Category Archives: Government and Religion

Lawsuit Filed over Deception of Pentagon DADT Data

The Thomas More Law Center has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Center for Military Readiness:

The purpose of the lawsuit is to obtain records believed to show intentional deception by the Pentagon to gain congressional support for repeal of the 1993 law regarding open homosexual conduct in the military, usually called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

The TMLC alleges the Pentagon has

engaged in a pattern of deception in its efforts to persuade Congress to allow open homosexuality in our military.

The lawsuit centers around the premise the Pentagon leaked information to the Washington Post in 2010 to sway public opinion and Congress Read more

MRFF, MAAF Find Roots in Ohio

The Columbus Dispatch highlights a familiar connection of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers through Ohio State University.

Two of the most-prominent national organizations fighting for religious freedom in the U.S. military have roots at Ohio State University.

Retired [sic] Army Capt. Jason Torpy incorporated the nonprofit Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers while getting a master’s in business administration at Ohio State in 2006.

Air Force Reserve Capt. Casey Weinstein, whose experiences at the Air Force Academy helped lead his father to begin the [MRFF], also has an MBA from Ohio State. His wife, Reserve Capt. Amanda Weinstein, is working toward a doctorate in economics there now.

It’s interesting to see OSU as a common thread, but “prominent” is Read more

Weinstein Recycles Material to Sell Book on Religious Freedom

Michael Weinstein took a pay cut in 2010, so it looks like he felt the need to write a book to try to make up the difference.  He wrote an “op-ed” printed on the Washington Post website, though it was characterized by a fairly solid theme:  No new material, except for hawking Weinstein’s book.

It was refreshing, in some respects, to see Weinstein eschew the subtlety of some of his supporters and just come right out and say he and his “religious freedom” group are targeting Christians:  Read more

Navy Admiral Receives Jewish Military Leadership Award

The Jewish Community Centers (JCC) Association has decided to present its Jewish Military Leadership Award to Rear Admiral Herman Shelanski, commander of USS Harry S Truman strike group.  The group said the reasons include RAdm Shelanski’s

consistent concern for the ability of Jews in the Navy to fully express their Jewish identity while they serve their country.

As commander of the carrier USS Harry S Truman, RAdm Shelanski  Read more

Weinstein Calls Koran-Burning “Christian Supremacist Chauvanism”

Ever the one for florid vitriol, and never failing to connect Christianity to military scandals, Michael Weinstein claims the recent burning of Korans at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, was an intentional act of Christian “exceptionalism aimed at the people of Afghanistan.”

The root of this ongoing crisis is the fundamentalist Christian extremist scourge within the U.S. Military.

Naturally, Weinstein fails to say how he knows the religious beliefs or the malicious motivations of the troops involved — yet he still Read more

US Military Receives Torah Scroll in Afghanistan

The lengths to which the US military will go to protect the free exercise of its troops have been noted here many times before.  From delivering fresh palm fronds at Easter to helping servicemembers build a Sukkah, the military generally does an admirable job of trying to provide religious resources to those it separates from those resources in the call to war.

Recently, the base chapel in Kandahar, Afghanistan, received its first Torah scroll, created in memory of fallen servicemembers.  Chaplain (LtCol) Avi Weiss explains the significance of the scroll:

Capt Rubin at Jews in Green recognized this for the support of religious freedom that it is.

Military atheist Justin Griffith, on the other hand, Read more

Mikey Weinstein’s Friends and Allies in Military High Places, Part 3

Despite his claims the US military is overrun by Christians trying to take over the world, Michael Weinstein seems to have more public allies in military leadership positions than he has public enemies. In addition, Michael Weinstein seems to have some very well-placed friends in the US military, despite his claims he is a David fighting an institutional Goliath.

Weinstein’s “close personal…relationship” with an Air Force base’s commanding general has already been discussed, as has his unusual access to an Air Force Colonel’s non-releasable records.  It turns out Weinstein also counts the recently retired JAG of the Air Force as a cheerleader for his cause.

In fact, Weinstein’s apparently unfettered access to military leadership is so unusual Congress has been asked to investigate it.

The most interesting example of Weinstein’s friends in high places was Read more

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