Tag Archives: family research council

Liberal Website Calls Pastor to Lackland Airmen “Anti-Gay”

Pastor Steven Branson of Village Parkway Baptist Church in San Antonio emerged as the leading voice and defender of US Air Force Airmen near Lackland AFB (Joint Base San Antonio).  He held a meeting at his church for Airmen to discuss issues of “religious hostility” — and 80 Airmen attended the “standing room only” meeting.

The left-leaning website Media Matters’ berated Branson, calling him “extreme” and repeatedly describing him as “anti-gay.”  Media Matters’ Carlos Maza wrote that Branson  Read more

FRC Statement on USAFA’s Dr. Mike Rosebush

The Family Research Council responded to demands by some groups that the US Air Force Academy fire Dr. Mike Rosebush because of his beliefs:

Former Focus on the Family employee Mike Rosebush, now a research analyst for the Air Force Academy’s Center of Character and Leadership Development…has been a positive fixture on the campus, working in the ethics program that guides young cadets. Today, he’s under attack — the subject of a nationwide smear campaign to remove him from the Academy and marginalize anyone with faith-based views on sexuality…

And while Mike “does not and will not counsel cadets,” homosexual activists are holding up his mainstream views as an example of Read more

US Army Orders Halt to Christian Extremist Briefings

The Liberty Institute, the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, and the Family Research Council — all members of the Restore Military Religious Freedom Coalition — successfully waged a campaign to have the US Army order an end to briefings which labeled mainstream Christian groups “extremist.”

As reported by Todd Starnes at FoxNews:

“On several occasions over the past few months, media accounts have highlighted instances of Army instructors supplementing programs of instruction and including information or material that is inaccurate, objectionable and otherwise inconsistent with current Army policy,” Army Sec. John McHugh wrote to military leaders in a memorandum I obtained.

McHugh “directed that Army leaders cease all briefings, command presentations or training on the subject of extremist organizations or activities until that program of instruction and training has been created and disseminated,” Army spokesman Col. David Patterson, Jr., tells me.

Multiple briefings were presented as evidence of a widespread Read more

Update: USAFA Reacts to So Help Me God

…Who is in charge of the nation’s military[?]  “Is it in fact the military chiefs or is it Mikey Weinstein?”

— Tony Perkins, Family Research Council President

A few news sources have picked up on the story about the US Air Force Academy pulling a poster that had the cadet Honor Oath on it — an oath that ends in “so help me God” (discussed here a few days ago).  Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, president of his self-founded charity, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, has celebrated this as his latest “victory.”

The cadet committee on the subject has met, though not yet made a recommendation to the Superintendent:

Academy spokesman Maj. Brus Vidal said the Honor Review Committee…discussed…making no change to the oath, making the “so help me God” portion optional, or striking the entire oath…

Vidal said. “We value an inclusive environment that promotes dignity and respect for all.”

The Public Affairs director did not explain how “no change to the oath” could follow LtGen Michelle Johnson’s order Read more

Pastor: 80 Airmen Meet on Air Force Treatment of Christianity

Pastor Steve Branson of Village Parkway Baptist Church in San Antonio, TX, reported that he recently held a meeting with a large group of members of the US Air Force to hear their worries over the Air Force’s treatment of their religious freedom.

At least 80 airmen attended a private meeting at the church where [Branson] heard them voice their concerns about religious hostilities at the Air Force base. It was a standing-room only crowd.

“The religious persecution is happening,” the pastor said. “It’s getting bigger every day.”

As to the improper conduct for which these Airmen claim they are being discriminated against [emphasis added]:

“A commander told him, ‘Don’t you understand discrimination – that your thought process is discrimination?’” Pastor Branson said.

Branson’s church in San Antonio, near Lackland Air Force Base, has Read more

Reports: US Military Christians Targeted for Beliefs

FoxNews had a somewhat inflammatory title to its article, “Air Force cracking down on Christians,” in which columnist Todd Starnes noted the story of SMSgt Philip Monk, currently being investigated after filing a complaint of religious discrimination.

Lost in some of the controversy, though, was this near the end of the article [emphasis added]:

[Monk’s] not the only Christian at Lackland Air Force Base facing persecution for opposing gay marriage, according to Monk’s pastor.

Steve Branson is the pastor of Village Parkway Baptist Church, about five miles from the Air Force base. He tells me that as many as a half dozen of his church members are currently facing persecution…for their religious beliefs.

“Sgt. Monk is just the tip of the iceberg,” Read more

Military Reviews Moral Solutions to Causes of Sexual Assault

Two Air Force JAGs, Major Ken Artz and 1Lt Peter Smyczek wrote a fascinating article that supported General Mark Welsh’s assertion that the accepted culture is part of the sexual assault problem in the military.  Entitled “Sexual Assaults in the Military: Porn is Part of the Problem,” their piece began with a simple statement [emphasis added]:

If our military is to lower its rate of sex crimes, it must limit its members’ consumption of pornography and educate them about its risks.

The JAGs point out that the Air Force must address the underlying behaviors that lead to sexual assault — not merely attack the Read more

Weinstein Revels in Publicity, Publisher Decries Pentagon Hostility

Despite “protesting” for weeks that his relationship with the US Air Force has been mischaracterized, Michael Weinstein of his self-founded Military Religious Freedom Foundation recently touted his inimitable influence over the US military.

At Breitbart.com, Ken Klukowski of the Family Research Council notes that Weinstein’s recent bragging seemingly contradicts the Pentagon’s efforts to downplay their relationship.

One month ago the Pentagon assured the public it was not being advised by anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein. Yet two days ago Weinstein called the Pentagon demanding that a Christian painting be removed from a dining hall in an Idaho Air Force base, and the Pentagon complied with his demand–in less than one hour.

Klukowski notes that Weinstein brags he got action in less than an hour, while US Congressmen haven’t gotten a response to their queries in weeks.

The “Christian painting” was described by the publisher Read more

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