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

Sort-of Transgender Army Reservist Threatens Suit over Haircut

The Washington Post reported that Kendall Oliver, a US Army Reservist, was turned away from a barber because the barber wouldn’t cut women’s hair:

Oliver is transgender. And with that, the Army reservist in the Los Angeles area became the latest citizen at the center of a recurring American debate: Where does freedom of religion end and discrimination begin?

That sentence just about summarizes the twisted world this has become.

Oliver is a woman who has decided she identifies “mostly as a man.” According to the article, she uses the pronoun “they” rather than he/she.

“They” is plural, for those who are losing track.

Oliver watched the barber turn another woman Read more

Christians and Voting for the Lesser of Two Evils

Update: While Russell Moore (discussed below) appeared to advocate abstaining rather than voting for an immoral candidate, Franklin Graham went on record for the opposite point of view, saying Christians may have to vote for the “less[er] of two heathens.”

Writing at Christianity Today, Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, discussed the moral situation some Christians may find themselves in at the ballot box — feeling as though they are having to decide between the “lesser of two evils.”

Moore essentially says that Christians cannot justifiably support either “evil.” The most notable part of Moore’s article was his use of the US military as an analogy to this Christian conundrum [emphasis added]:

Think of military service, another office of public responsibility, as an example. Members of the military don’t need to approve of everything a general decides to be faithful to their duty to the country.

But if they’re commanded to either slaughter innocent non-combatants or desert and sign up with the enemies of one’s country, a Christian can’t merely choose the least bad of these options. He would have to conclude that both are wrong and he could not be implicated in either.

It’s an interesting, if somewhat ill-fitting, analogy.

Yes, Christians (and every Read more

US Navy Relaxes Long-Held Discrimination

navyptThe US Navy took a broad step toward progress in January when it reconsidered a long held discriminatory policy, according to the Associated Press [emphasis added]:

The service branch loosened its body fat restrictions in January and is allowing those who failed their exams three or more times to get one more opportunity to be tested this spring under the more lenient guidelines.

This discrimination had reportedly begun to affect national security:  Read more

Chaplains, the Constitution, and Spiritual Backgrounds

An Air Force article about a shortage of chaplains at Creech Air Force base opened with an important statement:

With every airman having a different faith, each has something unique to add to the mission.

Implicit in that statement is something often forgotten:  The Air Force recognizes (or should recognize) virtue in the fact its Airmen have religious beliefs.

Another interesting Air Force article about military chaplains from Ramstein, Germany, explained what chaplains do and where they come from:  Read more

Former Muslim US Airman Convicted on Terrorism Charges

A former US Air Force Airman — and apparently a member of the Honor Guard — flew to Turkey in an attempt to join ISIS in 2015.  Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh was arrested upon his return to the United States and was convicted last week on terrorism-related charges.

Pugh joins a long list of Americans who have either attempted to or successfully attacked US troops while motivated by their Islamic faith — five of whom were members of the US military:

Besides Pugh, at least eleven other incidents have been recorded in which Read more

We are Not all Muslims: Military Veterans Hold Rally

The Smedley D. Butler Brigade of Veterans for Peace, an anti-war veterans group, recently held a rally outside a mosque in response to “bigotry” in the US presidential race:

Supporters of Veterans for Peace carried white and black flags featuring the group’s logo, a white dove set against a combat helmet, and displayed signs reading “Muslims are not our enemy.”

Boston Police Commissioner William Evans also spoke and made the somewhat unusual statement that

“We’re all Muslims deep down. We all yearn for peace.”

That seems to recall Read more

Air Force Paper on the Passive Terrorism of Hijabs

Writing at The Intercept, Murtaza Hussain took issue with a “US military white paper [describing] wearing hijab as ‘passive terrorism’.”

A policy paper issued by the Air Force Research Laboratory, titled Countering Violent Extremism: Scientific Methods & Strategies, includes a chapter setting forth controversial and unsubstantiated theories of radicalization, including the idea that support for militant groups is driven by “sexual deprivation” and that headscarves worn by Muslim women represent a form of “passive terrorism.”

In the interest of accuracy, it is worth noting the publication was not an Air Force policy paper, and it included the disclaimer that the views were expressly only the authors’.

It is also not unusual for the US military to publish academic Read more

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