Tag Archives: jason torpy

Camp Pendleton Cross to go to Texas

A little-reported side story to the well-known controversy over the Camp Pendleton crosses was that a platoon was going to raise another cross on Pendleton, this time to honor Lance Corporal Benjamin Schmidt, who was killed in Afghanistan.  The family and his unit had planned to erect the cross — near other crosses already in place — in connection with an April memorial ceremony.

However, the complaints by atheist activist Jason Torpy, who found out about the crosses on the internet, caused Pendleton to put a moratorium on further memorials.  The Read more

Family Research Council Cites ChristianFighterPilot.com

Just a short time after a gunman fired on a security guard at The Family Research Council building in Washington, DC — apparently because he ‘didn’t like their politics’ — the FRC and the Liberty Institute published The Survey of Religious Hostility in America (PDF, 2MB).  The Survey is 135 pages covering “more than 600 recent examples of religious hostility” detailing “religious bigotry throughout America.”  The paper includes not just independent government action, but moves by citizens to use the government to take action “hostile” toward religion.

America today would be unrecognizable to our Founders. Our first freedom is facing a relentless onslaught from well-funded and aggressive groups and individuals who are using the courts, Congress, and the vast federal bureaucracy to suppress and limit religious freedom. This radicalized minority is driven by an anti-religious ideology that is turning the First Amendment upside down.

Naturally, the report covers perceptions of religious hostility in the US military, with which they included this citation of ChristianFighterPilot.com:  Read more

Local Editorial Scolds Over-the-Top Weinstein

The IndyStar, which has naturally followed accusations against Indiana’s Adjutant General MajGen Marty Umbarger, published a short editorial that scolded Michael Weinstein for his self-appointed role as judge, jury, and executioner:

[Umbarger’s video] raised the ire of a self-appointed watchdog, an attorney named Mikey Weinstein, who started an organization that bills itself as the Military Religious Freedom Foundation…

In an over-the-top protest, Weinstein has demanded that the general be relieved of his command and court-martialed…

The editorial does not attempt to proclaim General Umbarger’s video statement as without error; it merely says that, if it is an error, it does not rise to the ridiculous demands Weinstein makes:  Read more

Camp Pendleton Cross Prompts Wider Review

The demand by Jason Torpy, speaking for the one-man Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, that the US Marine Corps remove its “Christian privilege” (the crosses on Camp Pendleton‘s ridge on Camp Horno) has spurred a “wider review” of similar memorials around the world:

Capt. Greg Wolf at the Pentagon headquarters of the Marine Corps said Thursday that an “operational planning team” is conducting Read more

Newest Academy Cadets Eat Doughnuts, Told to Let Go of God

Jason Torpy of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers is currently engaged in his annual campaign on atheism at the US military academies, which coincides with basic training at each service academy.  The Christian Post picked up on his discussion, and noted that some version of non-sectarian offering was available during basic training to new cadets.

Chaplain Ron Crews of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty acknowledges that those who choose to have no religious faith also have rights — but questions their desire to mimic religious institutions and have chaplains:  Read more

Atheist Wants Cross Removed from Arlington, a Sacred Shrine

Atheist Jason Torpy tilted the irony meter recently when he touted his recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery. 

The event provided the opportunity to remember the service of all those hundreds of thousands at Arlington Cemetery, our nation’s most sacred shrine.

The atheist considers Arlington so “sacred,” in fact, he thinks the government should yank the crosses out of it — something even the ACLU doesn’t advocate.

Pentagon to Host Gay Pride Event

Tomorrow the Pentagon will host the US military’s first-ever “gay pride” celebration.

The event will include speakers who will address the “value of gay service.”

The official poster was “proudly” distributed to a homosexual advocacy site by Lt Col Todd Breasseale of Public Affairs.

The military apparently had to be very careful in its wording of the event, because the “T” in LGBT, transgenders, are still prohibited from active duty military service, though it seems transgender civilians will be part of the “pride.”

Retired Chaplain (COL) Ron Crews of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty condemned the celebration and noted the interesting timing of the original announcement, coming just a day after the Pentagon publicized the fact it would no longer permit its service symbols to be used on military themed Bibles.

Presumably, in a spirit of equality, next month the US military will Read more

Articles Defend, Attack Camp Pendleton Cross

Competing opinion pieces at the UT San Diego debate the appropriateness of the Camp Pendleton crosses, memorials that have stood on a remote hill on a US Marine base for years until an atheist found out they were there.

Ever-sensitive atheist Jason Torpy, the original complainant who found out about the crosses on the internet, reminds people the crosses “violate religious neutrality,” since the presence of religious symbols on government land is apparently totally forbidden:

Two 13-foot Christian crosses stand on restricted federal land as a result of unauthorized actions by private individuals…All of this speaks to a Marine-led Christianization of the military Read more

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