Tag Archives: religious freedom

Activists Celebrate Same Sex Ceremony at McGuire AFB

Following the homosexual non-marital “private religious ceremony” in a military chapel at Fort Polk, which raised complaints due to Louisiana’s state laws regarding marriage, an Air Force Tech Sergeant entered a “civil union” in a military chapel on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

Dozens of friends and family members attended Saturday afternoon’s ceremony for Tech. Sgt. Erwynn Umali and Will Behrens. It was presided over by Kay Reeb, a Navy chaplain with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America…

Chaplain Reeb’s denomination accepts homosexual  Read more

Book Review: Memoirs from Babylon

Chaplain Jeff Bryan
Ingram 2011

Memoirs from Babylon, A Combat Chaplain’s life in Iraq’s Triangle of Death, is the story of Chaplain (Capt) Jeff Bryan’s deployment to Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division from 2006 to 2007.

The book stands as one of the better examples of the “day to day” operations of a chaplain deployed to a US military war zone, both for his perspective on the combat itself but also for the duties to which he tended. He tells repeated stories of counseling soldiers who learn of family deaths back home, scrounging a Catholic chaplain to Read more

A Chaplain’s Service to Wounded Warriors

An article at Defense.gov highlights the service of Air Force Chaplain (LtCol) Brian Bohlman, who has served at the theater hospital at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan for six months:

The chaplain gave the cross he brought from home to the young injured Marine from Florida.

The Marine had been hurt in a roadside bomb explosion and had lost the cross that was on his body armor. When the chaplain presented the cross to the young Marine, both men cried…

Read more.

Congress to Codify Religious Rights in Funerals

Last year a Houston Veterans’ Cemetery director was accused of banning all religious references from funerals occurring at her facility (as well as using the chapel as a storage shed, among other things).  A lawsuit was filed, and settled.  The consent decree prohibited the cemetery, then run by Arleen Ocasio, and the VA from interfering with or prohibiting religious references in the ceremonies.

This year, Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) has sponsored a bill that would codify in law the ruling in that consent decree.

Problems arose in Houston when the cemetery director misinterpreted [the] law to prohibit all religious speech.  Read more

Congressmen Call Air Force Hostile to Religion Again

Updated with BrigGen Lee quote on Michael Weinstein.

Sixty-six members of Congress called on Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to investigate the US Air Force for an environment of “hostility towards religious freedom” — the fourth time in recent months they’ve made such an accusation.

The Congressional letter (PDF) essentially said that Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz’s September policy letter had created a “chilling effect” on religious freedom as Airmen attempted to comply with his guidance:

The decisions that have been made in reliance upon this policy go beyond what is required by the US Constitution.  The First Amendment prohibits the establishment of religion; however, the mere discussion of religion or reference to God certainly does not rise to that level.

The Congressmen said the Air Force had “capitulated” to organizations Read more

Pentagon to Host Gay Pride Event

Tomorrow the Pentagon will host the US military’s first-ever “gay pride” celebration.

The event will include speakers who will address the “value of gay service.”

The official poster was “proudly” distributed to a homosexual advocacy site by Lt Col Todd Breasseale of Public Affairs.

The military apparently had to be very careful in its wording of the event, because the “T” in LGBT, transgenders, are still prohibited from active duty military service, though it seems transgender civilians will be part of the “pride.”

Retired Chaplain (COL) Ron Crews of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty condemned the celebration and noted the interesting timing of the original announcement, coming just a day after the Pentagon publicized the fact it would no longer permit its service symbols to be used on military themed Bibles.

Presumably, in a spirit of equality, next month the US military will Read more

Beard Controversy Continues in Fort Hood Shooter Case

US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was kicked out of the courtroom again for wearing a beard in violation of military grooming standards.  The issues of accommodation were already discussed, but this exchange was particularly interesting:

Lead defense attorney Lt. Col. Kris Poppe told the judge that Hasan grew the beard as a “deeply sincere” expression of his faith…

“I’ll wait for him to shave if he wants to come back in here,” [Judge Col Gregory] Gross told Hasan’s attorneys. “He has a choice.”

[Attorney LtCol Kris] Poppe responded that it was a choice to “to obey you or his religious faith.”  Read more

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