An Uplifting Chaplain Assistant Story, with a Disclaimer

A Peterson AFB chaplain assistant was featured in a recent article about his experience fighting a brain infection and going through multiple brain surgeries:

[Staff Sgt. Anthony Bean] was transferred out of the emergency room and into a facility that could handle treating brain infections. They told him he needed brain surgery.

With the seriousness of the surgery looming in his mind, Bean said he was comforted knowing his pastor and his Air Force family were reaching out to him and praying for his speedy recovery.

The article is fairly short and is an uplifting look into dealing with adversity — which makes the final “editor’s note” all the more disconcerting [formatting original]:  Read more

A Tale of Two Chaplains: The Hypocrisy of Mikey Weinstein and Tom Carpenter

Mikey Weinstein’s MRFF and Tom Carpenter’s Forum on the Military Chaplaincy
advocate “Do as I say… not as I do.”

Last week, the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy’s hypocrisy was on full display. Tom Carpenter, a homosexual lawyer and former US Marine fighter pilot, co-chairs the Forum and seems to be its primary voice. Carpenter berated the religious expression of Air Force Chaplain Sonny Hernandez and called him unfit to serve — while the Forum Carpenter simultaneously leads says it supports a military chaplaincy with “free and diverse religious expression.”

It seems Carpenter and his Forum only support diversity of religious expression when they agree with the content of that expression.

Last week Carpenter also seemed to join with Michael “Mikey” Weinstein — a Forum ally — in criticizing military chaplains who attended an awards event hosted by the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, a group of chaplain endorsers that advocates for religious liberty within the military. The Forum re-posted reports on the MRFF’s accusations with the ominous statement that the “Air Force [is] in hot water again,” and didn’t contravene one of its own who agreed with Weinstein’s acerbic calls for punishing the chaplains. When others defended the chaplains, Carpenter weighed in by saying they were “clueless” about the rules and regulations regarding wear of the uniform. Carpenter clearly felt Chaplain (MajGen) Dondi Costin and the other chaplains in attendance were in the wrong.

So why didn’t Carpenter feel so strongly about his own event?

In early April, the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy hosted Read more

Gary Chapman Teaches Ramstein Couples about Marriage

The chapel at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, recently hosted Gary Chapman (author of The 5 Love Languages) as part of a marriage seminar for military couples:

The topics discussed during the seminar included how different people give and receive love, common causes of conflicts between couples, and how they can improve communication in order to minimize these conflicts.

Chapman emphasized communication as an indispensable tool in producing a healthy and intimate marriage.

Chaplain (Capt) Kristin Swenson indicated the event was well-received, and it Read more

Navy T-45 Crashes in Texas, Pilots Eject

The US Navy reported that one of its trainers, a T-45C Goshawk, crashed on a training mission Sunday night:

The training aircraft, assigned to Training Squadron (VT) 21, crashed during a routine training mission over Brooks County. County first responders were immediately dispatched to the scene.

A Stars and Stripes report indicated the aircrew were actually Marine officers. The two ejected and were transported to the local hospital.

The crash 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

Gay Advocates Fear Christians Endanger the Military Chaplaincy

In the ensuing discussions about Chaplain Sonny Hernandez’s article on transgenderism and the military chaplaincy, Tom Carpenter of the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy tried to claim a moral high ground, saying the Christian beliefs expressed by Chaplain Hernandez might “bring down” and “lead to the dismantling of the military chaplaincy”:

forum1

Sonny: I sincerely fear people like you and the Christian Fighter Pilot are going to bring down the military chaplaincy. And that would be a real tragedy for our men and women in the uniform.

forum2

I caution you to be careful your conduct and words do not lead to the dismantling of the military chaplaincy. That would be a tragedy to our service members who really need support and guidance.

Tom Carpenter simultaneously describes himself as Read more

Response to Chris Rodda: MRFF Misfits & Yellow Journalism

by Sonny Hernandez

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is an infamous, anti-God advocacy group that conspicuously and recurrently bombasts Bible-believing Christians in the Armed Forces. The MRFF is led by Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, a failed lawyer, whose track record in court has resulted in an embarrassing amount of victories: zero. However, Weinstein has made a wealthy career out of fundraising that involves legal threats against anyone who affirms conservative orthodoxy in the Armed Forces. Weinstein’s desperate attempts to raise funds include: inciting hostility toward Bible-believing Christians by reviling them as a constitutional threat, and by subtly or transparently sending fallacious letters to commanders to ostracize their subordinates.

The MRFF produces articles that do contend for religious liberty, just not those who hold to sincerely held theological convictions about the inerrancy of Scripture (which is why the MRFF appellation is preposterous). This can be seen through the writings of Chris Rodda, a Read more

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