God and Country

Religious groups who endorse US military chaplains have asked the US military for “equal time” after they hosted religious liberty critic Michael Weinstein at the Pentagon.  Said retired Chaplain (Col) Ron Crews, of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty:

Crews says if the Air Force wants to be serious about religious liberty, its sole and exclusive meeting should not be with a man who calls religious service members “spiritual rapists” or “human monsters.”

“[Mikey Weinstein] is not the person to talk about religious liberty,” he states. “So we’re asking for a meeting with senior Air Force officials to [request that] if they’re going to revise their policy, we want to make sure that the religious liberty of all the airmen who are serving courageously in the Air Force gets maintained.”

Further,

If the Air Force wants to be serious about religious freedom, its sole and exclusive meeting should not be with a man that calls religious service members ‘spiritual rapists’ or ‘human monsters’…

The military — specifically, the Air Force — has long been accused of granting Michael Weinstein special access to military leaders.  It seems Weinstein has had ideological allies at the top of the US Air Force, which may be why he has Read more…

Retired Chaplain (Col) Ron Crews of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty:

[Weinstein] is known for his activism to squash religious faith in the military. Why senior leaders in the Air Force would be meeting with someone to talk about religious liberty whose sole purpose it appears is to squash religious liberty, that’s a question that we have for Air Force officials.

Indeed. At FoxNews:

As an aside, a blogger made an interesting observation about the Read more…

Update: The DoD says the SBC website was blocked because malware was detected, but that connection from military servers would be restored “today.” The Southern Baptist Convention weighed in, with a caution not to rush to judgment.  Also at the Air Force Times, Christian Post, and Baptist Press.

FoxNews reports that the Southern Baptist Convention website was blocked on military servers — and the military confirmed it:

The Dept. of Defense confirmed to Fox News late Wednesday that the SBC website had been blocked — but not intentionally.

“The Department of Defense is not intentionally blocking access to this site, said Lt. Col. Damien Pickart. “We are working diligently to investigate what might be causing access issues for some of our service members and to correct the situation as quickly as possible.”

Part of the reason the situation requires “correction” is that certain servicemembers need access to the site as part of their function: namely, the many SBC chaplains in the military:

“It’s a concern for the Dept. of Defense to block the website of one of the major evangelical denominations in the country,” Crews told Fox News. “The Southern Baptist Convention has the largest number of chaplains in the military representing Southern Baptist soldiers and churches. Those chaplains need access to their denomination’s website.”

As noted the last time the issue of military internet access came up, it’s not as simple as “the government is censoring/blocking/etc” or being hostile toward Read more…

US Rep Randy Forbes (R-Va) reportedly “grilled” relatively new Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel over

a steady stream of religious discrimination complaints over the past four years from Christian soldiers.

For his part, Secretary Hagel said he’d have to get back to the Congressman:

Hagel said he had no idea what the congressman was talking about.

“I don’t know about all the specifics of the information you presented,” he told the lawmaker. “I will get it. And I will find out about it.”

When asked if the DoD was enforcing section 533 of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law by President Obama, Secretary Hagel again pled ignorance Read more…

The news of a US Army briefing seemingly supporting a doctrine of Michael Weinstein — and the firm decision by the Army to disavow the presentation — made surprisingly wide press this weekend.

At issue was a briefing given by a US Army Reservist on “Extremism and Extremist Organizations” (PDF, with notes) which listed “evangelical Christians,” “Ultra-Orthodox Judaism,” “Sunni Muslims” and “Catholicism” alongside “al Quaeda [sic]” as “religious extremism.”  (In fact, evangelical Christianity was at the top of the list.)  The briefer was apparently a Military Equal Opportunity officer, ironically enough.

An attendee of the briefing — who describes himself as an evangelical Christian — took issue, obtained a copy of the briefing, and provided it to the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty (CARL) and the military Catholic Archdiocese:

“Men and women of faith who have served the Army faithfully for centuries shouldn’t be likened to those who have regularly threatened the peace and security of the United States,” retired Col. Ron Crews, Read more…

Multiple groups have filed Supreme Court briefs in support of the Defense of Marriage Act:

The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty filed a brief co-signed by 21 endorsers representing more than 2,500 US military chaplains.  The CARL brief accurately notes US troops in general — not just chaplains — will be affected by the “burden on religious liberty” should the military recognize homosexual “marriage.”  CARL had a fairly blunt summary:

the military has no tolerance for racists, so service members who are openly racist are not service members for long.  And if the traditional religious views on marriage and family become the constitutional equivalent of racism, Read more…

Since former cadet (and current MRFF “client”) Blake Page made his awkward public departure from West Point over “criminal” Christianity, there has been a simmering of the issue of prayer at the US Military Academy.  For the most part, the only loud voices were critics who want to see West Point end public prayers.

The Alliance Defending Freedom just recently weighed in, encouraging West Point to stand firm in the face of criticism and honor both its legacy and religious freedom.  The ADF’s David Hacker said

“The First Amendment allows public officials to acknowledge our nation’s religious heritage,” he notes. “Anti-religious groups with misguided ideas about the First Amendment should not be allowed to destroy a time-honored, perfectly constitutional American custom.”

The ADF sent a letter to West Point on behalf of the Chaplain Alliance Read more…

If DADT repeal was such a benign ‘non-event,’ why are incidents like this erupting into scandals more than a year later?

The top lawyer in the US Marine Corps has reportedly told the Marine legal community that, to avoid “a stir” as seen at Fort Bragg, spouse groups operating on Marine installations must accept homosexuals:

The memo noted that spouses clubs and various other private institutions are allowed to operate on bases only if they adhere to a non-discrimination policy encompassing race, religion, gender, age, disability and national origin.

“We would interpret a spouses club’s decision to exclude a same-sex spouse as sexual discrimination because the exclusion was based upon the spouse’s sex,” the memo said.

This appears to be legal advice within the legal community and, as noted before, military lawyers do not make decisions about military policy (nor are they always right).  However, the article does not cite a Marine policymaker Read more…

Update: The ACLU has likewise opposed the religious protections in the bill, which a local article called a “needed balance.”

The Congressional conference committee has sent the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) back to both houses of Congress for a vote.  (It is reportedly expected to pass, and to be signed by President Obama.)  The conference committee report includes expanded abortion coverage, a restriction on Guantanamo detainee transfers, and religious liberty protections for US troops.  The religious liberty protection language is not precisely what the House had passed (as opposed to the Senate, which passed none), but it is substantially similar:

SEC. 533. PROTECTION OF RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE OF MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES AND CHAPLAINS OF SUCH MEMBERS.
(a) PROTECTION OF RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE.—
(1) ACCOMMODATION.—The Armed Forces shall accommodate the beliefs of a member of the armed forces reflecting the conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs of the member and, in so far as practicable, may not use such beliefs as the basis of any adverse personnel action, discrimination, or denial of promotion, schooling, training, or assignment.
(2) DISCIPLINARY OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION.—
Nothing in paragraph (1) precludes disciplinary or administrative action for conduct that is proscribed by chapter 47 of title 10, United States Code (the Uniform Code of Military Justice), including actions and speech that threaten good order and discipline.

The committee explained the result of their negotiations this way:  Read more…

As noted at the Baptist Press, a Congressional conference committee is currently attempting to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act.  One issue is a change that might allow the military to use funds or facilities for abortions.  Another is whether or not military personnel will be explicitly protected in their moral and religious expressions regarding homosexuality.  The Chaplain Read more…

An article in the Christian Post a few weeks ago discussed the accusation that the US military has been shaping the public perception of the post-DADT environment by allowing the media to cover “positive” stories, while suppressing negative ones:  Read more…

Chaplain (Col) Timothy Wagoner made headlines when he “supportively” attended a homosexual “commitment ceremony” at McGuire AFB.  He made headlines again when his endorsing agency publicly clarified that they continued to oppose homosexuality and semblances of homosexual “unions.”  For his part, Chaplain Wagoner noted he was quoted out of context and in such a way as to imply he “condoned” the ceremony, when in fact he did not.

Now, Chaplain Wagoner has informed his endorsing agency that he is leaving the Southern Baptist Convention:

“If an SBC chaplain concludes he cannot conduct his ministry Read more…

Michael Weinstein recently wrote a little-noticed piece that railed against the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. The article was clearly intended to incite a feud, with Weinstein making liberal use of shocking semantics, including calling CARL “extremist,” “fundamentalist dogs,” “putrid bigots,” and accusing them of “rape.”  Such is the language of those who fight religious freedom, apparently.

The diatribe isn’t worth reading, but the self-indicting hypocrisy and lack of cognitive dissonance from the ever-bellicose Weinstein is entertaining:  Read more…

Jason Torpy of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers is currently engaged in his annual campaign on atheism at the US military academies, which coincides with basic training at each service academy.  The Christian Post picked up on his discussion, and noted that some version of non-sectarian offering was available during basic training to new cadets.

Chaplain Ron Crews of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty acknowledges that those who choose to have no religious faith also have rights — but questions their desire to mimic religious institutions and have chaplains:  Read more…

The endorsing agent for Southern Baptist chaplains in the US military recently reiterated its stance against recognition of homosexual unions.  The impetus was the AP article on the McGuire AFB “civil union” event attended by Southern Baptist Chaplain (Col) Timothy Wagoner.

Retired US Army Chaplain (MajGen) Douglas Carver — former chief of all Army chaplains — is the executive director of the North American Mission Board, which endorses Southern Baptist chaplains in the US military:

“When the AP story first came out, we contacted Chaplain Wagoner and he assured us he was either misinterpreted or quoted out of context in the story,” Carver said.

Chaplain Wagoner “strongly refutes” the story that implies Read more…