{"id":20684,"date":"2012-12-19T02:17:54","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T05:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=20684"},"modified":"2015-06-27T19:12:50","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T22:12:50","slug":"prayer-in-combat-michael-weinstein-and-cookies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/19\/prayer-in-combat-michael-weinstein-and-cookies\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayer in Combat, Michael Weinstein, and Cookies"},"content":{"rendered":"

An LA Times article<\/a> on the drawdown in Afghanistan had an interesting lede:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Photo at LATimes.com<\/a> (David S. Cloud \/ Los Angeles Times \/ December 9, 2012)<\/em><\/p>\n

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan \u2014 Fifteen U.S. soldiers huddle in a circle. A blue Toyota packed with explosives has been reported somewhere in the city. The troops bow their heads and clasp hands.<\/p>\n

“Dear Lord, protect us and protect those entrusted to us as we help the Afghans protect themselves,” says Lt. Col. Patrick Michaelis, their gangly 41-year-old commander.<\/p>\n

“Amen,” say his men.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Think it’s unique or someone objects?\u00a0 The article continues:<\/p>\n

Every trip outside the wire begins the same way: a quick check of the latest intelligence, then the prayer, which never varies. When Michaelis forgets, someone stops him: Sir, the prayer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The tradition of the pre-mission prayer<\/a>, common throughout the military, is not without controversy<\/a> — though the controversy is almost always generated from external <\/em>sources.\u00a0 For example, a homosexual Reserve LtCol recently claimed chaplains endangered US troops’ lives<\/a> when they\u00a0delivered these pre-mission prayers — and the future NCMAF head chaplain, Unitarian Universalist Sarah Lammert,\u00a0endorsed <\/em>that characterization.\u00a0 Atheist Jason Torpy has long complained<\/a> about them, and Michael Weinstein even tested the waters once or twice.<\/p>\n

What Weinstein didn’t <\/em>get, however, was traction<\/em>.\u00a0 Weinstein’s modus operandi <\/a><\/em>has been consistent<\/a> through the years:\u00a0 He has thrown mud against the wall to find what sticks; he has poked and prodded — and when someone flinches <\/em>(most often, tries to placate him), he doubles down and hammers that perceived vulnerability.\u00a0 General Gould of the US Air Force Academy saw this years ago and discovered Weinstein’s own weakness<\/a>:\u00a0 being ignored.<\/p>\n

Turns out, Weinstein thrives on attention.\u00a0 Shut the door, and he’ll stamp his feet for a while, but he eventually sulks away.\u00a0 But when You Give a Mouse a Cookie…<\/a><\/p>\n

More photos of pre-mission prayers can be seen here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also at the Stars and Stripes<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An LA Times article on the drawdown in Afghanistan had an interesting lede: Photo at LATimes.com (David S. Cloud \/ Los Angeles Times \/ December 9, 2012) KANDAHAR, Afghanistan \u2014 Fifteen U.S. soldiers huddle in a circle. A blue Toyota packed with explosives has been reported somewhere in the city. The troops bow their heads and clasp hands. “Dear Lord, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[58,88,20,37,5284,3734,219,442,44,39,189,85,2,5218,7,3732,3753,11,10,171,3696,2522,65,3733],"class_list":["post-20684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-afghanistan","tag-army","tag-atheism","tag-buddhism","tag-chaplain","tag-code-of-ethics","tag-dadt","tag-homosexual","tag-islam","tag-jewish","tag-michael-gould","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-ncmaf","tag-patrick-michaelis","tag-prayer","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-sarah-lammert","tag-unitarian-universalist","tag-usafa","tag-vicki-hudson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}