The US Air Force Academy football team was invited to the White House to receive the Commander in Chief’s trophy for their victory in the traditional rivalry between the military academy football teams.
US Army SFC Leroy Petry was invited to the White House to be presented the Medal of Honor.
According to US Marine Capt Matthew Phelps, he was apparently invited to the White House because he’s homosexual: Read more
Last year a Houston Veterans’ Cemetery director was accused of banning all religious references from funerals occurring at her facility (as well as using the chapel as a storage shed, among other things). A lawsuit was filed, and settled. The consent decree prohibited the cemetery, then run by Arleen Ocasio, and the VA from interfering with or prohibiting religious references in the ceremonies.
This year, Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) has sponsored a bill that would codify in law the ruling in that consent decree.
Problems arose in Houston when the cemetery director misinterpreted [the] law to prohibit all religious speech. Read more
Updated with BrigGen Lee quote on Michael Weinstein.
Sixty-six members of Congress called on Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to investigate the US Air Force for an environment of “hostility towards religious freedom” — the fourth time in recent months they’ve made such an accusation.
The Congressional letter (PDF) essentially said that Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz’s September policy letter had created a “chilling effect” on religious freedom as Airmen attempted to comply with his guidance:
The decisions that have been made in reliance upon this policy go beyond what is required by the US Constitution. The First Amendment prohibits the establishment of religion; however, the mere discussion of religion or reference to God certainly does not rise to that level.
The Congressmen said the Air Force had “capitulated” to organizations Read more
Tomorrow the Pentagon will host the US military’s first-ever “gay pride” celebration.
The event will include speakers who will address the “value of gay service.”
The official poster was “proudly” distributed to a homosexual advocacy site by Lt Col Todd Breasseale of Public Affairs.
The military apparently had to be very careful in its wording of the event, because the “T” in LGBT, transgenders, are still prohibited from active duty military service, though it seems transgender civilians will be part of the “pride.”
Retired Chaplain (COL) Ron Crews of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty condemned the celebration and noted the interesting timing of the original announcement, coming just a day after the Pentagon publicized the fact it would no longer permit its service symbols to be used on military themed Bibles.
Presumably, in a spirit of equality, next month the US military will Read more
US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was kicked out of the courtroom again for wearing a beard in violation of military grooming standards. The issues of accommodation were already discussed, but this exchange was particularly interesting:
Lead defense attorney Lt. Col. Kris Poppe told the judge that Hasan grew the beard as a “deeply sincere” expression of his faith…
“I’ll wait for him to shave if he wants to come back in here,” [Judge Col Gregory] Gross told Hasan’s attorneys. “He has a choice.”
[Attorney LtCol Kris] Poppe responded that it was a choice to “to obey you or his religious faith.” Read more
A US military official announcement and supporting media articles indicate as many as 7 servicemembers may be given “administrative punishments” for their role in the riot-inducing religious material burning a few months ago.
That’s the same incident for which Michael Weinstein called the Christian perpetrators to be court-martialed.
As noted at A Soldier’s Perspective, it remains unclear for what any US military member could be punished, particularly since the official US position continues to be Read more
In 2010 West Point Cadet Alan Spadone was disenrolled for failing to participate in a remediation program after admitting to violating the Honor Code. He was directed to begin serving as an enlisted soldier, as he had already begun his third year at West Point when he committed his violation in the fall of 2009.
He filed civil complaints on multiple counts, including everything from the remediation program was unreasonable to the government was trying to “enrich itself” by making him serve as a soldier. Those claims were all dismissed in a recent ruling:
Spadone has not established that his suspension and disenrollment from West Point violated the APA or his right to due process, and Spadone failed to demonstrate a waiver of sovereign immunity for his claim of unjust enrichment.
Interestingly, however, Spadone is permitted to continue his claim that the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution was violated when Read more
As predicted last November, Michael Weinstein went fishing for controversy over military-themed Bibles and finally managed to manufacture a scandal out of the nearly decade-old Holman series of military-themed Bibles carrying official military service seals.
But what that led to is even more interesting, for Weinstein may have let slip (again) his real target in his “war” against religious freedom in the US military.
For its part, the military says the decision to withdraw permission for Holman to use the seals was administrative housekeeping. Weinstein’s research assistant Chris Rodda cried malarkey, saying the military never would have revisited the permission if not for the MRFF inquiries.
As it has in the past, the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, representing 2,000 military chaplains, is calling on Congress to investigate why the military is so keen on bowing to pressure from the MRFF.
The end result is the Holman Bibles can be Read more