Tag Archives: religious freedom

Atheists: Remove “No Religious Preference” from Military

Update: Military.com notes:

a week after the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers submitted the petition on WhiteHouse.gov the effort has garnered just 25 of the 25,000 signatures it needs by Feb. 5 to get any kind of response from the White House.

Jason Torpy, a former Army captain and current atheist, has filed a petition on WhiteHouse.gov to have “no religious preference,” or “NO REL PREF,” removed from the options in troops’ military records. He also wants the question removed from the list of requirements during inprocessing, making it an optional “opt in” later.

The latter is probably extremely unlikely.  First, the military has been mandated by law to make a variety of things a “mandatory opt in,” based on the belief most servicemembers will never make the extra effort to do so otherwise. (For example, one congressman floated the idea of forcing members of the military to enroll in the pseudo-retirement “Thrift Savings Plan.”)  Torpy explicitly stated there was pressure to “choose Christianity” in basic training:  Read more

MRFF’s Chris Rodda Criticizes One Military Chapel, Defends Another

If one wasn’t aware of her history, it might have been surprising to see a recent pair of articles highlight the intellectually inconsistency of the MRFF’s Chris Rodda.

Rodda recently went on record defending the construction of the US Air Force Academy chapel facility called the “Falcon Circle” from those who claimed it was an inappropriate use of government money for three cadets (a separate issue discussed elsewhere).  She said:

Designating the stone circle as a chapel facility simply accommodates a religious group with a worship area that meets their needs, something taken for granted by other religious groups at the Academy. Whether the users of that worship space number in the hundreds or in single digits is completely irrelevant when it comes to providing a place for them to worship according to their beliefs.

Comically, four days later an article appeared in the Tennessean quoting the Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s 2009 criticism of the construction of a different chapel at Fort Campbell.

The [MRFF] felt it looked too much like a megachurch Read more

US Military Chaplain Reaches out in Faith Exchange

Chaplains protect the religious liberties of US military servicemembers, but as noted here often, they also support the strategic objectives of the US military mission.

A Chaplain at the transit center in Manas, Kyrgyzstan, did that very thing:

One of the four mission pillars of the Transit Center is to build relationships, and…Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Steven Thompson decided to reach out to his Kyrgyz Republic brethren.

He asked a few of the translators at the Transit Center if there was a Baptist church in town…So one Sunday, Thompson, Master Sgt. James Iaun, the superintendent of chapel operations, and a translator showed up for a service.

The pastor of the church in Bishkek, Anton Berdnikov, asked the chaplain to return Read more

US Chaplains Train Burundi Military on Combat Stress

US military chaplains from US Army Africa helped train chaplains of the Burundi Army on combat-related stress.

The first such USARAF-led seminar of its kind conducted in Africa, U.S. Army Africa Command Chaplain Col. Jonathon McGraw said the seminar showed Burundi chaplains and medical personnel how to help their leaders identify signs and symptoms associated with combat stress.

The US Army has struggled through more than 10 years of war to Read more

Chaplain in Afghanistan Lives a Hollywood Movie Script

The Baptist Press says US Air Force Chaplain (Capt) Kevin Humphrey’s report back to his sending agency

reads like the script of a Hollywood blockbuster.

Chaplain Humphrey is currently deployed to Kandahar and has been nearly constantly busy with rocket attacks, attending to the wounded, and serving the spiritual needs of all on the base, including US, British, Canadian, Pakistani, and others.

With challenges come opportunities:  Read more

USAFA Falcon Circle was “Right Thing to Do”

Update: Also repeated at Military.com.

Don Branum of the US Air Force Academy wrote a comprehensive article entitled “Why building Falcon Circle was ‘right thing to do'”, referencing the outdoor chapel area dedicated for use by members of USAFA claiming an “earth-centered” faith.  The article appeared to respond to Associated Press reports USAFA had spent $80,000 on the facility for but a few cadets.  (It did not appear to be related to the report by Senator Coburn, which did not use the $80K figure.)

The article covers the history — the factual history — of both the cadet chapel and pagans in the US military in general.  In so doing, it naturally compares the Falcon Circle to the Cadet Chapel.

As noted previously, it is neither reasonable nor appropriate to directly compare Read more

Fort Bragg Chaplains Encourage Strong Bonds in Marriage

The Fort Bragg command chaplain’s office hosted the latest meeting of Strong Bonds, the chaplain-based marriage strengthening retreats intended to help troops on the homefront.

“It’s especially critical for military personnel in that it’s difficult enough being in a relationship with someone, but when you take the dynamics of the military, the Army, the separation, the work stress, the long hours from time to time, that puts additional stress on relationships,” said Chaplain (Maj.) Ralph Clark…

The chaplains host 8 such seminars every year, and are based on a variety of relationship models:  Read more

Albert Mohler on Dangerous Evangelicals

Though the furor has died down in the intervening few months, an October column by R. Albert Mohler, Jr, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, attempted to address the then-prominent controversy over Christians and Christianity in political life.  Whether you call it “dominionism” or just “fundamentalism,” Mohler took on the issue of those who are decrying the rise of “Christian nationalism.”  He asks:

What is so scary about America’s evangelical Christians?

and notes the chorus of voices warning about the rise of a Christian “theocratic state,” “Christian nationalism,” and a usurpation by Read more

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