Tag Archives: Jewish

Eglin AFB Removes Bible from Waiting Room. Leaves People Magazine.

In a shocking capitulation to an anti-Christian activist, the US Air Force removed a Bible from the pile of reading material in a medical waiting room because Michael “Mikey” Weinstein was offended over its mere presence:

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A Bible has been removed from the waiting room of Eglin Air Force Base Allergy and Immunization Clinic after a military retiree contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and expressed concern.

Faced with the apparently unsolvable legal conundrum about what to do with a Bible in public, the Eglin AFB leadership declined to make the decision themselves:  Read more

Teller: Jewish Practice in the US Military

Over at the Jewish Press, Rabbi Hanoch Teller has a fascinating series tracing in storytelling form several major stories in the history of Judaism in the US military. The first two articles describe the story of Mitchell Geller, who after many years of military service starting in the 1950s was ultimately forced out over a beard he refused to shave — resulting in him losing his retirement. The interesting end to the story can be read in Part II.

The third and fourth articles in the series begin the story of S. Simcha Goldman, the Navy chaplain turned Read more

ACLJ Again Defends Military Religious Freedom from Mikey Weinstein

The ACLJ has again written a letter to the US military encouraging them not to allow the military to become

an unwitting tool to implement Mr. Weinstein’s agenda of eviscerating religious freedom in the Armed Forces of the United States.

The letter was directed to the (acting) DoD Inspector General, Mr. Glenn Fine, the most recent recipient of a Weinstein missive. Weinstein had written the DoD IG after Peterson AFB refused to crucify a US Air Force officer who had a Bible on his desk.

The ACLJ’s letter (PDF) is much like the last two — one of which also went to Mr. Fine. Besides Read more

Mikey Weinstein Lies about Religious Freedom and Blood in the Streets

One of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s favorite refrains is there would be “blood in the streets” if another religion did what Christian “fundamentalists” get away with in the US military. That his dramatic statement is an irrelevant logical fallacy matters not; it appeals to emotion and energizes his acolytes to call for the government to restrict the religious freedom of Christians in the US military, the Constitution notwithstanding.

Recently, in castigating USAF Major Steve Lewis’ display of a Bible, Weinstein verbosely said [capitalization original, emphasis added]:

Can you even IMAGINE the limitless, overflowing blood in the streets which would immediately occur if, say, another USAF official chose to similarly display, just as Major Steve Lewis presently exhibits his open and yellow-highlighted Christian bible in the very center of his official USAF desk, other sectarian, theological texts such as The Satanic Bible, the Islamic Quran, the Hindu Shruti, the Sikh Adi Granth and the Atheist movementʼs leading texts…?

There wouldn’t just be “blood in the streets.” It would be there “immediately,” and it would be “limitless and overflowing.”  All if another religious US troop dared to put out a religious text or symbol.

Weinstein’s fallacious implication reflects the research style of his assistant, Chris Rodda — meaning his argument is unsupported by evidence and it relies on assumptions and convenient omissions.

Why, for example, do you think Mikey Weinstein declined Read more

Precedent? Bible-Quoting Court-Martialed Marine’s Conviction Upheld

Monifa Sterling was court-martialed by the US Marine Corps for a variety of charges. One was failure to obey an order, when she refused after being told to remove three print-outs of a paraphrased Bible verse from her desk.

With the help of the First Liberty Institute, Sterling appealed to the highest military court, the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, on the basis that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act protected her religious exercise. (Despite some ignorant mockery from Mikey Weinstein’s Chris Rodda, the remaining charges for which she was convicted were not appealed, meaning her Bad Conduct Discharge wasn’t going to change.)

In a 4-1 ruling (PDF), the court upheld her conviction on that charge.

One interesting result was the court seemed unanimous in its “reject[ion]” of the logic used by the lower court, the US Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, which said (PDF) the order to remove the signs was  Read more

Gay Advocates Fear Christians Endanger the Military Chaplaincy

In the ensuing discussions about Chaplain Sonny Hernandez’s article on transgenderism and the military chaplaincy, Tom Carpenter of the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy tried to claim a moral high ground, saying the Christian beliefs expressed by Chaplain Hernandez might “bring down” and “lead to the dismantling of the military chaplaincy”:

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Sonny: I sincerely fear people like you and the Christian Fighter Pilot are going to bring down the military chaplaincy. And that would be a real tragedy for our men and women in the uniform.

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I caution you to be careful your conduct and words do not lead to the dismantling of the military chaplaincy. That would be a tragedy to our service members who really need support and guidance.

Tom Carpenter simultaneously describes himself as Read more

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