Remembering the Four Chaplains 75 Years Later

On 3 February 1943, the troop carrying USAT Dorchester was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Greenland. It went down with 670 of the 902 people onboard.

The story that keeps the Dorchester alive, however, is the now immortalized Four Chaplains:

As hundreds of panicking sailors scurried in fear for their lives, Rabbi Alexander D. Goode, Father John P. Washington and the Revs. George L. Fox and Clark V. Poling gave up their life jackets and helped calm the soldiers.

Their sacrifice was Read more

Kenneth Copeland Speaks at Prayer Breakfast over Mikey Weinstein Protests

Yesterday, Kenneth Copeland spoke at the Fort Jackson Prayer Breakfast — despite Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s vehement demands that he be disinvited.

In noting Weinstein’s failure, the Christian Post highlighted the fact Weinstein had made an 11th-hour reattack, saying [emphasis added]:

In the second letter, sent Wednesday, Weinstein…included comments…denouncing Copeland’s remarks and his overall prosperity gospel worldview, with one figure stating that “Jesus Christ…would NOT recognize Kenneth Copeland as a disciple.”

Mikey Weinstein demanded the US military take action against someone because he didn’t agree with the content of their religious faith: Because “Jesus Christ…would NOT recognize Kenneth Copeland,” Mikey Weinstein and his group believe Copeland should have been banned.

He wasn’t even trying to hide his disdain for Copeland’s religion; he wasn’t even pretending to support “religious freedom.” Weinstein explicitly used Read more

Military Homosexuals Fight Over Consent for Having Children

A “divorced” lesbian couple, one of whom was in the military, is now fighting over an unusual issue of child support — the “consent” to having kids.

It seems Wife #1 (females are always wives, males are always husbands, in an atypical continuation of a “gender norm” in the LGBT community) was deployed with the military, and while gone, Wife #2 decided to have a baby — which, biologically, requires no input from Wife #1, but is still legally Wife #1’s child. Now, Wife #1 (who filed for divorce upon returning from deployment) wants to “sever her parental rights” — so she doesn’t have to pay child support:

The woman seeking to end her parental rights didn’t agree to her then-wife getting pregnant through a sperm donor, wasn’t there for the baby’s birth and never had a meaningful relationship with the child, her attorney, Rebecca Copeland, told the justices.

The case is being heard at the Hawaii State Supreme Court. Interestingly, the justices’ primary concern was apparently that homosexuals were being asked to be treated differently than heterosexuals: Read more

Kenneth Copeland Issues Statement at Fort Jackson

Following some activist complaints about their Prayer Breakfast tomorrow, Fort Jackson released a statement from televangelist Kenneth Copeland regarding his position on PTSD. The statement says, in essence, that Copeland does not categorically deny the utility of doctors and medicine, which may be helpful to Christians whose “faith is not yet fully developed.” Importantly, he described his position as one based on his faith, with application to those who share his faith.  In another manner of speaking, his PTSD comments are directed only toward those who share his faith.

A local paper sought comment from Michael “Mikey” Weinstein:

Mikey Weinstein…said that Fort Jackson officials issuing the statement in Copeland’s name was “shamefully shilling for him as though they are his press agents.”

Weinstein really should have coordinated with his public relations folks, as he missed out on the opportunity to address the actual statement. After all, he’s the one loudly demanding Copeland be disinvited over issues of PTSD. Here Copeland addresses that very issue — and Weinstein gets quoted throwing a temper tantrum over the mechanism rather than the content, making Read more

Transgender Soldier Attends President Trump’s State of the Union

Massachusetts Rep. Joseph Kennedy invited US Army SSgt King — once known as Peter and now called Patricia — to be his guest at President Trump’s State of the Union address:

[Kennedy] told the paper that he invited King to remind the president of transgender service members’ dedication to the U.S.

“I want her to be there as a real person, and the face of an inhumane policy,” Kennedy said.

Lots of people are “dedicat[ed]” to the US, and it is asinine to say it is “inhumane” to not be allowed to serve in the US military. To do so denigrates many Americans who would like to serve their country in the US military but, like King, are told they cannot do so.

Worse is the fact SSgt King is explicitly Read more

Mikey Weinstein Cites Weasel Zippers. How the Mighty Have Fallen.

Mikey Weinstein’s good side, via Pam Zubeck.

There was a time when Michael “Mikey” Weinstein dined with celebrity. He boasted ambassadors and movie stars as advisors, let calls from senior military leaders go to voicemail so as to not interrupt his TV shows, and “graced” cable news shows like The O’Reilly Factor.  He was “somebody,” at least in his own mind.

Now, Weinstein’s star has so faded that he gets giddy when he’s merely mentioned in someone’s Facebook post. Or, as was the case earlier this week, he celebrated the fact he was “covered” by the website “Weasel Zippers“. The “coverage” by the obscure conservative news aggregator consisted of six words:

Mikey needs to get a life.

That’s apparently Read more

Activists Join Mikey Weinstein in Calls Against Kenneth Copeland

VoteVets.org, a fringe “left-leaning” political activist group, has joined with Michael “Mikey” Weinstein in demanding Kenneth Copeland be disinvited from the prayer breakfast to be held at Fort Jackson. In so doing, however, they also joined him in attributing to Copeland things he didn’t say [emphasis added]:

[VoteVets is] calling on Ft Jackson to rescind its invitation to Kenneth Copeland, the evangelist who says doctors and science can’t properly treat PTSD.

[Copeland] claims #PTSD doesn’t afflict True Believers.

Big Problem: Copeland believes only non-believers get PTSD and that only the Bible, not doctors or median [sic] can help service members struggling with it.

Copeland didn’t say those things — at least not in any source cited by his critics.

They, Chris Rodda, and Mikey Weinstein are perfectly free to disagree with Copeland, and he’s done plenty of things to mock or highlight.

Why do they feel the need to lie about what he’s said or believes?

Tom Carpenter, the one man Read more

Damaged Cross Inspires Okinawans

An interesting article at The Asahi Shimbun describes the story of a church’s cross that managed to survive — though significantly damaged — the US invasion of Okinawa during World War II:

In the closing days of World War II, a vast area of the Shuri district was reduced to ashes. But the cross of the Shuri church, which belongs to the United Church of Christ in Japan, barely withstood the destruction.

When the community built a new church tower in 2008, the congregation voted to rebuild a replica of the damaged cross, rather than a new Read more

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