Dan Barker, co-president with his wife of their self-founded Freedom From Religion Foundation, has filed a lawsuit against the Chaplain of the US House of Representatives, Patrick J. Conroy, because Barker was denied the opportunity to provide an atheistic “invocation.”
So, to be clear, a person who doesn’t play soccer is suing the soccer coach because he wants to be in the soccer game — but not play soccer.
Makes sense. Read more
I. Introduction
In 2013, United States Air Force Chaplain (LtCol) Kenneth Reyes published an article that cogently chronicled the historical and aphoristic phrase ‘No atheists in foxholes.’.[1] Immediately, the article was lambasted with an incendiary campaign that demanded the extraction of Chaplain Reyes’s post. Michael (Mikey) Weinstein from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) was expeditious in reviling the article by demanding its removal which subsequently led to the Air Force removing its publication. Weinstein called the article a “bigoted and religious supremacist phrase” and lauded himself with victory once the Air Force removed the article.[2]
Weinstein’s vitriol was not surprising since he does not win in litigation; he is forced to rely on coercion. However, the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) interposed by persuading the Air Force to consider the transparent constitutionality and recurrent legal threats from the MRFF,[3] which eventually caused the Air Force to reinstate the article.[4] Victory for religious freedom and a loss for Weinstein!
Chaplain Scott Reyes’s article is a wonderful military depiction of perseverance that every member of the Armed Forces can relate to, especially if they have served during times of conventional, asymmetric or globalizing warfare. If a member of the Armed Forces is held captive during wartime operations as a prisoner of war (POW), apart from strategic interdictions and a battalion of ground forces, what else is a Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine left with? Faith! According to George MacDonald: Read more
Matthew Spence was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy from 2012 to 2015. He recently wrote an Op Ed in the Washington Post entitled “I was a closeted Christian at the Pentagon” — meaning, for those confused, he hid his Christianity on the job.
It’s a fascinating read, both from the perspective of a Christian and that of a government official. It’s interesting to see Spence discuss how he felt pressured to hide his Christianity, the impact that had on him spiritually, and what happened when he decided he wasn’t going to do that anymore: Read more
The Attorneys General from 26 states have signed a bipartisan brief in the ongoing case by the American Humanist Association to tear down the Bladensburg Peace Cross, a cross-shaped World War I memorial. As published by the Attorney General for South Dakota:
“The State Attorneys General are requesting the Federal Courts to recognize important Constitutional rights and respect the dedication, sacrifice, and freedoms earned by our veterans,” said Attorney General Jackley…
South Dakota and 24 other states are requesting the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm a lower court’s ruling, which found the U.S. Constitution allows veterans memorials with religious symbolism…
Jackley highlighted something militant atheists are often hesitant to admit [emphasis added]: Read more
A war memorial dedicated to two Boone County Soldiers killed 25 years ago in Operation Desert Storm irked the American Atheists and the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State because it originally had an ichthus at the base.
The monument was in a park with similar monuments dedicated to county residents who had died in previous wars.
The County eventually covered the ichthus with a plaque. The families of the two men ultimately agreed to leave the symbol covered, but even that wasn’t good enough for the atheist opposition. After Read more
According to a US Naval Academy press release, the chapel communities at Annapolis donated $270,000 to charities in 2015.
Twice per year, in January and July, the United States Naval Academy (USNA) Chaplains Office spends down the religious offering fund to under $5,000 in order to ensure that Read more
Update: Nearly a month later, Mikey Weinstein complained that the disclaimer discussed below was “lipstick on a pig.” Weinstein appeared offended that he hadn’t been consulted and that his demand that Col Hundley be “publicly punish[ed]” was ignored.
The latest US service member to publicly mention his faith and get castigated by Michael “Mikey” Weinstein is US Army Col Thomas Hundley. In a 400-word post at the US military’s official Health.mil, Col Hundley provided one of his regular “Motivational Monday Messages” and recounted his grandfather’s admonition “You just gotta give God a little something to work with.”
He finished with
I challenge you to join the Operation Live Well team on the journey to attain a “new you” in 2016. All we have to do is give God and ourselves a little something to work with. Happy New Year!
and included a list of “improvements” for 2016, among which was
1. Improve your spiritual fitness through increased prayer.
Cited by Military.com’s Bryant Jordan, Weinstein said he complained because Read more
In a post thick with irony, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein took to the internet last week to decry the “extremist” Franklin Graham who “personally targeted” him. The context was Weinstein’s attack on the pre-game prayers by US Air Force Academy cadets, which Weinstein has called “putrid” and illegal. When Graham responded, Weinstein said [emphasis added]:
Well-funded Christian fundamentalist organizations are using social media to attack MRFF!…
Extremist Christian preacher Franklin Graham personally targeted me and our Military Religious Freedom Foundation, asking followers to support and encourage actions meant to undermine our Constitutional rights.
(Said the well-funded anti-Christian organization that uses social media to attack others…) What Read more