Tag Archives: Military

Peace Cross Survives: Mikey Weinstein’s Lawsuits Now 0 for 6

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein maintained his perfect record of zero wins in his years of lawsuits against the American government over religion.

Many may not even be aware he had been part of another lawsuit, but in May of this year Weinstein said he had “join[ed] forces” with the American Humanist Association to try to have the Bladensburg Peace Cross torn down. (Despite innumerable threats, Weinstein hasn’t filed a lawsuit on his own in years.) The Peace Cross is a 90-year old World War I memorial in Maryland.

In a summary judgment, a Federal court just dismissed (PDF) that lawsuit.

Importantly, US District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow’s ruling avoids the semantic gymnastics of other cases by not trying to avoid the fact that a cross is, indeed, a religious symbol. The ruling says that simply being a cross does not inherently mean it is unconstitutional [emphasis added]:  Read more

Holloman AFB F-16 Crashes

Last Wednesday, a fledgling F-16 pilot had reason to be thankful when he successfully ejected during a training mission out of Holloman AFB, New Mexico:

“The pilot successfully ejected and was transported to a local medical facility,” Holloman Director of Media Relations Arlan Ponder said. “He was part of a training mission…”

The First Lieutenant was likely an upgrading student, as the squadron at Holloman actually belongs to the primary F-16 training unit at Luke AFB, Arizona.

As is the normal routine, the Air Force will investigate the incident and report on it some months from now.

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Chris Rodda: US Army Validates MRFF Claim

In a follow-up to the original Military.com article on the Great Fort Shafter Sign Scandal of 2015 (begun on this site, interestingly enough), journalist Bryant Jordan included an interesting request Army Public Affairs had made of him:

Sgt. 1st Class Mary Ferguson, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the office, asked the story be pulled because it included only a single source, the unit did not have a chance to respond, because the story headline “brings attention to jihadists over a non-issue…contributing to their agenda” and because the sign was removed.

In essence, Army PA was saying Read more

Professor Sues US Naval Academy

Bruce Fleming, a civilian English professor at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, has filed a lawsuit claiming he was denied a pay raise due to an unjust reprimand he received in 2014:

Attorneys for Bruce Fleming said Thursday that the professor was denied merit pay and $7,000 in summer funding based on a 2014 reprimand. It stemmed from a 2013 classroom discussion, when Fleming prompted his students to consider the academy’s sexual assault program and the potentially one-sided burdens it put on men, at a time when the academy was part of the national debate over how to stop sexual assault in the military.

Fleming asserts his words were protected under the Constitution. For its part, Annapolis Read more

Former USAF Commander Predicts Exodus of Integrity, Courage

Tony Carr, a retired USAF Squadron Commander who is now a frequent public critic of the Air Force, wrote a piece on his John Q. Public blog excoriating Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh for the Air Force’s “new” attitude toward privacy. Carr quotes what he describes as the objectionable portion of Gen Welsh’s statement [emphasis added]:

We’ve captured the Air Force’s culture and standards in AFI 1-1. We all know 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on and off-duty, Airmen have signed up to live up to Air Force Standards and Core Values. Through all the different ways in which Airmen communicate and interact, respect and dignity are essential. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in person, by text, twitter, or the latest social media app, we are all personally accountable for what we say and post.

Carr objects to the implication that the Air Force will hold Airmen accountable for everything they say, even privately, with the only standard being vague Read more

Christians in Camouflage: The PC Minefield

Alan Dowd at byFaith, a production of the Presbyterian Church in America, writes a fairly thorough and balanced article on the state of religious liberty in the US military entitled “Christians in Camouflage: Chaplains in a Political Correctness Minefield.” After summarizing some of the more well-known “scandals” regarding military religious freedom, Dowd says [emphasis added]:

While some contend that one man’s evangelizing is another’s proselytizing, there’s more than a semantic difference here: Proselytizing carries a connotation of recruiting and pressuring, whereas evangelizing — rooted in the Greek for “bringing good news” — carries a connotation of sharing and inviting.

Christians — whether on the battlefront or the homefront — are called Read more

ACLJ Details Support for Military Religious Freedom

The ACLJ recently posted an appeal for support that listed recent cases of military religious freedom, and they set themselves up as the foil to Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s MRFF in the process. Speaking of their support for court-martialed US Marine Monifa Sterling [emphasis added]:

Angry atheist Mikey Weinstein and his Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) also filed a brief asking the court to reject Sterling’s appeal and ignore the violation of her religious freedom. (Remember it is Mikey Weinstein and his extremist group that has repeatedly called Christians in the military “monsters who terrorize.”)

Regarding a recent FOIA lawsuit Weinstein filed against the US Air Force Academy [italics original, emphasis added]:  Read more

Memorial Replaced after Secularist Complaint

In Knoxville, Iowa, a silhouette of a soldier kneeling at a cross-shaped headstone (previously discussed) was replaced with a bronze battlefield cross after Americans United for the Separation of Church and State complained.

Sponsored by the local AMVETS Post 63, the monument was erected by Don Zoutte, who intended it to recall the iconic picture of the headstones of Normandy — not to establish a state religion:

Zoutte says he hopes the new memorial will put to bed all of the controversy that has surrounded the community over the current memorial that’s there. “It was never, ever, ever meant Read more

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