Think it can’t happen here?
Saeed Abedini is the Christian pastor who has been jailed for “threatening the national security of Iran.”
Saeed Abedini, 32, was in Iran last summer to finish building an orphanage when members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard took him away in a bus for prison. He has been held captive and reportedly beaten and tortured since September.
Abedini, a naturalized US citizen, was Read more
Since former cadet (and current MRFF “client”) Blake Page made his awkward public departure from West Point over “criminal” Christianity, there has been a simmering of the issue of prayer at the US Military Academy. For the most part, the only loud voices were critics who want to see West Point end public prayers.
The Alliance Defending Freedom just recently weighed in, encouraging West Point to stand firm in the face of criticism and honor both its legacy and religious freedom. The ADF’s David Hacker said
“The First Amendment allows public officials to acknowledge our nation’s religious heritage,” he notes. “Anti-religious groups with misguided ideas about the First Amendment should not be allowed to destroy a time-honored, perfectly constitutional American custom.”
The ADF sent a letter to West Point on behalf of the Chaplain Alliance Read more
Each year since 1993 the President has declared January 16th to be “Religious Freedom Day,” in order to remember the passage of Thomas Jefferson’s 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (see 2009). President Obama has not yet issued his proclamation this year but will likely do so today [Update: Now here]. CitizenLink, associated with Focus on the Family, noted an irony in the forthcoming Presidential proclamation while the Administration is being sued — for impinging upon religious freedom.
Jefferson’s statute continues to be a strong expression for the value of Read more
While it potentially raises more questions than it provides answers, a Wall Street Journal opinion piece does a reasonable job of trying to present a balanced portrait of religion in the US military as it pertains to the requirements of the Constitution.
Isn’t it a First Amendment-violating “establishment of religion” for the military to appoint religious officials? No, it isn’t…The chaplains exist not for the military or the government generally, but to give military men and women access to their religion.
The problem is how to achieve this objective without creating an environment that seems to associate the military with particular religious views…
Although military personnel can’t be forced to muffle their religious beliefs, courts have long given the military more flexibility than other employers to regulate freedom of expression. The military can therefore discourage officers from expressing their faith in ways that create pressure on their subordinates…
Author David Skeel, a University of Pennsylvania Law School professor, even grants the military might be a model for society in its handling of religious freedom: Read more
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has called on the US Military Academy at West Point to “stop including prayer during official events.”
In a letter to Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. David H. Huntoon and other officials, Americans United asserted that the academy’s prayer policy runs afoul of the Constitution and violates the rights of cadets.
West Point responded simply by saying there are no mandatory prayers at the Academy. Americans United seems to believe the First Amendment was written to protect offended ears, not speech. Their letter supports — unwittingly or not — the stereotype that merely being exposed to a ‘religious act’ is offensive and therefore illegal [emphasis added]: Read more
From around the world:
Operation Christmas Drop, the annual event in which C-130s drop packages to remote Pacific Islands, completed its 61st year.
Airmen from Yokota Air Base, Japan, were joined by the University of Guam, the local community and charitable organizations to provide more than 39,000 pounds of humanitarian supplies to islanders during Operation Christmas Drop Dec. 11 to 18.
A commenter on AF.mil site sarcastically noted it is only a matter of time before someone complains about the name of the operation hiding an attempt to conver the locals…
The Stars and Stripes had a few more details, including the Operation’s use of condemned Air Force parachutes, and the unfortunate consequences of using a chute that’s too small.
A San Antonio-based US Army Public Affairs Read more
Update: A letter to the editor of the Stars and Stripes questions Torpy’s “odd idea of religious freedom.”
Former Army Captain and current atheist Jason Torpy was working overtime doing damage control over the past week, as various outlets picked up the story of his complaint over the “live nativity” occurring during NSA Bahrain’s annual “Holiday Tree Lighting.” His comments appeared on a variety of sites covering the controversy; in each case, he basically said he didn’t demand NSA Bahrain cancel it — he just called it “unconstitutional” and a danger to US troops — that’s all. Of course, he did say that cancelling it was “preferable to” letting it happen:
If the scene had to be cancelled, that is unfortunate but it is also preferable to the government-sponsored proselytism [*See note, below] the Live Nativity would have added to an otherwise positive celebration.
FoxNews accurately reported that Torpy’s complaint to the Inspector General led to the cancellation of the event to occur during Read more
A Utah paper highlighted the service of local Mormons with the Utah National Guard, which includes arrangements allowing teenagers to enlist, go to boot camp — and then take a two year break for their mission:
“A lot of people told me I couldn’t be both a Marine and a missionary,” [LCpl Brady] Knowles said before he left for the LDS Church’s Indianapolis Mission last year. “But when I talked to the Marine recruiters and told them I was going to serve a mission, they told me it could be worked out. And it was.”
Upon graduating from high school, Knowles enlisted Read more