Tag Archives: chris rodda

US Air Force Defends Posters Discussing Value of Faith

The US Air Force’s Air Combat Command summarily rebuffed Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s complaint that it had “compromis[ed] the integrity of its solemn oath” and violated the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution.

Because of a poster.

As reported by the Air Force Times:

A pair of posters that focus on the importance of faith, which have been on display at Air Combat Command headquarters at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, for years, will not be altered — despite recent complaints about them — according to command officials.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation had contacted the base about removing the posters after complaints from the Langley community.

Weinstein apparently waited for a slow news day to reveal his loss to the Air Force, given that he was initially contacted by the “client” nearly two weeks ago and he normally revels in the Air Force’s immediate reaction.

The Air Force seemed unmoved [emphasis added]:  Read more

“Log-in and Worship”: Military Chapel goes Online

The US Navy posted a fascinating story about Commander Fleet Activities Chinhae, the only US Naval installation on Asia’s mainland, as its chapel program began live-streaming services to help serve Sailors, Marines, and their families posted to Korea:

“I think it is great,” said Johnna Johnson, ombudsman for Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Korea. “Chinhae is one-hour away from Busan, and it is challenging for families to drive there, so this is a fantastic service. Nothing beats the fellowship of being there in person, but this is an amazing next best thing.”

In an era in which streaming church services is Read more

Chris Rodda Attacks Military Chaplains for Being Chaplains

In her writing, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s research assistant Chris Rodda has often struggled with both the truth and the ability to convey a clear, coherent, and supported argument — all while under pressure from her sort-of boss to make it sensational enough that people will read it.

Late in December, she tried to overcome those shortcomings in a piece at the Huffington Post.

She failed.

Her 2,500-word article — short, by Rodda standards — really needs go no further than the headline:

Gay-Bashing Chaplain Endorsers Admit That The Military Chaplaincy Is Disproportionately Anti-LGBT

It would have been more honestly titled  Read more

Mikey Weinstein FOIA Lawsuit to be Heard Today

Today Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the US Air Force Academy is scheduled for a settlement hearing.

Of all the legal actions he’s filed in recent years, it is the one he has the most likelihood of seeing some success in and, to a degree, that success would be warranted.

Weinstein has asserted that years ago he filed a FOIA that has largely gone unanswered from an unresponsive FOIA office at USAFA. He is generally correct when he asserts the regulations regarding FOIA requests, including, for example, the fact FOIAs are supposed to be answered within 20 days.

In a somewhat unusual twist, Weinstein has Read more

Mikey Weinstein: Trump Inaugural, Sky Falling. Send Money.

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein has nearly come unhinged in the past few days as he’s posted frothing attacks at soon-to-be President Donald Trump and his incoming administration — aligning those attacks, of course, with a televangelist-style plea that people send him money — because he is their only hope.

As with everyone else he dislikes, Weinstein called Trump and those associated with him names, including declaring Trump a “dictator.” That Trump was voluntarily and lawfully elected by more than 60 million Americans — in an outcome even Hillary Clinton accepted — appears to have escaped the fact-challenged Weinstein.

Naturally, Mikey Weinstein doesn’t cite a single thing about Read more

Retired Chaplain Norris Burkes Wrong on Gen Costin, Religious Freedom

Retired US Air Force Chaplain Norris Burkes first came to the attention of this site in 2009, when the syndicated chaplain wrote a column about the burning of Afghan-language Bibles by American troops in Afghanistan (a controversy discussed here). In essence, Burkes approved, and noted:

The possession of such religious material violates something the military calls General Order No. 1.

Though he was dismissive of most input, he did finally concede that he was wrong — General Order Number One says no such thing.

Despite the admission, Burkes declined to change the article, and it can still be found on his website, with the unchanged statement that even Burkes admitted was wrong.

Chaplain Burkes recently popped up again, and for some reason he Read more

Atheist Jason Torpy Misrepresents Military Demographics. Again.

In 2010 Jason Torpy, a former US Army Captain and current atheist, essentially lied to White House staff when he told them in an official briefing that approximately 23% of the US military was non-theistic. The briefing was one part of his crusade to justify the oxymoronic “atheist chaplain.”

The problem, as previously discussed, was that his own data didn’t support his claim — and he knew it. When presenting his data, Torpy had included as “non-theists” those who indicated “no religious preference” in their military personnel records. Of course, no one has any idea whether those who selected NRP for their records are theists or not. You would think one who represented an ideology that self-righteously proclaimed its reliance on skepticism and evidence wouldn’t rely on “myth” to promote his cause, but that’s precisely what Torpy did. He cast his net so wide, in fact, that his list of non-theists included at least one Muslim terrorist.

Torpy’s fib was outed, and the knowledge of his use of fictional data made Read more

Bible-Quoting Court-Martialed Marine Goes to the Supreme Court

The case of former US Marine LCpl Monifa Sterling, who made national news when her court-martial included charges related to posting a Bible verse on her desk, has been appealed to the US Supreme Court.

Sterling was a substandard Marine, but the straw that broke the camel’s back to get her court-martialed was posting, “No weapon formed against me shall prosper,” a paraphrase of Isaiah 54:17…

Religious liberty lawyers at First Liberty Institute agreed that Sterling’s posting Bible verses is protected by law…[and] recruit[ed] one of the greatest Supreme Court litigators in recent decades, former Solicitor General Paul Clement, to lead their team…

Sterling’s case has become a fascinating discriminator for Read more

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