Tag Archives: Church and State

Tikkun Covers Weinstein…with a Catch

Tikkun, which describes itself as a “progressive Jewish magazine,” recently gave an interview to Michael Weinstein in which he repeated many of his standard lines (America is equivalent to Nazi Germany in 1937, on a train to Slaughterville, withering fields of fire and sucking chest wounds, etc).

When Weinstein couldn’t come up with one, Tikkun told him it believed that the reason for the rise of the “Christian Right” was that only Christians were adequately responding to a “spiritual crisis” in America.  Weintein was asked how he would address this “crisis:”

How do you build character in this multi-religious, pluralistic way, that is feminist, that is sensitive to people, and yet is part of this huge, military, dominate-the-world force that seems to be what the American military is up to now?

His response:  Read more

Pentagon Report on Christian Embassy Completed

As noted recently in Time magazine (and the Washington Post, as of 6 Aug), the Inspector General completed its investigation (on July 20th) into the participation of military officers in a Christian Embassy promotional video.

No “official” release of the “Official Use Only” report could be found, though a few sites have scanned copies–most notably, Michael Weinstein’s MRFF, which claims credit for instigating the investigation. [Edit:  The IG has released a public version on their website.  It is now available here.]

Notable quotes from the report:

Military officers who appeared in a promotional video for Christian Embassy improperly endorsed and participated with a non-federal entity while in uniform.  (Violates JER Sections 2635.702b and 3-300a, and DoD and Service Regulations on uniform wear.)

Two participants were found not to have violated any rules, because though they personally endorsed Christian Embassy  Read more

Appeal Dropped in Government/Religious Speech Case

The Defense Logistics Agency has ended its appeal of a case in which an employee was barred from posting a “religious” message on an employee bulletin board.  (See the ADF article.)  (The case was decided in District Court in March in favor of the employee.)  The case involved an employee who posted a message stating that supporting the Combined Federal Campaign could result in support of abortion and homosexuality, among other things.  Read more

Christians and the Hindu Senate Invocation

On 12 July 2007, Rajan Zed, a Hindu resident* of Nevada, delivered a mantra for the traditional daily opening prayer in the US Senate.  Few Americans know his name, and fewer know what he said.  What many Americans know, however, is that he was interrupted.

Objectively, three people were removed from the Senate chamber during Zed’s chant.  Depending on the news source cited, the “activists,” “protesters,” “Christian patriots,” or “heroes” were arrested for “praying in Jesus’ name” or “disrupting” the Senate proceedings.

The three people openly said they were Christians, and they knew they could be arrested for what they were going to do.  They also said they were “not heckling,” but hoping their prayer would be a “shield” from God’s wrath over the Hindu “idolatry” in the nation’s Capitol.  James Klingenschmitt, the former Navy Chaplain, was in the Senate chamber and noted the irony of a government that would apparently suppress Christian prayer but allow that of a Hindu.

When the Hindu invitation was announced, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AU)–which ordinarily vociferously opposes government-endorsed chaplains–welcomed the incident as a step toward “diversity,” not because they agreed with the concept of government-backed prayer, but because it would make “the Religious Right…go insane.”  Read more

5th Circuit Vacates Suit Against School Board Prayers

An interesting split-decision [pdf] found that an anonymous plaintiff, represented by the ACLU, lacked standing to sue a school board for their opening invocations.

While the ADF called this a “blow” to the ACLU’s practice of suing with “offended observers,” it is worth noting that the court did not rule on the merits of the case.

[The “offended observer” refers loosely to accusations of “planting” people in public meetings who are suddenly offended.  Those who accused groups of using that tactic claimed they were unable to find a “real” offended person and thus had to create their own.  This supposedly led to lawsuits where plaintiffs were virtually unknown to the community that was in support of the challenged activity.]

A concurring opinion noted:  Read more

Weinstein Challenges JROTC Text on Religious Grounds

The Jewish Daily Forward notes that Mr. Michael Weinstein is taking issue with a JROTC text which “questions the validity” of the current popular interpretation of the phrase “separation of church and state.”  Though religion is nowhere mentioned, he views this as an example of “evangelical Christianity’s creeping encroachment.”  As is typical for a Weinstein article, it includes his latest tally of reported death threats. More interesting is Weinstein’s announcement that he is about to embark on a new “far-reaching litigation strategy.”  He also has a new book in the works titled “Taking God to Court.”

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