Category Archives: Government and Religion

Congressman, Freedom Advocates Object to POW/MIA Bible Removals

Update: More recent coverage of this “controversy” cites the VA saying “the hospital received complaints from…a former prisoner of war who was not a Christian.” Given that such a claim would have been a coup for Weinstein, and it has appeared in no other report, it is likely an error in reporting.

Update: The ACLJ published a statement contradicting Mikey Weinstein’s machinations and a petition calling for a defense of the Bible in “Veterans’ Displays.”  The Army Times covered the removal of a Bible from another display, this one at Tobyhanna Army Depot (which hosts 93 soldiers), where no one apparently knew how the Bible even got there.

powtable1US Congressmen and a variety of religious liberty groups have objected to the forced removal of Bibles from POW/MIA remembrance tables at facilities in Ohio and Texas. The removals came at the request of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, who called the inclusion of the Bibles an act of “supremacy.”

Congressman Doug Collins (R-Ga), also a Reserve AF Chaplain, had previously said he was “appalled” that the VA “caved” to Weinstein’s “antics.”

This organization has devoted itself to attacking Christians and undermining the religious freedoms guaranteed to our men and women in uniform by the Constitution.

In response, the reliably infantile Mikey Weinstein

called Collins an ignoramus and “worthless sack of Read more

Navy: Ship Commissioning Not Changed over LGBT Bill

portlandThe US Navy has disputed reports that the USS Portland (LPD 27) will be commissioned in Portland, rather than where it is being built in Mississippi, because of Mississippi’s recently passed legislation protecting religious objections to homosexuality.

When the Navy announced the commissioning would happen in the namesake town of Portland, activists and some news outlets seized on the timing, with CBS reporting that “Navy ceremony moved over Mississippi anti-gay law objection.” The Navy disagreed: Read more

The Government’s Reaction to Religion versus Sexuality

“Evidently religious freedom does not exist within the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act or the Illinois Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.

“In our opinion, neither the State of Illinois nor the U. S. Supreme Court has the authority to tamper with the definition of marriage.  God alone created marriage and declared thousands of years ago that it was to be between a man and a woman.  Not two men.  Not two women.  We may be out of step with an increasingly anti-Christian culture, but we are in compliance with God’s design and that is what ultimately matters.

“To be absolutely clear, we cannot host a same-sex wedding even though fines and penalties have been imposed by the IL Human Rights Commission.  Our policy will not be changing.  We are not looking for a fight, but when immoral laws are purposely passed (or deemed constitutional) that blatantly conflict with God’s Word and when the heavy hand of government tries to force us as Christians to embrace sinful behavior, we have a moral obligation to resist and stand for Biblical truth.  “It is better to obey God than men”.   Acts 5:29.”
— Jim Walder, owner of TimberCreek Bed-and-Breakfast

The state of Illinois is attempting to fine and punish TimberCreek Bed-and-Breakfast for declining to host a same-sex ceremony.

When the government enforces Read more

US Army Grants More Exceptions for Sikhs

Update: Follow up on Harpal Singh and the status of Capt Singh’s case here.

The US Army has decided to permit three more Sikh adherents to attend Basic Training while maintaining the articles of their faith:

“After months of waiting, I’m ecstatic that I can finally serve both God and country,” Private Arjan Singh Ghotra, one of the plaintiffs, said…

Religious accommodations were also granted to Specialist Kanwar Singh [and]Specialist Harpal Singh.

While the exceptions are notable, they are still precisely that: exceptions. Thus, the US Army is still not officially more “friendly” to service by Sikhs, a point Read more

US Military Celebrates Jesus Christ’s Resurrection in Baghdad, 2016

How many people thought after the US invaded Iraq in 2003 that we’d still be celebrating Easter in Baghdad in 2016?

In Iraq, chaplains and their support teams used air and ground support to provide Easter services for troops throughout the country, including the location formerly known as Fire Base Bell — the small outpost attacked a little more than a week prior.

The Easter sunrise service was just one of five religious services held at Union III and one of many services across the CJFLCC-OIR area of operations in celebration of the holiday.

A few official news sources have begun to document this year’s other celebrations of Easter by US military forces around the world.

Aboard the USS Nitze:  Read more

Court Allows Navy Prayer Lawsuit to Proceed

The DC District Court recently provided yet another ruling in the decades-long litigation known as In Re: Navy Chaplaincy (PDF). (See prior discussions.) The case began many years ago with the underlying allegations that the US Navy discriminated against non-liturgical chaplains and favored liturgical chaplains. The case has wound its way up and down judicial channels in the ensuing years.

The most recent decision dismisses many of the claims, much of them due to time or mootness. It is interesting, though, which claims it allowed to continue [emphasis added]: Read more

Retired Airman Thrown Out of Ceremony Because of Religion

oscarIn a drama that can only be described as tragic and embarrassing, US Air Force NCOs physically tossed retired Senior Master Sergeant Oscar Rodriguez out of a Travis AFB retirement ceremony (and the building in which it was being conducted) — even after the retiree, Chuck Roberson, had invited him to narrate his retirement flag ceremony. The video, made public first at John Q. Public and since repeated at FoxNews, is at once disturbing and enraging.

Retired LtCol Tony Carr does a decent job of hammering the shameful and inappropriate mistreatment of the retired SMSgt. What was interesting, though, was the Air Force’s official response. As quoted Read more

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