chaplains. “These men did much more than preach sermons. … They walked where warriors walked, and that is what made them military chaplains. Continue reading
The Jewish Chaplains Memorial that will join the others at Chaplain’s Hill in Arlington will be dedicated in a ceremony next Monday, 24 October.
The memorial is a bronze plaque with the names of the 14 Jewish Chaplains who died while on duty from 1943 to 1974; at the top are two lions bracketing the Jewish chaplains’ insignia, which is two tablets with a Star of David on top.
As a point of trivia, none of the chaplains memorialized Continue reading