Tag Archives: Chaplain

MRFF Sues USAFA over McClary Invitation

Michael Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation has reportedly sued the US Air Force Academy over its decision to invite a Christian to a Prayer Luncheon.  In an increasingly common scene, even the Air Force Times was able to accurately summarize the self-contradictory nature of the “religious freedom” group’s actions:

Five Air Force Academy instructors and an advocacy group are suing to stop the school from holding a religious event. (emphasis added)

One Academy faculty member, David Mullin of the Economics Department, is listed by name; four others are listed as “John Doe.”  Counsel appears to be David Lane, of Killmer, Lane & Newman in Denver.  Lane appears to have previously represented Ward Churchill, the “Balloon Boy” parents, and a student suing her school over a canceled William Ayers speech.

Contrary to his prior demands, the complaint indicates Weinstein no longer simply wants US Marine Corps (Ret) Lt Clebe McClary disinvited.  He wants the entire event canceled.

It is contended in this law suit [sic] that for the command structure of the AFA to undertake a purely religious activity such as this is a violation Read more

MRFF PR Machine Works Overtime Against McClary

Last Saturday the US Air Force Academy’s local Colorado Springs Gazette published responses to their previous editorial that described Michael Weinstein as worse than a hypocrite for trying to silence a retired military officer because of his religious views.

The letters were interesting not for their content, but for who wrote them.  The Gazette prefaced with:

The Gazette editorial “Censors want to silence war hero,” Jan. 24, advocated resulted [sic] in an overwhelming number of repsonses. Below is a small, representative sample.

The authors defending Weinstein’s criticism of USAFA’s invitation to Lt Clebe McClary, as included in the Gazette‘s sampling, were  Read more

MRFF Accuses USAFA Speaker of “Illegal” Conduct

Michael Weinstein has faced an onslaught of criticism in the past few days over his demand that the US Air Force Academy rescind Lt Clebe McClary’s invitation to the 10th Air Base Wing’s National Prayer Luncheon.  Several organizations, and even some of his own supporters, are seeing the hypocrisy and extremism in his call for LtGen Gould’s ouster over the religious beliefs of an invited speaker.

Apparently seeing no movement after their initial accusations, Chris Rodda, the MRFF research assistant, has now called McClary’s conduct “illegal:”

Lt. McClary also regularly violates Titles 10 and 18 of U.S. Code by appearing at his speaking engagements, both military and civilian, in a Marine uniform, something that, apparently, not a single military attendee at any of his numerous appearances on military bases has informed him is illegal.

In an unusual move for her, Rodda actually cites the law she claims McClary broke.  Of course, she doesn’t say what part of the hundreds of paragraphs of law within Titles 10 or 18 are at issue.  Here are some that are:  Read more

Weinstein Attacks USAFA Speaker: He’s ‘Wrong Kind of Christian’

Michael Weinstein has written a letter to the USAFA Superintendent, LtGen Michael Gould, “demanding” that an invitation to Lt Clebe McClary (USMC, Ret.) be rescinded.  Lt McClary — an internationally recognized motivational speaker and wounded Vietnam Veteran — has apparently been invited to speak at the 10 February National Prayer Luncheon for the 10th Air Base Wing, the wing that runs the facilities surrounding the Air Force Academy.

Weinstein’s reason?  McClary is the ‘wrong kind of Christian:’  Read more

National Guard Priest Promoted to Brigadier General

Kentucky Army National Guard Chaplain Pat Dolan was promoted to Brigadier General at the beginning of January.  He will serve as the Army National Guard Assistant to the Army Chief of Chaplains, Chaplain (Major General) Douglas Carver.  According to Army Public Affairs, he is the first Roman Catholic Priest to hold the position.

Chaplain (BrigGen) Dolan has been deployed to a variety of locations, including four times to Iraq.

Via the Army Chaplaincy blog.

Army Chaplain Starts Naturalist, Islamic Services

US Army Chaplain (Col) Dennis Newton is chronicled in an Army article that covers his tour of duty at Fort Irwin, where he reinvigorated the local Christian community:

Chaplain Newton said the decision was made to change the 11 a.m. service to a contemporary praise service, known as ChapelNext. But in order to accommodate those who have different flavors of Protestant services, the gospel service was made healthy and a traditional hymn service was established.

“We jumped from 70 people in attendance to…190 in the first week,” he noted…

Overall, the average number of people attending religious services on any given Sunday at Fort Irwin now nears 1,000, he said.

Christian Soldiers weren’t the only ones who benefited from the Chaplain’s Read more

Air Force Comprehensive Airman Fitness

With an interesting sense of timing, an Air Force article on “Comprehensive Airman Fitness,” focusing on “Spiritual Fitness,” was recently published at Charleston Air Force Base. 

As military articles on such topics often do, it calmly predicts and answers the questions of the recent uproar over Spiritual Fitness in the military.

There are three concepts associated with spirituality, according to [Chaplain (LtCol) Michael] Brown.

“The first is to discover meaning in your life and a meaning that transcends anything in the physical world,” he said. “Some find that through Read more

Sailor: Next Step, Equal Rights for Gay Servicemembers

Chris Patti, reportedly a Navy cryptologist, wrote an opinion piece at the Washington Post saying repeal of DADT was the “easy” part, and now Secretary of Defense Robert Gates faces “difficult” questions.  Oddly, Patti raises no questions that have not already been addressed.  Just like the terse answer to those who wondered if they could resign early if they had moral reservations about repeal (“No.”), the military working group on DADT repeal provided terse answers to Patti’s questions.  For example, he asks:  Read more

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