Tag Archives: christian

Former Marine Pilot Opposes Religious Freedom Bill

Pentagon spokesman Nate Christensen stressed that the Defense Department celebrates religious diversity and that military personnel have the full right to exercise their religious beliefs, as long as doing so does not negatively affect the military’s mission or other individuals’ rights.

Tom Carpenter is a co-chair of the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy — a group that advocated for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — a 1970 US Naval Academy graduate, and a former US Marine A-4 pilot.  He recently came out against religious freedom legislation now supported by the endorsing bodies of the vast majority of US military chaplains.  (Carpenter recently repeated near-verbatim atheist talking points rebutting some of the most recent claims of hostility toward religious freedom in the military.)

In apparent shock, Carpenter said, for example:  Read more

Who Speaks for US Military Catholics?

The Catholic Register has an interesting piece highlighting the discussion here just last week, in which MRFF researcher Chris Rodda and Catholic League Bill Donohue both seemed to claim to represent Catholics in the US military.  The Register indicates the Catholic Military Diocese’s press release supporting the religious freedom amendments was due, in part, to a need to remind people that the Catholic Church is the representative of Catholics in the US military:

Mikey Weinstein…argue[s] that the real threat to the free exercise of religion in the military comes from aggressive evangelical groups that have targeted Catholic service members…  He has presented himself as the defender of…Catholic…soldiers beseiged by “right-wing” Christian fundamentalists.

On July 17, the Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS) stepped into the fray, issuing a statement by AMS general counsel John Schlageter that identified the AMS as the “official voice of Catholics in the military.”

While the article is broadly written, it specifically calls out the claims only of Michael Weinstein and Chris Rodda; it mentions Read more

US Army Chaplain Ministers to Afghan Soldiers

A chaplain deployed to Afghanistan has taken it upon himself to go above and beyond: he not only ministers to US and NATO troops, but also local Afghan troops:

[US Army Chaplain (Maj)] Dawud Agbere is the only active-duty Muslim U.S. Army chaplain in Afghanistan and one of just four in the Army. As such, he’s in high demand for holding services, counseling U.S. and NATO soldiers – Muslim and others – and overseeing chaplains in smaller units. But in the last few weeks, Agbere has created a new role for himself: a Muslim ambassador from NATO forces to the enlisted soldiers of the Afghan National Army.

The impact the chaplain can have on the local troops may be significant; Agbere’s commander even went so far as to call him their “secret weapon.”

The article is an interesting read.  It also makes you wonder what the reaction would be if a Christian or Jewish chaplain similarly spoke with Afghan soldiers about his faith.

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Atheist Jason Torpy Claims Not Praying is Atheism

Jason Torpy, former US Army Captain, atheist, and one-man band that is the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, recently commented on the study of religiosity and World War II veterans originally discussed here and announced back in May.  (The article at Religion News Service was written by Kimberly Winston, whose reporting on atheism was apparently the product of a generous donation from an atheist benefactor, Todd Stiefel.)

Torpy said [emphasis his]

The research also found that 28% of Pacific Infantry never prayed, even during heavy combat, so the study proves more than disproves the service of atheists in combat.

Torpy then contacted an (atheist) doctoral student, with Read more

Publisher of Banned Poster Decries Attacks on Religious Freedom

Grant DiCianni is the son of Ron DiCianni, the artist responsible for the “Peacemaker” poster Michael Weinstein so infamously “forced” the Air Force to remove from a Mountain Home AFB dining hall.  He also represents the production company for the print. He previously released a statement decrying the Pentagon’s censorship of both the poster and the virtue it represented.  Yesterday, he published another piece in the Christian Post and had these choice words:

I have discovered that, and I say this in trepidation, those tasked to stand up to dictators and rogue nations can’t even stand up to one anti-Christian bully here at home… Read more

Congressman Explains Military Religious Freedom Bill

On FoxNews (video), US Rep John Fleming (R-La) said the NDAA clause the House passed and the Senate cleared through the Armed Services committee says that:

…military members are fully entitled to express their faith, as long as it is within certain confines, which would be military readiness, good order and discipline, military necessity, and of course without any coercion to others, and for some reason, the [Obama] administration has been against that.

That’s what Michael Weinstein calls a “nasty amendment” that is a “license to kill?”  On its face, it is a preeminent and explicit Read more

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