Tag Archives: fort jackson

Kenneth Copeland Speaks at Prayer Breakfast over Mikey Weinstein Protests

Yesterday, Kenneth Copeland spoke at the Fort Jackson Prayer Breakfast — despite Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s vehement demands that he be disinvited.

In noting Weinstein’s failure, the Christian Post highlighted the fact Weinstein had made an 11th-hour reattack, saying [emphasis added]:

In the second letter, sent Wednesday, Weinstein…included comments…denouncing Copeland’s remarks and his overall prosperity gospel worldview, with one figure stating that “Jesus Christ…would NOT recognize Kenneth Copeland as a disciple.”

Mikey Weinstein demanded the US military take action against someone because he didn’t agree with the content of their religious faith: Because “Jesus Christ…would NOT recognize Kenneth Copeland,” Mikey Weinstein and his group believe Copeland should have been banned.

He wasn’t even trying to hide his disdain for Copeland’s religion; he wasn’t even pretending to support “religious freedom.” Weinstein explicitly used Read more

Kenneth Copeland Issues Statement at Fort Jackson

Following some activist complaints about their Prayer Breakfast tomorrow, Fort Jackson released a statement from televangelist Kenneth Copeland regarding his position on PTSD. The statement says, in essence, that Copeland does not categorically deny the utility of doctors and medicine, which may be helpful to Christians whose “faith is not yet fully developed.” Importantly, he described his position as one based on his faith, with application to those who share his faith.  In another manner of speaking, his PTSD comments are directed only toward those who share his faith.

A local paper sought comment from Michael “Mikey” Weinstein:

Mikey Weinstein…said that Fort Jackson officials issuing the statement in Copeland’s name was “shamefully shilling for him as though they are his press agents.”

Weinstein really should have coordinated with his public relations folks, as he missed out on the opportunity to address the actual statement. After all, he’s the one loudly demanding Copeland be disinvited over issues of PTSD. Here Copeland addresses that very issue — and Weinstein gets quoted throwing a temper tantrum over the mechanism rather than the content, making Read more

Mikey Weinstein Demands US Army Ban Evangelist Kenneth Copeland

UPDATE: Fort Jackson says “there are no plans to rescind the invitation,” as reported by MRFF-friendly Nina Burleigh at Newsweek. Fort Jackson said [emphasis added]:

The Prayer Breakfast is open to all community members, is entirely voluntary, and is cost free to the Army and attendees. Mr. Copeland’s participation in the prayer breakfast is not an endorsement by Fort Jackson of him or of any comments that he may present. Fort Jackson respects and protects all individual’s rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution, including ensuring access to religious services and events for those who wish to participate and protecting the rights of those who do not.

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein has sent an email to Fort Jackson, SC, demanding the Army post disinvite Kenneth Copeland from their upcoming National Prayer Breakfast. Addressing MajGen John Johnson, Fort Jackson’s Commanding General, Weinstein wrote that Fort Jackson’s upcoming speaker:

is the universally despicable, discredited, fundamentalist Christian extremist/supremacist Kenneth Copeland. Do you know ANYthing of moment about this feckless, religious bully/provocateur, General Johnson?

Weinstein went on to call Copeland “disgusting,” “a miserable, fundamentalist Christian wretch,” a “divisive and corrosive individual/religious predator and bully” and “hideously reprehensible fundamentalist Christian charlatan cum exclusivist bigot.”

Clearly, Mikey Weinstein has a thing for Kenneth Copeland.

But other than his dripping vitriol and thesaurus-like list of adjectives of disdain for the prosperity gospel minister, Weinstein never Read more

Fort Jackson Chapel to be Razed

Not long after noting a US military chapel in Australia had been preserved since WWII, an article from Fort Jackson reveals their WWII era chapel will soon be flattened:

The chapel, built in 1941 and dedicated in 1958 to all the soldiers who trained at Fort Jackson for World War II, is slated for demolition in October…

A Fort Jackson spokesman said via email that the chapel was too expensive to move, repair or operate.

In 2013, Dobbins Read more

Southern Baptist Naval Chaplain Graduates Leadership Course

The Navy posted an article about 21 chaplains graduating from the entry-level Basic Leadership Course at the US military’s combined chaplains school at Fort Jackson, SC. The article was relatively unnotable, with one exception:

Lt. j.g. Mercedes Speller is a Southern Baptist chaplain heading to Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation (CREDO) at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, as a staff chaplain. She Read more

Are Paganism, Atheism Growing in the US Military?

wiccantroopsA US Army Private recently related how the pagan community at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, helped him find his way:

I graduated [training] a few weeks ago and only got to attend one gathering, It was a great experience…I was raised in an environment always surrounded in crystals and meditation, energy and magics, Reiki and healing, spirits and the like, but no words to put to what I knew…

It wasn’t until I went to the circle at Fort Jackson that I could definitively say I’m a white magic practitioner and hold pagan beliefs as far as karmic law and universal ties and energy go…

HeatStreet recently published a blog on the Fort Jackson pagan circle, which it claims now Read more

US Military Chaplain Museum Seeks Modern Memories

A local article from the South Carolina paper The State, reprinted at Stars and Stripes, highlighted the Fort Jackson, SC, US Army Chaplain’s Museum.

The U.S. Army Chaplains Museum at Fort Jackson has artifacts dating back to the earliest days of the chaplain corps, which was founded by an act of the Continental Congress in 1775. George Washington appointed the first chaplains.

The article notes the museum is specifically seeking Read more

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