Tag Archives: Constitution

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

Mikey Weinstein Strikes Again — against Christians of course!

By Sonny Hernandez

On Feb 3, 2017, the Air Force Times reported a “wing commander’s prayer breakfast invite spark[ed] [an] IG complaint,” which was a result of a third party complaint filed by Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) to the 42nd Air Base Wing (ABW) inspector general (IG).

The complaint was allegedly filed after several people at Maxwell Air Force Base contacted the MRFF after the 42nd ABW commander used his commander’s box to invite everyone in the wing to a National Prayer Breakfast. Weinstein claims the invite constituted a clear violation of Air Force Instruction (AFI) 1-1, paragraph 2.12 (Balance of Free Exercise of Religion and Establishment Clause).

The complaint filed against the 42nd ABW Commander does not Read more

Mikey Weinstein Pummeled After Prayer Breakfast Complaint

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein filed a complaint with the Inspector General at Maxwell Air Force Base because the 42d Air Base wing commander, Col Erik Shafa, sent out an invitation to the National Prayer Breakfast. As reported by the Air Force Times:

Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, filed a third-party complaint…claiming the invite constituted a clear violation of Air Force Instruction 1-1, Section 2.12, Balance of Free Exercise of Religion and Establishment Clause.

Fortunately, Mikey Weinstein has been almost universally panned for the outlandish accusation.

As noted before, Weinstein assumes US troops are either cowards or sycophants — he thinks they either lack the intestinal fortitude to decline such an invitation, or they will attend solely to ingratiate themselves with their leadership.

Put another way, Tony Carr at John Q. Public wrote (in a cleverly titled “Why Weinstein is Right About Prayer Breakfast Invitation“) [emphasis added]:  Read more

Mikey Weinstein Exhausts Vast Vocabulary

If this site relied on clickbait, the headline would continue “…and then he said THIS.”

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein is widely mocked for his writing style, even within his own group. His rampant use of ellipses and his odd use of font size/color often give Weinstein’s messages a hint of teenage angst. In addition, Weinstein’s diatribes contain so many adjectives — sometimes added to a draft document started by someone else — that his own staff has pejoratively called them “Mikey’s Mad Libs.”

Weinstein has never been short of words — he was even called “Motor Mouth” as a cadet at the Air Force Academy. Sometimes it seems as though he must write with a thesaurus at his side so he can fill in the white space of his rants.

Recently, however, his words failed him.

It seems an email exchange started with Weinstein directly emailing a critic a copy of his newsletter, with Weinstein adding a preface (in 61 pt bold red font) saying  Read more

Religious Troops: Is God First in Your Life? Then Get Out.

Military troops of faith — Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and others — have long served in the US military. They have done so with honor and distinction, earning the highest accolades and making the highest sacrifices.

And former Army officer Sue Fulton thinks they shouldn’t be allowed to serve in the military at all.

As discussed by Sonny Hernandez, in an interview with the New York Times Fulton was aghast that military chaplains have the gall to claim their God is greater than their government — and they should therefore not be in the military:

Some chaplains argue: ‘My first responsibility is to God.’ Well, if your responsibility is to God and not the Army, you need to get out of the Army.

Hernandez accurately summarized Fulton’s intolerant and ultimately unconstitutional advocacy:

[When] Fulton argues that chaplains should get out of the military if God is first in their lives, she is establishing a religion over theirs…She is [saying] the Constitution only works one way, and that the Defense Department’s policy on pluralism is extended only to those with convictions are agreeable to hers.

Fulton’s declaration is utterly ridiculous — and bigoted. Millions of troops before Read more

Mikey Weinstein Demands “Aggressive Punishment” after LtGen Steven Kwast Mentions God

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein recently demanded the US Air Force “aggressively punish” LtGen Steven Kwast, Commander and President of the Air Force’s Air University, claiming he violated Air Force regulations by “discuss[ing]” his faith.

While typical and not unlike his rebuffed accusations against LtCol Michael Kersten, this Weinstein complaint is unique in its near-honesty.

First, Weinstein readily admitted he filed the complaint only because LtGen Kwast “openly discussed his (Christian) faith” (parentheses original) and, shockingly, quoted the Bible:

Lt. Gen. Steven L. Kwast openly discussed his (Christian) faith by, among other faith-based statements, quoting New Testament scripture from Matthew 25:21…

It would be more accurate to say LtGen Kwast mentioned his faith, but it’s Read more

Marine Aviator Criticizes Monifa Sterling, Religious Freedom Case

Carl Forsling, a retired Marine MV-22 pilot, recently took to Task and Purpose to criticize the current Supreme Court appeal of court-martialed Marine LCpl Monifa Sterling. One part of Sterling’s case, as you’ll recall, centered on her decision to post a paraphrased Bible verse on her desk — which she was ordered to take down. Forsling opines:

Sterling worked in a customer-service job at an ID center, so people conducting their official business had to read the verse. This made effectively made something that was supposedly for her own personal inspiration into proselytization.

To quote Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word…” How does a posting a verse from Isaiah translate into an attempt to convert other people to a religion?  In short, it doesn’t, but claiming that Read more

Jeff Sessions Criticized for same Christian Beliefs as Ronald Reagan

I do believe that we are a nation that, without God, there is no truth, and it’s all about power, ideology, advancement, agenda, not doing the public service.

The quote above by President-elect Donald Trump’s Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions is a statement of the obvious to millions of Christians, yet is being touted as proof Sessions is unqualified for government service.

In a widely distributed piece at The Daily Beast, author Jay Michaelson cites the above under the headline “Jeff Sessions Said ‘Secularists’ Are Unfit for Government,” and questioned Sessions’ fitness for the office:

[Sessions’] comments raise questions as to which set of “truths,” religious or secular, would motivate his Justice Department’s decisions on which laws to prosecute, which liberties to protect, and which interpretations of legal and constitutional texts to adopt.

That’s moronic for two reasons.

The first is the obvious “truth” that Read more

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