Category Archives: Government and Religion

DADT Repeal: “Don’t Forget Transgenders…”

A local Colorado paper interviewed graduates and students of Colorado University on their perceptions of the recent repeal of the law banning homosexuals from military service.  Some of the article focused on the desire of former servicemembers, discharged for being homosexual, to re-enter the service, though that has been widely discussed.  The end of the article was interesting:

CU senior Kyle Inselman, a member of the GLBT campus community…said the repeal is not a victory for the transgender community, since “don’t ask, don’t tell” is only one of the issues keeping them out of the military…

“I think that to frame this as a victory for the GLBT community is wrong, because transgender people still cannot serve in the military,” Inselman said. “We need to not forget about fighting for (transgender) inclusion in our military as well as gay, lesbian and bisexual people.”

Seems like this line of thinking has been brought up before…

Military Missionaries Deployed Abroad

When the media mentions “military” and “missionary” in the same sentence, it often causes a near cacophony of criticism from conspiracy theorists about attempts at religious world domination.  Recent accusations of impropriety make the sensitivity of the subject evident.

A few decades ago, it wasn’t so.

General Douglas MacArthur, one of the few men to reach the nation’s highest military rank of General of the Armies, was the American face of reconstruction of post-war Japan.  The self-proclaimed “soldier of God and the republic” famously encouraged the influx of “a thousand missionaries” into Japan in the hopes that Christianity would overcome Shinto Buddhism in the Japanese isles.  Documents from the Truman library reportedly indicate the Joint Chiefs, the Secretary of the Army, and Truman himself supported MacArthur in this endeavor.  (Most modern summaries indicate the “Christianization” of Japan largely failed.)

Such an emphasis was likely influential on military members themselves.  A recent article in The Deseret News of Utah highlights the Mormon soldiers who “spread the gospel in post-war Japan.” Among those is the current President of the Mormon church, Read more

Bishop: Church Won’t “Evaluate” Military Homosexual Policy

In an interesting dance of politics and semantics, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, reportedly said

the Catholic church is not in a position to evaluate the impact of openly gay service members on military readiness directly…

but

“That is a question that has to be worked out politically. And there isn’t a specific Catholic Church position,” he said, “but whatever happens, it has to be seen in terms of the church’s teaching position. And that is, Read more

Marine General’s Faith at Issue

Websites belittling Commandant of the Marine Corps General James Amos are increasingly referring to his religion — some in an “off-hand” manner, others directly, as if it has something to do with current issues.

Interestingly, the “source” for General Amos’ faith is listed as this site.  The June 2010 article on his nomination for Commandant noted his speech at the 2009 National Day of Prayer.  Since then, that article has been cited in a variety of sources, including the ever reliable Wikipedia, as proof Amos is “born again.”  In fact, a web search for Amos’ faith reveals only two sources: this site, and a more recent derogatory citation by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s Chris Rodda, with an uncredited copy of a personal photograph of the same event she likely learned about through this site.

Ultimately, however, Amos’ faith is irrelevant.  It would be folly to assert Read more

Christmas in Afghanistan, Presidential Message on Jesus’ Birth

FoxNews had a headline article on Christmas highlighting “Christmas in Afghanistan.”  One of the more interesting parts of the article:

Afghans who support the coalition troops respect the holiday, [US Marine Chaplain (Capt) William] Kennedy said.

“We’re in a Muslim country, but the Muslims venerate Jesus as a prophet and the people I’ve met, whether it’s the locals or ANA (Afghan army), the mullahs, they respect the fact that we’re a religious people,” Kennedy told AFP.

(In a contrast to the Chaplain’s supportive perceptions of the local population, an activist group once tried to claim public American military celebrations of Easter were “convinc[ing] the Muslims we’re on a crusade.”) 

While Americans celebrated freely in Afghanistan, local Iraqi Christians “toned down” their Christmas celebrations in Iraq over fear of attacks.  It appears American military Read more

Commander Requests to be Relieved over Homosexual Policy

The WorldNetDaily is a right-leaning website that is most often hyperbolic and sensationalist.  It has a few bright spots, but even they can be clouded over by the overhyped presentation.

If one can look past the adjectives, however, they may be accurately reporting the request for relief of an Army Lieutenant Colonel over the recent repeal of the combined policy/law known as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

The text of the commander’s letter to his superiors asking that he be relieved of command is included on the site.  It says in part  Read more

USAFA, Cadets for Christ Victims of Weinstein’s Hypocrisy

Chris Rodda, research assistant for Michael Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation, recently guest-posted the MRFF’s latest salvo against “Cadets for Christ,” an Air Force Academy Christian cadet group Weinstein wants banned.  The self-described Research Director can’t even get basic facts correct.

The MRFF apparently has copies of emails sent from Don and Anna Warrick asking the recipients to send letters of support for Cadets for Christ to the Chaplains at USAFA.  The USAFA Chaplains had indicated they had received letters both supporting and criticizing the group.  Rodda summarizes:  Read more

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