Category Archives: Government and Religion

Michael Weinstein Cuts Pay, Now Under Half of Charity’s Revenue

Michael Weinstein, the only paid officer and President of his Military Religious Freedom Foundation, reduced his personal compensation by nearly $80,000 in 2010, according to his most recent tax documents.  That same year, his “charity” saw a slight decrease in revenue of about $13,000, despite $120,000 in grants from the Rockefeller Family Fund and $10,000 from the Aspen Community Foundation.

In prior years Weinstein’s exorbitant salaries — which are paid by himself, to himself, from his charity’s revenue — have been highlighted as inconsistent with both his implications that donations to his charity “support the troops” and with the general practices of other charities, whose president/CEO compensations are generally markedly lower (even if the charities are markedly larger).

The $218,201 Weinstein paid himself from the MRFF funds still represented 41% of his charity’s total revenue in 2010.  That’s down from the 54% he paid himself in 2009, though it still represents a substantial percentage of what his donors are presumably Read more

Rep Randy Forbes Calls on Air Force to Put God Back in Motto

US Representative Randy Forbes (R-Va) has written a letter (PDF) signed by 35 members of the House asking the Air Force restore a unit’s motto that was changed after an atheist’s complaint.  The incident to which Rep Forbes is referring was actually first reported on ChristianFighterPilot.com, with the Religion Clause and the ADF Alliance Alert subsequently citing this site.

As noted three weeks ago, the USAF Rapid Capabilities Office responded to “needling” from former Army Captain Jason Torpy, an atheist, and changed its motto from “Doing God’s work with other people’s money” to “Doing miracles with other people’s money.”

The letter, addressed to Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley and Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz, says:

It has come to our attention that the US Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) has modified the logo on its official patch to remove its reference to “God,” following a complaint from Read more

Guilty Plea in Planned Recruiting Center Bombing

Antonio Martinez has pled guilty to attempting to blow up a Baltimore military recruiting center in 2010.  The FBI went as far as to provide Martinez a fake bomb which he tried to detonate.  He had originally pled not guilty, but reversed his plea and faces a 25-year sentence.

Though only vaguely referenced in the Associated Press article on the plea, Martinez was reportedly motivated by his “extremist” Islamic views.  He was one Read more

Soldier Awarded Order of Saint Martin Medal

A US Army article notes Fort Campbell soldier Staff Sgt Jonathan Welch was presented the Honorable Order of Saint Martin by Col. Michael Peterman, the commander of 101st Sustainment Brigade.

The Order of Saint Martin recognizes Quartermasters, either Active Duty, Reserves, or civilian who have made significant contributions to the Quartermaster Corps, states the US Army Quartermaster Foundation.

“I am extremely flattered to receive this award,” said Welch. “For a logistician, this is great privilege. It is also an honor to have had Col. Peterman present this award to me. ”

Interestingly, the article fails to note the history of the medal — or why it is named after Saint Martin:  Read more

Rock Beyond Belief Drops “Atheist Anthem” from Website

In what appears to be a site-wide revamping, Rock Beyond Belief — the atheist counter-event to the Christian Rock the Fort — has dropped the controversial Aiden song that recently caused a media firestorm from its website.  The YouTube video was originally called an “atheist anthem” and was the only introduction to the band on the site, though after FoxNews highlighted it organizer Justin Griffith said they would not be performing that particular song.

Also absent is the plea for civilians (“as many people as possible”) to come to the event.  A recent article quoted Justin Griffith saying he “counts about 100” atheists at Fort Bragg, meaning he is likely relying on the event to draw far more civilians than members of the military.  For a rough comparison, the Fort Bragg chapels host about 2,000 congregants in 17 services every week (both Christian and not); the Christian Rock the Fort had an estimated attendance of 3-4,000.

In another interesting twist, a revealing but obscure comment was made by a pseudonymed military officer presenting himself as part of Rock Beyond Belief Read more

US Army Hosts National Prayer Breakfasts in Afghanistan

Despite being in a combat zone on the other side of the world from home, the US military facilitated servicemembers’ participation in the National Prayer Breakfast.  Retired US Army Colonel Danny McKnight was invited to speak at 12 different locations in the country.  McKnight is famous for his role in Somalia in 1993 — in what the rest of the world now knows as Blackhawk Down.

Col Danny McKnight and his Hollywood alter-ego, Tom Sizemore

National Prayer Breakfast is an annual interfaith tradition started in 1953 by members of U.S. Congress to get Read more

US Army Censors Catholic Chaplains

Update: The Army defended its actions, with FoxNews saying it was a “cautionary move to preserve “military order and discipline,”” not censorship.

In a surprisingly underreported story, the US Army reportedly censored — and then admitted the wrong of censoring — US military Catholic chaplains during their performance of their Catholic Mass.  Catholic priests were apparently given letters to read to their parishes explaining the Catholic opposition to the Department of Health and Human Services mandate requiring insurance coverage for things that violate Catholic beliefs.

On Thursday, January 26, Archbishop Broglio emailed a pastoral letter to Catholic military chaplains with instructions that it be read from the pulpit at Sunday Masses the following weekend in all military chapels. The letter calls on Catholics to resist the policy initiative, recently affirmed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, for federally mandated health insurance covering sterilization, abortifacients and contraception, because it represents a violation of the freedom of religion recognized by the U.S. Constitution.

The US Army’s Chaplaincy office responded:  Read more

President Obama and the National Prayer Breakfast

According to articles on the event, the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, was unique this year:

In a town where just about everything is scripted, the sight of the President, Vice-President and members of Congress singing “Amazing Grace,” during the 60th Annual National Prayer breakfast was one of several off script moments that was almost refreshing today.

According to another source, the talk of the town was the speech delivered at the breakfast — but not President Obama’s speech:  Read more

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