Members of the US military have defended human liberty, at the cost of their own lives, around the globe.
They have protected people they don’t know, rights they often can’t practice, and the freedom of others to advocate ideologies with which they disagree.
They have fought, and died, for something greater than themselves.
Remember their sacrifice this Memorial Day.
Today, we join together in prayer Read more
The recent kerfuffle over amendments to the NDAA that would protect the religious liberty of US troops who oppose homosexuality has risen even to the minority leader of the US House. Rep Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) said claims of military chaplains needing a “conscience clause” were a “fraud.” The Obama administration had previously seemed to indicate the “rights” of homosexuals outweighed those of Chaplains and other members of the military.
However, in a related article intended to communicate the “non-event” of DADT repeal, The Baltimore Sun validated claims that an environment has been created in the US military hostile toward those opposed to homosexuality, despite official military statements to the contrary.
In The Baltimore Sun article, homosexual midshipmen at the US Naval Academy Read more
The Department of Defense recently pulled courses from the Joint Forces Staff College that allegedly disparaged Islam. Michael Weinstein tilted the irony meter with this response:
“This is simply a small cancer cell that is rapidly metastasizing,” he said. “This is representative of a larger more sinister force which is fundamentalist Christianity.”
To summarize the erroneously but self-described “religious freedom” advocate: Its wrong to paint Islam with a broad, stereotypical brush, but its ok to do the same thing to Christianity. So says the man who decries characterizations of America being “at war” with Islam, but who himself is at “war” with Christians.
Weinstein’s apparent lack of cognitive dissonance Read more
The Christian Post reviews The Avengers and makes an interesting observation about the faith of the rising leader of the group, Captain America:
When Thor shows up and takes Loki, Iron Man goes after him. Cap begins to follow but is urged not to because “these guys are basically gods.” In response, Cap makes a fitting statement for his character and era that I’m amazed Hollywood allowed: “There’s only One God, Ma’am. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.”
The fairly long review goes into great depth on the character of Steve Rogers, noting the value of his morality and integrity, and how it is his strength of Read more
In his zeal to attack all things Christian in the military, Justin Griffith — the Army Sergeant made famous by his organization of Rock Beyond Belief at Fort Bragg — once harassed the wives of deployed Fort Bragg soldiers. Even when he realized he’d made an error — he’d thought he was criticizing the soldiers themselves, as if that’s better — he never publicly apologized.
Now, it seems he’s after the support provided to wounded warriors. Read more
Dr. Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has an interesting and lengthy response to a chaplain’s letter asking if its ok not to pray in Jesus Name — one of the points of controversy for chaplains in the US military:
Praying in Jesus’ name isn’t simply a cultural addendum at the end of a request…We pray in Jesus’ name because Jesus commanded us to do so (Jn. 14:13)…
Moore notes that men of faith are expected to pray in accordance with their faith. No one expects a Muslim to pray like an Episcopalian, just Read more
Matthew Hutson at the Huffington Post has an interesting article on the research conducted by the University of Otago in New Zealand which attempted to quantify the effect of the threat of death on supernatural belief. In other words, is it true there are no atheists in foxholes?
The researchers used a “supernatural belief scale” to try to quantify the spiritual beliefs of test subjects:
In their first study, they asked subjects to write about what will happen to them when they die, or what happens when they watch TV. Then Read more
In what seems to be an annual event, another effort has been made in Congress to ban the Defense Department’s ability to sponsor teams or players in professional sporting events.
The $608 billion defense bill that passed the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday includes an amendment to prohibit Pentagon spending on NASCAR, professional fishing and professional wrestling events.
US Rep Betty McCollum (D-Minn) proposed the Read more