Tag Archives: Religion

Independence Day, 2013

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”

“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions…”

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence…”

Read the Declaration of Independence at the Archives.gov site.

ADVERTISEMENT

Buddhist Chaplain to Open Army Meditation Center

Chaplain (Capt) Thomas Dyer, the US Army’s Baptist-preacher-turned-Buddhist-Chaplain is opening a meditation center in Afghanistan.

The Bagram Dharma Center in Afghanistan will be classified as a “faith-based resiliency center,” and it gives [Chaplain] Capt. Thomas Dyer…a better way to connect his Eastern beliefs, Southern roots and Middle Eastern deployment.

The article goes on to describe what it will be:  Read more

Fort Rucker Hosts Vacation Bible School

US military chapels provide a wide variety of spiritual support for troops and their families, and the traditional summer Vacation Bible School is one important part of that.  Fort Rucker’s program this year included a full-scale Wilderness Tabernacle:

The tabernacle takes the things that you and I might read in the Bible and brings them to life,” said Spiers. “What we do with the children, since there is an old-testament basis and message with the tabernacle, is bring the symbolism of the old into the new-testament because it’s Read more

Air Force Atheist Ponders Spiritual Fitness, Officially

An official article by Moody Air Force Base’s Public Affairs Senior Airman Jarrod Grammel is entitled “Atheist ponders spiritual fitness.”

As an atheist, people sometimes ask and wonder where I get my sense of purpose. I don’t believe that God created me and has a special purpose for me in life, but rather that I’m the result of 4 billion years of evolutionary success on a minor planet of an average star in a universe with at least 100 billion galaxies.

And that’s perfectly fine with me. My purpose Read more

Atheist Call their own Monument Mere Counterpoint, Attack

The group American Atheists recently installed a granite monument in front of the Bradford County courthouse in Starke, Florida.  The group placed the monument there as the result of a compromise, after a local Christian group refused to remove their Ten Commandments monument — and then both groups filed First Amendment lawsuits.

David Silverman, the American Atheists president, called his own monument a “counterpoint” and an “attack.”

“We’re not going to let them do it without Read more

DoD Celebrates SCOTUS Ruling on Homosexuality

The Department of Defense issued a plethora of statements celebrating the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which had prevented the Federal government from recognizing homosexual “marriage.”  The ruling paves the way for the US military to provide marital benefits to homosexual couples.

In an initial statement, the DoD “welcomed” the ruling and said  Read more

Atheist Jason Torpy Seeks Distance from Wikileaker Manning

Former US Army Captain Jason Torpy, currently leading the one-man Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, recently attempted to evaluate the decision by Private Bradley Manning to call himself a “humanist.”

In an article at the American Humanist Association, for which Torpy is the Treasurer, he writes “Is Bradley Manning Really a Humanist?”

[Manning lawyer] David Coombs…made a show that Manning had ID tags with “humanist” written on them…Coombs argued, “that his actions came from his deeply held beliefs that all lives had value, Iraqi and American.” Because the defense is leaning on Manning’s humanist beliefs, this trial also calls for humanist attention as well.

Torpy apparently thinks the humanist community needs to think Read more

Soldier Threatened over Chick-FIL-A

Many sites have now reported on US Army MSgt Nathan Sommers, a member of the US Army Band, who has apparently been targeted for his words or actions associated with “his conservative political and religious beliefs.”

As reported at FoxNews, Sommers

said he is facing retribution and punishment from the military for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his car, reading books written by conservative authors like Mark Levin and David Limbaugh, and serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at his promotion party.

For its part, the Army categorically denied Read more

1 … 197 198 199 200 201 … 378