A group of US Marines hand-carried a 13-foot cross to the top of a hill at Camp Pendleton, California, in honor of their comrades killed in action:
Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times
At precisely the date and time when World War I officially ended, giving rise to Armistice Day — the forerunner to Veterans Day — the group erected a 13-foot cross. The cross replaced one Read more
Despite Michael Weinstein’s continuous ridicule of the US Air Force Academy, Jason Torpy and his Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers paint quite a different picture — and Torpy looks like a calm foil to Weinstein’s blustering grandstanding:
Continuing what is now nearly a year of collaboration, the Air Force Academy has made significant changes to training as a result of reviews by the Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers… Read more
Former US Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt has filed a suit in the US Court of Federal Claims seeking reinstatement and back pay or access to retirement.
Klingenschmitt was discharged in 2007 after a controversial couple of years largely revolving around his insistence on ending prayers “in Jesus’ name.” He has been filing appeals ever since.
Notably, Klingenschmitt’s timeline in the filing indicates Read more
A few news sites reported last week on the US Air Force Academy’s participation in — and then reconsideration of its participation in — Operation Christmas Child, in which shoeboxes with basic sundries and gifts are given to needy children around the world by Samaritan’s Purse.
The situation is fairly complex, as evidenced by the fact a few news organizations had to edit and reissue their news articles to correct misunderstandings about what really occurred.
Undisputed public statements indicate cadets at the US Air Force Academy came up with the idea to participate in Operation Christmas Child. They made an announcement in Mitchell Hall (the wing dining facility, with all cadets present) and subsequently sent out a wing-wide email explaining who to contact to participate.
A cadet who “didn’t think much about it at first” later forwarded the email to Michael Weinstein calling it part of the “religious problem” proving the US military “support[s] one religion, which is of course Christianity.” (Weinstein published the email, complete with the names and personal information of the cadets involved, though he redacted his supporter’s information.) Less than 24 hours later, Weinstein was in the local news
accus[ing] commanders of crossing the line by Read more
It seems the prior article on the White House petition to “end discrimination” against military atheists struck a chord, most notably with its creator, Dustin Chalker.
Chalker posted a response to the article with his MRFF ally Chris Rodda as an independent blog. Not all of the assumptions Rodda and Chalker made were necessarily accurate, but the response here, as some have seen, has been interesting. Most who have commented failed to actually read the story behind any of Chalker’s accusations, making such deep and thoughtful statements as “You’re a coward” easy, if logically unsupported, diatribes to make in their passionate support of Chalker.
Though he never indicated so himself, Rodda claims Dustin Chalker – who sued the Department of Defense as an Army Sergeant – is now the civilian “Mr.” Chalker, though she contradictorily uses his rank in the present tense.
Both Rodda’s and Chalker’s comments contained factual errors, though accuracy has never been Rodda’s strong suit. Some of the more salient points of Chalker’s comment are below:
Chalker said it was “lying” to say his lawsuit Read more
In a rare break from his focus on Christianity, Military Religious Freedom Foundation “president” Michael Weinstein has called for US Air Force Academy Chaplain (Col) Robert Bruno to be court-martialed for his attempts to convert cadets…to Buddhism:
US Air Force Chaplain Colonel Bruno…should face immediate criminal charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for these disgusting, prima facie examples of dereliction of duty by flagrant violations of the solemn oaths they took…
Actually, strike that, Weinstein didn’t display that intellectual integrity. Instead, he continued his focus on Christianity:
[Chaplain Bruno is a] heinous Poster Child[] of unconstitutional, fundamentalist Christian supremacy Read more
At a Spiritual Resiliency Luncheon in October, US Army Chaplain (Col) Barbara Sherer, assistant commandant of the US Army Chaplain Center and School, was introduced by Third Infantry Division Commander MajGen Robert “Abe” Abrams to speak on spiritual resiliency.
“Resilience is that ability to come back and spring back to whatever should be normal for you,” she said.
Resilience has been increasingly important in the Army as Soldiers Read more
The “military director” of American Atheists and coordinator for “Rock Beyond Belief” at Fort Bragg, Justin Griffith, previously misstepped when he tried to ‘humorously’ make the point “there are no chaplains in foxholes.’ (Even some who support him have asked him not to demean the service of chaplains who died in the line of duty or received such accolades as the Medal of Honor.)
Griffith was also so offended by an answer BrigGen Rhonda Cornum gave in a media interview that he misquoted her and allowed another military atheist, Dustin Chalker, to rail on about her misquoted statement.
Now, he’s done it again.
This time Griffith targeted Read more