Mad Padre, a blogging Canadian military Chaplain, posted a link to an interesting article in The Maple Leaf, the Canadian military paper. Entitled “Duty to accommodate in the CF,” the short article touches on the Canadian Forces’ policies on religious (and other) accommodation.
The article includes a picture of a Sikh Army officer. The US Army has currently made few uniform exceptions for Sikhs within its ranks, both enlisted and officer.
A couple of new articles highlight the already-noted trend of members of the US military using yoga in their physical training.
A new twist is that yoga is actually part of the official training now, as opposed to simply being an available class at the gym: Read more
Despite the often unified front of Michael Weinstein and his allies, it seems even his supporters are sometimes put off by his methods.
From Jason Torpy, at the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, referring to the USAFA invitation of USMC Lt (Ret) Clebe McClary to the National Prayer Luncheon:
[Recently] a sign promoting leadership based on religion was removed based on MAAF intervention and the understanding of [Air Force] Academy officials. Resolution was simple because of open dialogue.
The invitation to Clebe McClary, Read more
The truth of the US Army’s equitable treatment of “Rock Beyond Belief” has already been addressed. Oddly, though, many people don’t know that RBB may not be able to meet the restrictions imposed upon it by the Army even if it does find the funding it needs to proceed.
What restrictions are those? Well, the same ones put on the Christian “Rock the Fort,” of course: Content.
Unnoticed by many has been the fact Fort Bragg restricted the content at “Rock the Fort.” As noted in the After Action Report:
The bands and speakers stayed within the parameters that we gave them as directed by LTG Helmick, Read more
The question of equitable treatment of “Rock Beyond Belief” has already been addressed in general terms. What follows below is a more in-depth discussion on some of the specifics of the “Rock Beyond Belief” controversy, including Affiliation, Attendance, Funding, and Content. It will certainly be referenced for the MRFF case file (Chris Rodda has undoubtedly been waiting for this), and Fort Bragg may even take a peek at it; it’s here for all to see.
If you only have a few minutes, recommended reading is the section on Funding, though Content is also enlightening.
There’s one interesting qualifier: At least two of the issues below, about which supporters of RBB are only now complaining, were known last year. Guess who brought them up? “Rock Beyond Belief”…
Affiliation: “Rock Beyond Belief” organizers Read more
The Air Force Times notes that the Air Force approval of vision-correcting laser eye surgery has allowed people who would otherwise have medically unqualified to become pilots.
Early on, the Air Force offered photorefractive keratectomy vision correction to a limited number of aviators. With this procedure, the surgeon uses a laser to remove skin cells from the surface of the eye before correcting the patient’s vision.
Over time, the program was extended to more airmen Read more
According to various reports, a US Army Staff Sergeant marched a group of Soldiers to a voluntary Christian concert put on by BarlowGirl at Fort Eustis. When some said they didn’t want to attend, they were marched back to their barracks and told to stay there, without access to their personal electronics and nothing to do but clean the barracks.
This was a result of a “miscommunication,” according to the Army; there was no “malicious” or even “intentional” act.
The company commander found out Read more
Michael Weinstein claims to be an advocate of religious freedom, willing to give his “last drop of blood” even for beliefs with which he disagrees.
Weinstein was recently proud to point out he had Penn Jillette, of Penn and Tiller, as a visitor at an MRFF rally. Penn had this to say:
Fair enough. More interesting, however, is what Jillette had to say about Christians, the very next day: Read more