Tag Archives: MRFF

New York Times on Religion & the Military

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times has written an article revisiting the Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s complaints over religious content in Army suicide prevention material, as previously discussed here.

The article mentions that Michael Weinstein was able to meet with Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz.  It is a potential irony that Schwartz, like Weinstein, is Jewish (a fact not missed at his nomination), and that his class of 1973 at the Air Force Academy was replaced by Weinstein’s class of 1977.  Schwartz made no secret of his faith as a cadet and has not indicated that he experienced negative repercussions, while Weinstein claims a disturbing religious discrimination event while a cadet is the motivation behind all he does.

Weinstein reportedly said of the meeting with Schwartz

he [took] it very seriously, [and] he also acknowledged that there is a problem

Weinstein previously called Schwartz a “yes man” unable to “stand up” for what was right:

Because there’s a Jew in there, that’s supposed to make everything fine? It’s not fine. It doesn’t make a difference that he’s there. The reason to me is that he’s a yes man. He’s not going to stand up to do what needs to be done. But we’ll see.

Lichtblau notes that groups that oppose the MRFF fear an overreaction in the opposite direction.

Congressman Advocates for Chaplains’ Prayer

Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC, 3rd District) has introduced a bill that would

ensure that every military chaplain has the prerogative to close a prayer outside of a religious service according to the dictates of the chaplain’s own conscience.

Similar legislation failed previously, though it caused negotiations that ultimately resulted in the rescinsion of military “guidelines” that had restricted the content of Chaplains’ prayers.

Mitch Lewis, an Army Methodist Chaplain, wrote an interesting commentary in November 2007 (and recently revisited) on this very subject, presenting a reasoned view that prayers at military ceremonies Read more

MRFF Targets Army Suicide Prevention

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation recently “amended” its lawsuit against the Department of Defense.  It made one substantive addition, saying Army Specialist Chalker had

sought relief for his claims by invoking an intra-army administrative process. He has exhausted this alternative remedy but has obtained no substantial relief.

The premise of the cryptically vague statement (that Chalker used the Army’s in-place grievance systems) was already included in the lawsuit, so it does not appear that an amendment was judicially required.  The announcement of the changes to the lawsuit–which was only filed approximately three months earlier–did highlight the suit in the press for a short time.

The other changes, upon which the MRFF has focused attention, have been additions to the long list of allegations (unrelated to the primary complaint) of Christian endorsement in the US military, which founder Michael Weinstein says is a “national security threat:”

The military command and control of our nation’s nuclear, biological, chemical, conventional and laser-guided weapons has been unconstitutionally compromised by a tsunami of unbridled fundamentalist Christian exceptionalism, triumphalism and proselytizing. Read more

Military Chaplains Accused of “Treason”

Two Chaplains have recently come under fire from Michael Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.  One of Weinstein’s surrogates, Jason Leopold, has distributed a commentary on two Chaplains, one who was in Afghanistan, one in Iraq.  Both were videotaped in TV shows, and it is the content of those videos with which Weinstein finds offense. Read more

Support for Military Marriages

A recent Armed Forces Press article notes the efforts by military leaders to stave off increases in military divorce rates.  According to the article, approximately 58% of military members are married, and there is an approximately 3.5% divorce rate.

While praising the benefits these programs offer families, officials said they recognize that strong marital and family relationships make better Soldiers.

It also has an important impact on a soldier’s decision to re-enlist…The Army recruits Soldiers, but it retains families.

There are a wide variety of programs, many of which are run by the Chaplaincy.  The article includes praise for the US Army’s “Strong Bonds.”  Strong Bonds is a Chaplain-run program that has come under fire Read more

Military Non-Theists want Protective Regs

UPDATED 14 November 2008 

When they say ‘there are no atheists in foxholes’ it’s slanderous…

As noted at the Stars and Stripes, the Secular Coalition for America held a news conference demanding new regulations to “protect young military members from…rampant religious discrimination in the services.”

In their press release, the Secular Coalition notes that one atheist military officer was “thwarted” in his attempt to lodge a complaint against a General officer who “opined that there were ‘no atheists in foxholes.'”  The officer “contends this statement qualifies as unlawful discrimination under current Army regulations.”

As with some other complaints of religious issues in the military, the Coalition maintains that the perpetrators are Read more

New Weinstein Lawsuit Case Law

Prior to dropping its previous lawsuit against the Department of Defense, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation filed a new lawsuit on behalf of an Army soldier who was required to attend military formations at which “sectarian Christian” prayers were delivered.

The relief sought by the MRFF is not that the prayers end, but that the soldier not be required to attend those mandatory formations.  The unwieldiness of implementing this relief would have the effect of requiring all mandatory formations (whether in fact or perceived) to be free from sectarian prayer (which the 11th Circuit said would be impossible to define), or simply free from any prayer at all.

In its current filing, the MRFF does not attempt to prove that the prayers advanced a religion Read more

Court Upholds Invocations: Military Relevance

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the 11th Circuit upheld a lower court ruling that found a Georgia commission’s practice of opening their sessions with prayer was Constitutional.  According to the article, the lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State claimed that

overtly Christian prayers [with respect to the government] are an unconstitutional establishment of religion.

Instead, the court indicated (in its ruling here) that it was not appropriate for the judicial branch to “parse” prayers; and if they did, no one would be able to agree on what was or was not appropriate.

Whether invocations of ‘Lord of Lords’ or ‘the God of Abraham, Isaac and Mohammed’ are ‘sectarian’ is best left to theologians, not courts of law….We would not know where to begin to demarcate the boundary between sectarian and nonsectarian expressions….Even the [plaintiffs] cannot agree on which expressions are “sectarian.”

The ruling reflects the Supreme Court precendent Read more

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