Tag Archives: becket fund

MRFF’s Chris Rodda Advocates Military Religious Discrimination

It’s been long established that Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s awkwardly-named Military “Religious Freedom” Foundation actually fights against the religious freedom of Christians in the US military. Examples abound of cases in which a reasonable, principled religious liberty group should have stood up in defense of an Airman, Soldier, Marine, or Sailor, but Weinstein either refused to defend the troop because they were Christian or outright attacked their religious liberty instead.

Fortunately, genuine religious liberty groups have stood in the gap for such Christians — and have defended them even from Weinstein himself. One of the more notable groups is the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has a long history of, unlike Weinstein, consistent, principled defense of religious freedom regardless of a person’s particular religious belief.

(To wit, the Becket Fund has been fighting for the right of Sikhs to serve in the US military while still being able to practice their religious faith; Weinstein has so far refused to do so, tacitly acknowledging that a “win” for the Sikhs would ultimately be a win for other faiths — including Christians.)

More recently, Mikey Weinstein tried to attack the religious liberty of Read more

US Army Grants More Exceptions for Sikhs

Update: Follow up on Harpal Singh and the status of Capt Singh’s case here.

The US Army has decided to permit three more Sikh adherents to attend Basic Training while maintaining the articles of their faith:

“After months of waiting, I’m ecstatic that I can finally serve both God and country,” Private Arjan Singh Ghotra, one of the plaintiffs, said…

Religious accommodations were also granted to Specialist Kanwar Singh [and]Specialist Harpal Singh.

While the exceptions are notable, they are still precisely that: exceptions. Thus, the US Army is still not officially more “friendly” to service by Sikhs, a point Read more

Military Grants One Sikh Exemption, Three More File Lawsuit

singhThe US Army extended its religious accommodation of Capt Simratpal Singh, a Soldier who had decided to return to his Sikh practices and had sued after the Army tried to subject him to additional testing not required of other Soldiers.

The response from the Army (PDF) is intended to moot the suit. The accommodation allowing Singh to wear his religious accoutrements is open-ended, but it is heavily qualified with the Army’s caveats that it might remove the accommodation at any time. Perhaps more importantly:  Read more

US Army Announces Intent to Protect “Self-Identity”

Buried deep in the proposed Defense Department Budget for 2017 (PDF, 5MB) was a little noticed comment on discrimination in the US Army [emphasis added]:

The Army remains committed to ensuring the dignity and respect of Soldiers, civilians, and their families…The Army will provide every Soldier and civilian equal opportunities to rise to the level of their merit regardless of their gender, their race, or their self-identity.

Just what is a “self-identity”? Good question, since it isn’t defined in the budget nor apparently in a Defense Department policy, and it hasn’t appeared in any prior DoD budget. It’s also not a Federally-protected class.  Given the context of current events, it seems likely it is intended as a reference to the Army’s foregone plan to repeal the ban on transgender troops, though the Army seemed to dispute anything unique about this year’s new budget wording:  Read more

Sikh Soldier Gains Injunction against US Army

singhUS Army Capt Simratpal Singh sued the US Army last week in an attempt to gain permission to wear a turban and long hair, in keeping with his Sikh faith.

Capt Singh had previously shaved and adhered to standards — he is a West Point and Ranger School graduate with 10 years of service — but given recent changes in military policy that placed a priority on religious accommodation, and his own reevaluation of his dedication to his faith, he sought and obtained a temporary waiver.

According to the lawsuit (PDF), the Army was about to Read more

Mikey Weinstein Aims for Christmas Villain Hat-Trick

In what is becoming an annual tradition, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein and his self-founded “charity,” the oddly-named Military Religious Freedom Foundation, have been nominated for or have won recurring Christmas-villain awards for his attacks on military religious freedom.

Weinstein “won” the Liberty Institute’s Scrooge Award in 2014, after he was nominated for his infamous “cadet whiteboard” attack, in which he aimed his invective at a US Air Force Academy cadet who had the gall to write a Bible verse on a dry erase board. Weinstein has been nominated again this year for his attack on, again, US Air Force Academy cadets — this time, members of the football team who choose to take a knee prior to their games.

MRFF supporters are aware of the voting for Liberty Institute’s award and are trying to shoot the moon, apparently thinking that being viewed as a rich, crass, stone-hearted cynic is a good thing.

After missing out last year, Mikey Weinstein’s MRFF has been nominated for Read more

Military Religious Freedom Group Lauds Decision to Grant Sikh Waiver

As reported in the New York Times, the US Army has granted Capt. Simratpal Singh a religious accommodation to wear the beard, unshorn hair, and turban as the outward expression of his Sikh faith — even while wearing the military uniform:

It is the first time in decades that the military has granted a religious accommodation for a beard to an active-duty combat soldier…But it is only temporary, lasting for a month while the Army decides whether to give permanent status to Captain Singh’s exception.

If it decides not to, the captain could be confronted with the decision of whether to cut his hair or leave the Army. He has said he is prepared to sue if the accommodation is not made permanent.

(This occurred not long after Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va) sent yet another letter to the DoD, as he has for several years, asking that the US military reconsider its policies prohibiting Sikhs from serving.)  Singh, a West Point graduate, had previously sacrificed those religious Read more

Generals Call on US Military to Allow Sikhs to Serve

A coalition of 27 retired General officers signed a letter (PDF) urging the US Department of Defense to allow Sikhs to serve in the US military. Currently, Sikhs must abandon the articles of their faith — including uncut hair, beards, and turbans — before they can join the military:

Although Sikhs have served honorably in the U.S. military since World War I, restrictive appearance regulations adopted in 1981 created barriers to their service. Revisions earlier this year to DOD Instruction 1300.17 make it possible for service members to request religious accommodations; however, the new guidelines presumptively exclude Sikh articles of faith, forcing Sikhs to repeatedly apply for waivers and even violate their religion while an accommodation request is pending.

One of the notable signatures on the letter is Read more

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