Petty Officer 3rd Class Garret Matthews…fills cups for communion during the battalion’s field training exercise aboard the Combat Center, Jan. 9, 2016. Rear Adm. Brent Scott, Chaplain of the Marine Corps, offered a religious service with music, communion and a sermon. (Official Marine Read more
Last fall, chaplains from the 181st Intel Wing, an Air National Guard unit in Terre Haute, Indiana, led a Strong Bonds marriage retreat called “Laugh your Way to a Better Marriage.” Though they haven’t been in the news much, chaplain-led marriage retreats have been an ongoing source of tension as chaplains and service members try to navigate the sensitivities of ‘other sexuality’ — a point that sometimes taints the “non-event” narrative of supporters of DADT repeal.
The Racers’ retreat highlights from where some of that tension can come: Read more
In a seemingly rare occurrence, the US Air Force Academy received a bit of positive press when the American Family Association asked people to sign a petition thanking USAFA for protecting the religious liberty of its cadets. Noting the faux-controversy of USAFA football players taking a knee in the end zone, the AFA first quoted the official USAFA response:
The United States Air Force Academy places a high value on the rights of its members to observe the tenets of their respective religion or to observe no religion at all. Recently, the United States Air Force Academy received a complaint about its football players kneeling in prayer. An inquiry was initiated, which found the football players’ actions to be consistent with Air Force Instruction 1-1 and its guidance on the free exercise of religion and religious accommodation.
The United States Air Force Academy will continue to reaffirm to cadets that all Airmen are free to practice the religion of their choice or subscribe to no religious belief at all. The players may confidently practice their own beliefs without pressure to participate in the practices of others.
The AFA concluded with: Read more
Ed Brayton is a prolific and progressive atheistic blogger who is also a longtime ally of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein and his research assistant, Chris Rodda. Unlike Rodda, Brayton occasionally shows a rare streak of principle and holds his own ideologues to the same standards he demands of the “right wing fundamentalists” he so often mocks. Still, like Rodda and Weinstein, he is often blind to the traits he shares with those he ridicules.
On Monday, Brayton wrote a blog at the pay-per-click Patheos entitled “Cruz Shows He Has No Clue About the Military” in which he mocks presidential candidate and US Senator Ted Cruz for his statement saying of ISIS “we will carpet bomb them into oblivion.” Speaking to Cruz, Brayton says:
Do you or do you not know what carpet bombing is? He makes clear that he does not.
Brayton quotes Cruz waxing political in pivoting to Operation Desert Storm and the military draw down that has occurred since then: Read more
On the 14th of January, two US Marine CH-53E Super Stallions went missing near Hawaii, presumably from a midair collision. The 12 Marines are still missing.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Marines and their families as we continue search and rescue efforts.
Each year since 1993 the President has declared January 16th to be “Religious Freedom Day,” in order to remember the passage of Thomas Jefferson’s 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. President Obama is scheduled to release his proclamation tomorrow.
Jefferson’s statute continues to be a strong expression for the value of religious liberty even today. Though the statute has been discussed in many places and in great depth, there are two important points to take from the statute. First, Read more
Update: Nearly a month later, Mikey Weinstein complained that the disclaimer discussed below was “lipstick on a pig.” Weinstein appeared offended that he hadn’t been consulted and that his demand that Col Hundley be “publicly punish[ed]” was ignored.
The latest US service member to publicly mention his faith and get castigated by Michael “Mikey” Weinstein is US Army Col Thomas Hundley. In a 400-word post at the US military’s official Health.mil, Col Hundley provided one of his regular “Motivational Monday Messages” and recounted his grandfather’s admonition “You just gotta give God a little something to work with.”
He finished with
I challenge you to join the Operation Live Well team on the journey to attain a “new you” in 2016. All we have to do is give God and ourselves a little something to work with. Happy New Year!
and included a list of “improvements” for 2016, among which was
1. Improve your spiritual fitness through increased prayer.
Cited by Military.com’s Bryant Jordan, Weinstein said he complained because Read more
Michael “Mikey” Weinstein frequently publishes messages written in support of his organization, as he did last week when he published a letter from a supporter to Franklin Graham berating Graham for his defense of US Air Academy football players taking a knee in the end zone. The supporter first summarized what he believed was Graham’s position:
You contended that young football players at the USAF Academy should be free to kneel down in a circle before a football game if they wished.
While it’s not too far off, that’s not actually what was happening. Football players were Read more