Tag Archives: religious freedom

Homosexuals: “Shame, shame, shame” on Liberty University for Denying Military Tuition Discount

The homosexual advocacy group American Military Partner Association tried mightily to cause an outcry after Liberty University refused to give a military spouse discount to a homosexual “wife” of a female service member. On spouseBuzz, a subsidiary of Military.com, a homosexual woman described as “Army spouse Janay” was denied the discount and said

Liberty’s response has actually hurt my feelings a little bit. We are all equal no matter what and after speaking with a representative from Liberty I don’t feel as if we are all equal. I kind of feel like an outsider…

The AMPA amped up the rhetoric, with Ashley Broadway-Mack saying  Read more

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

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

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

Mikey Weinstein Rapidly Responds to ChristianFighterPilot.com

Update: As expected, Weinstein has expanded his attacks to other “crusader” imagery in the military, though unlike the sign below, the US Army has not responded to Weinstein’s demands.

It was a test, and Michael “Mikey” Weinstein passed with flying colors.

Yesterday’s article on Weinstein and ISIS included a gratuitous picture of a sign in front of the 8th Special Troops Battalion Warrior Training Center in Fort Shafter, Hawaii:

The context was Weinstein’s obsession with the hurt feelings of Islamic extremists — including his claim that they’re motivated to attack the United States because of Crusader imagery.

Mikey did not disappoint.

The sign was erected on a remote portion of the base “far from most of the installation’s foot or motor traffic,” and it had been on the internet for a couple of weeks.

But within just a few hours of the article going up at ChristianFighterPilot.com, Weinstein sent a “demand email” to Major General Edward Dorman claiming Read more

Generals Call on US Military to Allow Sikhs to Serve

A coalition of 27 retired General officers signed a letter (PDF) urging the US Department of Defense to allow Sikhs to serve in the US military. Currently, Sikhs must abandon the articles of their faith — including uncut hair, beards, and turbans — before they can join the military:

Although Sikhs have served honorably in the U.S. military since World War I, restrictive appearance regulations adopted in 1981 created barriers to their service. Revisions earlier this year to DOD Instruction 1300.17 make it possible for service members to request religious accommodations; however, the new guidelines presumptively exclude Sikh articles of faith, forcing Sikhs to repeatedly apply for waivers and even violate their religion while an accommodation request is pending.

One of the notable signatures on the letter is Read more

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