Tag Archives: Bible

Gospel Competency: An Imperative For Military Chaplains

by Sonny Hernandez

As a military chaplain, I have been privileged and blessed to serve the nation’s finest men and women who have endured laboriously for the defense of freedom. There is an exponential amount of men and women from around the world who have coalesced to serve selflessly and honorably against all enemies foreign and domestic. The sacrifice of family separation, elongated deployments, and all of the cataclysmic experiences of spiritual warfare can lead to many adversarial effects. Some of those aggravated effects are: depression, anger, sadness, hopelessness, family troubles, divorce, drunkenness, sexual immorality (bestiality, adultery, fornication, and homosexuality), attempted suicide and even death. This is why competent, Bible-believing military chaplains are imperative to provide Gospel-centered preaching and counseling to those who serve in the Armed Forces.

There are always going to be incursions on military chaplains who believe Read more

Congressman, Freedom Advocates Object to POW/MIA Bible Removals

Update: More recent coverage of this “controversy” cites the VA saying “the hospital received complaints from…a former prisoner of war who was not a Christian.” Given that such a claim would have been a coup for Weinstein, and it has appeared in no other report, it is likely an error in reporting.

Update: The ACLJ published a statement contradicting Mikey Weinstein’s machinations and a petition calling for a defense of the Bible in “Veterans’ Displays.”  The Army Times covered the removal of a Bible from another display, this one at Tobyhanna Army Depot (which hosts 93 soldiers), where no one apparently knew how the Bible even got there.

powtable1US Congressmen and a variety of religious liberty groups have objected to the forced removal of Bibles from POW/MIA remembrance tables at facilities in Ohio and Texas. The removals came at the request of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, who called the inclusion of the Bibles an act of “supremacy.”

Congressman Doug Collins (R-Ga), also a Reserve AF Chaplain, had previously said he was “appalled” that the VA “caved” to Weinstein’s “antics.”

This organization has devoted itself to attacking Christians and undermining the religious freedoms guaranteed to our men and women in uniform by the Constitution.

In response, the reliably infantile Mikey Weinstein

called Collins an ignoramus and “worthless sack of Read more

The Top 3 Military Chaplain Fallacies

by Sonny Hernandez

Serving in the United States Military Chaplaincy is a solemn responsibility of servility and intrepidity. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) is an indicative that subjugates Christian believers to willfully evangelize and make disciples. A military chaplain must have a true affinity for the lost (unconverted), and possess a love that is implacable for the Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen that they serve. A military chaplain must exercise their constitutional right to faithfully and expositionally teach and preach the whole counsel of God’s special and propositional revelation. Why? Military chaplains that never evangelizes, soft-peddles truth, willfully omits the name of Christ in prayer out of fear of offending others instead of God, substitutes Scripture with psycho-therapy, and cares more about their career than Christ are not examples of holiness and Christ-centeredness; they are examples of hypocrisy and childish-conceits.

A military chaplain must also be willing to persevere and remain steadfast when the culture has increasingly become execrable against God. There will always be impediments against military chaplaincy. In fact, there are exponential stumbling blocks that will attempt to thwart a chaplain’s ministerial fidelity. If a military chaplain prays in the name of Christ a complaint may eventually arise. If a military chaplain does not embrace Read more

ADF, Chaplain Alliance, Ten States, More File Support for Court-Martialed Marine

The Alliance Defending Freedom and the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty have filed an amicus brief on behalf of court-martialed Marine Monifa Sterling. Among other things, Sterling was convicted of disobeying orders for refusing to remove references to a Bible verse from her desk.

In short, the brief (PDF) calls on the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces to overturn the lower court ruling that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act did not apply, which essentially negated Sterling’s defense on that point. The effect, said the ADF’s Daniel Briggs, could be a chilling of religious Read more

Air Force Replaces POW Bible with “Book of Faith”

Update: Follow-ups by US Air Force Chaplain and Congressman Doug Collins, Christian Today, and the Christian News Network.

powtable1Last Thursday Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s MRFF trumpeted his influence in getting a VA clinic to remove a Bible and Bible verse from a POW/MIA table. The story was essentially ignored until FoxNews’ Todd Starnes reported on it yesterday [emphasis added]:

A Bible and Bible verse were removed from a POW/MIA display inside an Ohio Veteran’s Administration clinic after the notorious Military Religious Freedom Foundation complained.

The religious artifacts were part of a “Missing Man Table” recently erected by volunteers at an outpatient clinic in Akron.

Weinstein called the presence of Bible a “violation of the US Constitution.” While the VA didn’t necessarily agree, in an ill-fated attempt to avoid offending someone, they kowtowed.

Starnes accurately reported that official military and government 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

Faithfully Responding to a Michael (Mikey) Weinstein Attack

by Sonny Hernandez

When conservative Bible-believing Christians in the Armed Forces are vilified because of their constitutional right to exercise the tenets of their faith, it is impossible to mitigate the issue. Michael (Mikey) Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is importunate when making denigrating rhetoric against anyone in the Armed Forces who will not concur with his beloved self-conception or obscured beliefs. It can easily be deduced that the MRFF is not amicable towards religious liberty for conservative Bible-believers who are not ashamed of Christ and His Gospel. Nevertheless, Christ will be proclaimed! This is why Bible-believing Christians must know how to respond as this article will now cogently explain:

I. Comprehend Your Audience

Michael Weinstein of the MRFF masquerades as a defender of religious freedom for 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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