Former NFL Falcons Talk to Soldiers about Faith, One Way

MajGen Gary Brito, commanding general of the Army post at Fort Benning, recently hosted former NFL players Buddy Curry and Bobby Butler for the well-attended National Day of Prayer event:

[MajGen] Brito…introduced the speakers, citing them as “leaders of character and faith.”…

In the locker room, [Bobby Butler] was surrounded by quarterbacks Steve Bartkowski, Mike Moroski and June Jones, all of whom were strongly religious and proselytized the rookie Butler. Eventually Butler relented to the three and became more spiritual.

“I thank God for my time in Atlanta,” said Butler.

On the team, Butler soon became the preacher: Read more

LGBT Community Cedes June as US Military Pride Month

Last year there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the homosexual community over whether President Trump would proclaim June to be “LGBT Pride month.” This angst included LGBT activists associated with the military. Ultimately, President Trump never made the proclamation last year, but the US Navy got out in front of him and celebrated sexual “pride” anyway.

This year, there was little fanfare as June began. It appears the homosexual community was resigned to President Trump not issuing a proclamation, and they didn’t bother to make a big deal of it.

The military leadership, for its part, “distanced” itself from the “pride” month.

Even the DEOMI, which puts out the “special observance” posters to mark Read more

Phases of Subtle Discrimination in the Armed Forces


What every Christian service member should know

by Sonny Hernandez

Religious discrimination is not a myth that Christians should ignore. First Liberty Institute reported that a Southern Baptist military chaplain is being investigated—not because he violated a policy—but because of his religious convictions. Army Chaplain Scott Squires allegedly explained to a Soldier that he could not conduct a marriage retreat that included same sex couples because of his religious convictions that are mandated by his endorsing agency, and protected by Federal law. As a result, an Army investigator concluded that “Chaplain Squires discriminated because his chaplain endorsing agency, the North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), forbids its chaplains from facilitating marriage retreats that include same-sex couples,” according to the First Liberty Institute.

There are typically four phases that cultivate the discrimination process. Christians Read more

MRFF Makes Veiled Threat Against Critics

Joan Slish has long been a source of fascinating inside information at Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s MRFF.  She sometimes seems to tell it like it is, even to the MRFF’s detriment (see here, here, and here, for example).

Slish is one of several people who “corresponds” with those who write hate mail to the MRFF — even if it comes from a supposedly fake email address. (Her 1500-word responses are almost precisely the same copy/paste text every time.) Why bother “writing” to a junk address? Apparently, the correspondence is distributed among the MRFF faithful as some sort of mark of pride. Fair enough, if that’s really where you want to exert your energy.

But what if the email address is legitimate?

That’s what makes this thinly veiled threat from Slish concerning:  Read more

Tony Perkins Appointed to Religious Freedom Commission

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins has been appointed to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) via Senator Mitch McConnell:

I am grateful to Majority Leader McConnell for appointing me to this prestigious position. From my post at USCIRF, I look forward to doing all that I can to ensure that our government is the single biggest defender of religious freedom internationally…

Tony Perkins and Read more

Air Force Chaplain Montanari Converts to Judaism, Claims Discrimination

In an unusual case that will probably generate support and criticism from all sides, former Air Force Chaplain (Capt) Jeffrey Montanari has alleged that after he converted from Christianity to Judaism (as a chaplain) he faced discrimination and mistreatment, and that he was ultimately denied a position as a Jewish chaplain as a result.

Chaplain Montanari is now represented by First Liberty in a scenario likely making critics of “fundamentalist Christianity” heads explode. As reported in the Air Force Times [emphasis added]:

Montanari…became an officer and a chaplain in the Air Force Reserve in 2010, endorsed by the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel…

In 2012, he transferred to a position in the California Air National Guard…

[His experiences with the local Jewish community], coupled with his discovery of his own Jewish lineage, led Montanari to begin seriously considering a conversion to Orthodox Judaism.

But that decision allegedly came at a high cost.

Superiors allegedly demeaned his character, refused to grant him a religious accommodation, segregated him from the rest of the chaplain staff, and excluded him from chaplain meetings, according to a statement from his lawyers. They effectively drove him out of the Air Force because of his change in religious affiliation, his lawyers argue.

At this point, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein would Read more

In Odd Move, Mikey Weinstein Defends ADF Christian Legal Group

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein recently publicized a letter (PDF) he wrote to Jeff Bezos, CEO of online shopping giant Amazon, to protest the removal of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) from the company’s charity program AmazonSmile. Weinstein titled his letter a “principled DEFENSE of RIVAL organization” (emphasis original) and said:

Frankly, we disagree with ADF’s positions on almost everything in law and policy. For years we’ve crossed swords and fought for our respective opposing views. But it is one thing to fight for ideals, and it’s another to marginalize and suppress others — even those you vehemently disagree with. And that is what’s happening when ADF is branded a “hate” group and thrown out of the Amazon Smile program.

It sounds noble, but it is very unusual for Weinstein — and wholly inconsistent Read more

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