Tag Archives: monifa sterling

Group Criticizes “Debunked” Attacks on Military Religious Freedom

People for the American Way, a politically left-wing/liberal organization, recently criticized a Family Research Council email that cited attacks on military religious freedom. PFAW’s complaint was that the stories FRC’s President Tony Perkins cited were, in their words, “easily debunked.”

As evidence, they linked to other online articles that did not debunk FRC’s stories.

For example, PFAW linked to an Americans United article that claimed Army Chaplain (Capt) Joe Lawhorn was not, in fact, sanctioned for discussion of his faith. But he indisputably was given paperwork for mentioning his faith, and the AU article doesn’t actually “debunk” the claim — it only criticizes the claim, without detracting from those facts.

PFAW similarly linked to another left-wing site that criticized Navy Chaplain Wes Modder, who was nearly run out of the Navy. The linked article cited the Navy commander’s initial accusations as fact — and neither that site nor PFAW bothered to mention that the Navy ultimately denied the attempt to kick Chaplain Modder out. In oversimplified terms, the complaint was invalidated. The linked article also quoted Read more

First Liberty: Supreme Court Must Review Sterling Bible Case

Kelly Shackelford of the First Liberty Institute wrote at the National Review that the US Supreme Court needs to review the case of court-martialed former US Marine Monifa Sterling:

Americans serving in the military lost some of their rights earlier this month when the military’s highest court ruled that a Marine has no rights under an important religious freedom law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

Shackelford explained where he believed the appeals court improperly diverged from the appropriate application of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act:  Read more

MRFF Focuses Bible Attack on Display, Accommodation

Former Assembly of God pastor Joan Slish, an advisory board member of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s MRFF, is a constant source of delightful insight into the MRFF’s sometimes opaque logic. Most recently, she responded to an MRFF detractor, as she often does, with a 1,000-word post that was nearly identical to every other post she makes. There were a couple of notable deviations, however.

Referencing the recent accusation by Mikey Weinstein that USAF Major Steve Lewis should be punished for having a Bible on his desk, Slish said [emphasis added]

To place the opened, highlighted, underlined Christian Bible on a military desk 24/7 for other service members to see elevates the Christian God above all others and is in violation of the Constitution, Separation of Church and State under the Establishment Clause, Reynolds v. U.S., Lemon v. Kurtzman, the Lemon Test, Parker v. Levy and AFI 1-1, Section 2.12.

Yes, the MRFF appears to believe that a Bible on a military member’s desk is the state establishing religion. Apparently ISIS is doing it wrong. Put a Koran on a desk and the caliphate is won, according to Mikey Weinstein.

We’ll ignore Slish’s ignorance regarding a citizen being in “violation” of court cases. (That’s not the branch of government that makes or enforces laws, Joan.)

The relevant issue is her contention that the Bible was, in Read more

Precedent? Bible-Quoting Court-Martialed Marine’s Conviction Upheld

Monifa Sterling was court-martialed by the US Marine Corps for a variety of charges. One was failure to obey an order, when she refused after being told to remove three print-outs of a paraphrased Bible verse from her desk.

With the help of the First Liberty Institute, Sterling appealed to the highest military court, the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, on the basis that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act protected her religious exercise. (Despite some ignorant mockery from Mikey Weinstein’s Chris Rodda, the remaining charges for which she was convicted were not appealed, meaning her Bad Conduct Discharge wasn’t going to change.)

In a 4-1 ruling (PDF), the court upheld her conviction on that charge.

One interesting result was the court seemed unanimous in its “reject[ion]” of the logic used by the lower court, the US Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, which said (PDF) the order to remove the signs was  Read more

MRFF’s Chris Rodda Advocates Military Religious Discrimination

It’s been long established that Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s awkwardly-named Military “Religious Freedom” Foundation actually fights against the religious freedom of Christians in the US military. Examples abound of cases in which a reasonable, principled religious liberty group should have stood up in defense of an Airman, Soldier, Marine, or Sailor, but Weinstein either refused to defend the troop because they were Christian or outright attacked their religious liberty instead.

Fortunately, genuine religious liberty groups have stood in the gap for such Christians — and have defended them even from Weinstein himself. One of the more notable groups is the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has a long history of, unlike Weinstein, consistent, principled defense of religious freedom regardless of a person’s particular religious belief.

(To wit, the Becket Fund has been fighting for the right of Sikhs to serve in the US military while still being able to practice their religious faith; Weinstein has so far refused to do so, tacitly acknowledging that a “win” for the Sikhs would ultimately be a win for other faiths — including Christians.)

More recently, Mikey Weinstein tried to attack the religious liberty of Read more

General Boykin, FRC to Attend Court Martial Appeal

UPDATE: Various media outlets published coverage of the hearing, which generally appeared to go well for Sterling.  Noted at the Religion Clause, FoxNews, Washington Post, Stars and Stripes, ChristianPost, Bretibart, the Daily Caller, and NC Register, among others.  The ACLJ discussed it here.

The Family Research Council announced retired US Army LtGen Jerry Boykin would attend the oral arguments today for the appeal of US v Sterling, in which former Marine Monifa Sterling is attempting to defend the public display of Bible verses on her desk.

In this case, the court will decide whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) protects a Marine…lance corporal [who] desired to post the verses to give her inspiration and strength, but military superiors ordered her to remove the verses she posted.

A lower court refused to protect her religious expression, interpreting RFRA in a constrained manner to protect only certain types of religious exercise. FRC and numerous other religious freedom advocates are urging the court to overturn this harmful decision.

In point of fact, a lot of people — including 10 US states — filed briefs in support Read more

ADF, Chaplain Alliance, Ten States, More File Support for Court-Martialed Marine

The Alliance Defending Freedom and the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty have filed an amicus brief on behalf of court-martialed Marine Monifa Sterling. Among other things, Sterling was convicted of disobeying orders for refusing to remove references to a Bible verse from her desk.

In short, the brief (PDF) calls on the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces to overturn the lower court ruling that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act did not apply, which essentially negated Sterling’s defense on that point. The effect, said the ADF’s Daniel Briggs, could be a chilling of religious Read more

ACLJ Details Support for Military Religious Freedom

The ACLJ recently posted an appeal for support that listed recent cases of military religious freedom, and they set themselves up as the foil to Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s MRFF in the process. Speaking of their support for court-martialed US Marine Monifa Sterling [emphasis added]:

Angry atheist Mikey Weinstein and his Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) also filed a brief asking the court to reject Sterling’s appeal and ignore the violation of her religious freedom. (Remember it is Mikey Weinstein and his extremist group that has repeatedly called Christians in the military “monsters who terrorize.”)

Regarding a recent FOIA lawsuit Weinstein filed against the US Air Force Academy [italics original, emphasis added]:  Read more

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