Category Archives: Religion and Culture

Charitable Giving and the CFC: 2010

This is an updated version of the annual discussion of the Combined Federal Campaign.

Whether or not you believe in the concept of the exact tithe, charitable giving remains one of the basic tenets of Christian living. Besides “passing the plate” on Sunday, the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) is one of the more popular means through which members of the military have an opportunity to give.


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What is the CFC?

The CFC, which has been announced through a variety of official releases, is a government-sanctioned means of collecting charitable contributions from federal employees. It runs every year from September to December (CFC-Overseas runs a slightly different schedule), during which volunteer representatives make “100% contact” with their fellow employees to inform them of the charitable giving campaign. Military members (and other government employees) are given the opportunity to make one-time contributions or give monthly deductions from their paychecks to any of thousands of approved charities.

Why should a Christian use the CFC?  Read more

LeTourneau University Receives $5M Endowment

LeTourneau University, founded by Christian engineer and philanthropist R.G. LeTourneau, recently received a $5 million gift to create an endowment for inbound homeschool graduates.

Recently recognized in U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings of “America’s Best Colleges” as one of the top 10 universities among private schools in Texas and above all state universities in Texas in the same category, LeTourneau University is an interdenominational Christian university that offers more than 60 graduate and undergraduate programs in a variety of liberal arts with flagship programs in aeronautical science and engineering.

LeTourneau has an engineering and aeronautical bent, including a significant flight program.

Missionaries Memorialized in Non-Religious Ceremony

The New York Times covered the Kabul memorial ceremony of the 10 aid workers who were recently killed in Afghanistan.  The ceremony was held in the British cemetery there:

Originally established for British military dead in the Second Afghan War, in 1879, it is probably the only place in the capital where crosses are on public display (churches are illegal here).

The memorial was reportedly consciously non-religious:

If there was a theme to the memorial service, which was self-consciously non-religious, it was the thought that these were people who died doing something they believed in passionately, and the best way to honor them was to keep at it.

Rabbi Lapin on American Christianity

Rabbi Daniel Lapin, an interesting and sometimes controversial American orthodox rabbi, has a fascinating interview at the Jewish Press that touches on Christianity in America.  He discusses everything from the “threat” to Judaism of Christianity in America to his encouragement to wish Christians a “Merry Christmas” rather than Happy Holidays:

I think America has provided the most tranquil, prosperous, and durable haven for Jews in the last 2,000 years because it is a [religious] Protestant country, not in spite of it.  Read more

Ramstein 8th Grader Wins Air Force Video Competition

Thirteen-year old Hunter Koltes won the Air Force’s Year of the Air Force Family video competition in the youth category.  Koltes is the son of LtCol Jason Koltes, the USAFE vice commander executive officer and an F-16 pilot, formerly of the  F-16 demo team.

The video communicates an amazingly mature and responsible attitude for a young teenager in this day and age.  The 60-second film, which has an interesting soundtrack choice (Switchfoot’s This is Your Life) as well as imagery, is worth the watch.

All of the competition videos can be seen here, or you can link directly to Koltes’ video.

Also noted and viewable at the Air Force Times.

AU Lodges IRS Complaint Against Liberty University

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has, again, filed a complaint with the IRS asserting that Liberty University is misusing its status as a tax-exempt (501(c)3) organization.  The original complaint can be read here.

For its part, Liberty barely addressed the merits of the complaint, instead saying that this was simply another attempt by the AU to intimidate Liberty.  In fact, Mat Staver, the Liberty School of Law dean, said the school was considering legal action in response to the AU’s attempt to intimidate Liberty students:

“We’re now looking at whether we are going to respond by filing some kind of civil action against Americans United — because what they’re trying to do is essentially intimidate Liberty University, particularly the students, from exercising their constitutional right to vote,” he argues. “We’re not about to allow this organization to do that to Liberty University students.”

As noted in the discussion last year when AU filed a complaint against Liberty, the AU is frequently associated with criticisms of Christians in the military.  It remains a “partnering link” on the MRFF page, and Michael Weinstein has claimed AU membership at one point.

The MRFF’s Own ‘Pattern and Practice’?

It is unlikely that this article will be very interesting to many, but some may find it illuminating.  It doesn’t deal directly with religion and the military, but analyzes an organization that frequently involves itself in that topic.  The MRFF frequently relies on a strict application of “the rules” to forward its political agenda with regard to Christians in the military, and it appears it may have its own issues with rules regarding its conduct.  For those that are interested: Read more

“Tebow Rule” Proposed by NCAA

Though he was not the only player to do so, former Florida Gator Tim Tebow made famous the practice of using his eyeblacks for communicating a message.  The NCAA football rules committee has now decided to ban the practice, leading some to dub it the “Tebow Rule.”

Under some interpretations, the practice of putting such text anywhere on the sports uniform was already prohibited, and the rules committee “clarified” that prohibition to include the players’ eyeblacks.

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