Tag Archives: Military

President on Sexual Assault: Explore Every Good Idea

President Obama has explicitly told US military leaders to “leave no stone unturned” in their efforts to fight the “national security threat” of sexual assault in the ranks:

Obama said he is pleased that Hagel and Dempsey are looking at proposals on Capitol Hill and elsewhere to address the problem. “What I’ve said to them is I want to leave no stone unturned and I want us to explore every good idea that’s out there,” he said.

What do you think the chances are that the US military will consider the “good idea” that religious faith plays a substantial role in supporting moral conduct?  That’s not Read more

Atheist Supports Restricting Military Religious Freedom

Update: Former Marine pilot Tom Carpenter of the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy — a liberal activist group — largely repeated the list below a few weeks later, though he did so without attribution.

Jason Torpy, the one-man band that is the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, recently posted a point-by-point refutation of recent accusations of the US military being hostile to Christianity.

Much of his disagreement was nuance or the way in which something was phrased, which isn’t worth discussing here.  The interesting ones, though, were the cases in which he agreed with the US military’s “anti-Christian” actions:

January 2010 — Department of Defense orders removal of tiny Bible references on military scopes and gunsights.
Torpy: True and appropriate.

This issue has been discussed before.  While there is no religious requirement the references remain, the fact they were targeted because of their (obscure) religious reference — only after Michael Weinstein complained, notably — is troubling.  That he would seek this Read more

Korean Christianity: Military Chaplains and America

An interesting, if wordy and sometimes hard to follow, paper entitled “South Korea’s Christian Military Chaplaincy in the Korean War – religion as ideology?” was recently published by Vladimir Tikhonov, a Soviet-born professor at Oslo University with a doctorate in ancient Korean history.  It seeks to find the “reason for the rapid growth” of Christianity in South Korea — which the author suggests is the military chaplaincy:  Read more

Sally Quinn Jumps Shark, Blames Sexual Assault on Religion

As previously noted, Sally Quinn of the Washington Post has become the latest version of Pam Zubeck, the CSIndy “journalist” who is actually an advocate of Michael Weinstein’s cause.  While it has become obvious Quinn is in the tank with Weinstein, it wasn’t clear until this weekend just how far she was willing to go.

In an article on sexual assault in the military — carefully crafted to get visibility because its on a topic of great interest right now — Quinn lays the responsibility for sexual assault in the military at the feet of…religion.

And guess who her source is?

Take the Cadets for Christ, a religious group at the Air Force Academy. According to Mikey Weinstein, Read more

US Army Chief of Chaplains Shares Stories on Service

The short 5-minute video is retired Chaplain (MajGen) Douglas Carver, formerly the US Army Chief of Chaplains, and now the executive director of chaplain services for the North American Mission Board, sharing stories from his experiences as a chaplain in the US Army.

One of the most interesting, at about the 2:00 mark, is his story about a civilian-clothed operator whom he helped reconcile his mission — covertly tracking and killing the enemy, on a personal level — and the righteousness of God.  As the story continues, Chaplain Carver relates how that man came to help him.

Via the Alliance Defending Freedom’s Speak Up.

ADVERTISEMENT

USAFA Thunderbirds Replaced with Volunteers

The traditional Thunderbird flyby of the US Air Force Academy graduation was canceled, reportedly due to budget concerns.  A group of private aerial demonstration teams has volunteered to fill in the awkward silence that would otherwise mark the hat-toss.

Academy officials said Thursday that more than a dozen pilots have volunteered to fly historical U.S. military aircraft over graduation week events, including the commencement ceremony May 29.

ADVERTISEMENT

MRFF Member Goes Anonymous for Mikey — and Harms his Cause

Michael Weinstein has been working hard to recover from his self-inflicted public relations debacle that began with the Sally Quinn article praising his ‘heroic’ and substantial influence over the US Air Force.  As part of that effort, Weinstein got a high-ranking supporter to write a letter defending him — anonymously, of course.

Mikey ~
 
…As a retired, multiple-star, senior officer (General or Admiral) you know that I was asked by the Chief of Staff…to be my Service’s direct day-to-day interface with you. During those three years, and specifically because of that relationship, my Service avoided countless…breaches of religious civil rights…

As a direct result of this relationship, we had military Service-wide policies written/documented for our entire Service to follow!!

Once again, though, Weinstein’s ego may have undone his own attempts at obfuscation.

The supportive letter refers to “policies” written for the “entire Service” as a “direct result” of Weinstein.  The only service that has done that, which Weinstein has claimed influence over, no less, is the Air Force.  Based on the timeline, the Chief of Staff is certainly Read more

Religious Freedom Critic Weinstein Admits Targeting Christians

In a shockingly blunt piece, Michael Weinstein seems to have inadvertently undermined his own defense against those who claim he’s “anti-Christian” by essentially admitting that he’s opposed to a vast swath of American Christianity.  Said Weinstein [emphasis added]:

Do you know that in this country in 1970, we only had ten mega-Evangelical churches, meaning those with 2,000 or more members? But after 9/11, a new mega-Evangelical church has opened up in our country every 48 hours.
 
That is their right. That’s fine. But when they engage the machinery of the state and the people in the government, that’s when we have a terrible, hideous problem.
 
And this is coming right down from the DoD, up and down the chain of command…

Weinstein seems to clearly convey Christians from these ubiquitous “mega-Evangelical churches” (as opposed to Evangelical megachurches?) are the ones “engaging Read more

1 … 242 243 244 245 246 … 552