Category Archives: Government and Religion

Groups Seek Clarity on DoD Policy on Religious Liberty, Weinstein

The Department of Defense pushed back against allegations it was planning to court-martial Christians who might share their faith, and it tried to disavow any relationship with Michael Weinstein in the process:

Internet posts are attributing a statement that superior officers who try to convert those under their command should face court-martial to Mikey Weinstein, president of the Albuquerque, N.M.-based Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and are identifying him as a Pentagon advisor, Christensen noted.

“Mr. Weinstein is not part of any DOD advisory group or committee, nor is he a consultant to the Defense Department regarding religious matters,” Christensen said. “Mr. Weinstein requested, and was granted, a meeting at the Pentagon April 23, with the Air Force judge advocate general and others, to include the deputy chief of chaplains, to express his concerns of religious issues in the military.”

The statements still decline to answer what about Weinstein warranted a private meeting with the top legal advisor in the entire US Air Force, a perception World Magazine picked up on:

A column appeared in The Washington Post, largely sourced by Weinstein, which portrayed him as heroically taking on and lecturing Read more

Tony Perkins’ Banned of Brothers, ACLJ calls Weinstein “Bigot”

According to Sally Quinn, Defense officials had not only met with Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, but published an entire Air Force manual on religious protocol at his request. Now, either Mikey is lying or the Pentagon is backpedaling, because [the DoD] released another statement claiming to have made “reasonable accommodations” for religious practice and that “service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one’s beliefs (proselytization).”

Of course, no one should be coerced, but it all hinges on how the DOD defines “unwanted” and “intrusive.” Judging by Weinstein, who views us as “fundamentalist Christian monsters of human degradation,” any mention of religious testimony would be intolerable. Meanwhile, where were those “religious accommodations” when the Air Force disinvited me from a prayer breakfast at Andrews Air Force Base? Or when officers stripped “God” from the Rapid Capabilities motto and purged Bibles from Air Force Inn checklists? Where was the Air Force’s encouragement to “confidently practice your own beliefs” when cadets were ordered to stop promoting charities for needy kids or when it suspended a 20-year-old class on “Just War Theory” because it included a few Bible verses?

Links added to Tony Perkins’ commentary.

ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow — who debated Michael Weinstein at USAFA in 2007 — said Weinstein is a “bigot” in the vein of the Westboro Baptist Church.

[T]he Air Force has been meeting with a bigot every bit as obscene, Read more

Groups Seek “Equal Time” after US Air Force Hosts Religious Critic

Religious groups who endorse US military chaplains have asked the US military for “equal time” after they hosted religious liberty critic Michael Weinstein at the Pentagon.  Said retired Chaplain (Col) Ron Crews, of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty:

Crews says if the Air Force wants to be serious about religious liberty, its sole and exclusive meeting should not be with a man who calls religious service members “spiritual rapists” or “human monsters.”

“[Mikey Weinstein] is not the person to talk about religious liberty,” he states. “So we’re asking for a meeting with senior Air Force officials to [request that] if they’re going to revise their policy, we want to make sure that the religious liberty of all the airmen who are serving courageously in the Air Force gets maintained.”

Further,

If the Air Force wants to be serious about religious freedom, its sole and exclusive meeting should not be with a man that calls religious service members ‘spiritual rapists’ or ‘human monsters’…

The military — specifically, the Air Force — has long been accused of granting Michael Weinstein special access to military leaders.  It seems Weinstein has had ideological allies at the top of the US Air Force, which may be why he has Read more

Chaplain: Why is Air Force Seeking Counsel from Weinstein?

Retired Chaplain (Col) Ron Crews of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty:

[Weinstein] is known for his activism to squash religious faith in the military. Why senior leaders in the Air Force would be meeting with someone to talk about religious liberty whose sole purpose it appears is to squash religious liberty, that’s a question that we have for Air Force officials.

Indeed. At FoxNews:

As an aside, a blogger made an interesting observation about the Read more

Vietnam War POW Shares Need for Faith of the American Airman

Retired Air Force Capt Guy Gruters, who was a POW in Vietnam for 5 years, recently told his story to the 128th Air Refueling Wing in Wisconsin.

For a time, Gruters’ cell mate was Air Force Capt Lance P. Sijan.

Gruters told the audience, which also included…Janine Sijan Rozina, Sijan’s sister, that he and Sijan were in the same squadron at the U.S. Air Force Academy for three years. Sijan, a Milwaukee native, was solid as a rock at 210 pounds and had played football for the Academy.

“To see him hurt so bad was really difficult,” Gruters said. “They would torture him, and we would scream in our cells to get them to lay off him and they’d come beat us.”

Capt Gruters clearly conveys the faith that Read more

Admiral: A Storm is Coming for Religious Liberty in US Military

Update: Listen to Admiral Lee’s message to the 2013 National Day of Prayer.  Noted at Baptist Press and Fox News.

As has now been widely reported, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral William Lee spoke “from the heart” — rather than his prepared remarks — at the 2013 national observance of the National Day of Prayer:

He recounted a recent meeting with a 24-year-old soldier who had attempted suicide but survived…Lee said when he heard the man’s story, he knew the rules said he should send the man to a chaplain, but his heart said to give him a Bible.

“The lawyers tell me that if I do that, I’m crossing the line,” Lee said. “I’m so glad I’ve crossed that line so many times…”

Lee pledged not to back down from “my right under the Constitution to tell a young man that there is hope…”

“As one general so aptly put it – they expect us to check our religion in at the door – don’t bring that here,” Rear Admiral William Lee told a National Day of Prayer gathering. “Leaders like myself are feeling the constraints of rules and regulations and guidance issued by lawyers that put us in a tighter and tighter box regarding our constitutional right to express our religious faith.”

Funny that he’d mention lawyers.  Didn’t the Air Force’s highest ranking lawyer, the JAG of the Air Force LtGen Richard Harding, just Read more

US Military Clarifies Religious Policy, Disavows Weinstein Agenda

In another setback for Michael Weinstein’s vitriolic assaults on religious freedom in the US military, the Department of Defense issued a clarifying statement (full text below) disavowing Weinstein’s characterizations and accusations.

It did so in a unique way, however:

Service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one’s beliefs (proselytization).

(The DoD statement would presumably override the one from the Air Force the day prior, saying troops couldn’t share their faith if it made others “uncomfortable.”)

It’s an awkward turn of semantics, since most dictionaries don’t define “proselytizing” as being “unwanted” or “intrusive” (its a neutral term “to convert”).  Over the past few years, the term has been so often associated with “coercion” it has come to have a negative connotation.  (Weinstein’s research assistant, Chris Rodda, actually agrees the Read more

National Day of Prayer, 2013

Today is the National Day of Prayer.  President Obama issued his proclamation, saying in part

All of us have the freedom to pray and exercise our faiths openly. Our laws protect these God-given liberties, and rightly so. Today and every day, prayers will be offered in houses of worship, at community gatherings, in our homes, and in neighborhoods all across our country. Let us give thanks for the freedom to practice our faith as we see fit, whether individually or in fellowship.

The National Day of Prayer Task Force highlighted the details of the NDoP observance at Capitol Hill.  President Obama will reportedly not attend.

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