US Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) sent a letter to Camp Pendleton’s commanding officer Colonel Nicholas Marano indicating his support for allowing the now-controversial memorial cross to remain standing in order to honor four US Marines who fell in Iraq:
Majs. Douglas Zembiec and Ramon Mendoza, and Lance Cpls. Robert Zurheide and Aaron Austin..
What makes Hunter’s call unique, besides his status as a member of Congress?
He was there. Read more
Jason Torpy of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers was recently interviewed by NPR on the topic of atheist chaplains. At one point he said he felt “excluded…because of his beliefs” while he was in the Army. His unit was preparing for a convoy:
Going on a military mission, for example, we were getting ready to roll out…So as the commander of this convoy (said), ‘Everybody come in and we’re going to do a prayer first together.’ We’re not going to talk about communications, we’re not going to talk about route planning, we’re not going to talk about first aid, we’re not going to talk about maintenance.
So I had to opt myself out of that situation, to ‘out’ myself because this commander took it upon himself to have a personal religious activity in the midst of a military mission.
CNS News caught that, and later asked Torpy to clarify. Torpy ultimately admitted the unit had prepared for the mission, despite his implication Read more
Ian Smith of the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has written a letter to Camp Pendleton’s commander joining Jason Torpy in his calls to have the memorial cross removed.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has written to base commander Col. Nick Marano, saying the cross’s establishment on government property represents an unconstitutional endorsement of the Christian religion.
Ironically, or ignorantly, Smith undermines his own message: Read more
An unnamed US Soldier in Afghanistan took personal umbrage at the removal of a cross from the local chapel.
U.S. soldiers assigned to Camp Marmal in northern Afghanistan said the removal of a cross from an Army chapel has created a “huge controversy” and at least one soldier called it a “direct attack against Christianity and Judaism.”
How Judaism plays into it isn’t exactly clear, but if the facts are correctly laid out in the article, he may actually have a point:
The chapel is used for general Protestant services and a Baptist church service. There is a smaller chapel used for other services. The camp also has a mosque and a German chapel that is used for Catholic services.
In other words, every faith group has a place to ‘call their own.’ What do you think the chances are the mosques are identifiably Islamic?
Irrelevant, some will say: The regulation says Read more
After being repeatedly called out for decrying one cross and not others, atheist and former Army Captain Jason Torpy, of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, finally addressed the “controversial” issue of Arlington National Cemetery:
Other memorials are biased toward Christianity and ought properly to be removed to private property. The Camp Pendleton cross is just one of many…
The Argonne Cross at Arlington, a 1921 monument erected “In memory of our men in France” also excludes all non-Christians. This cross now memorializes a time when our military had nearly no recognition for anyone not Christian and was segregated by both race and gender…
In deciding to include the Argonne Cross with others “to be removed,” this initially seems like an opportunity to applaud Torpy’s intellectual Read more
A follow-up article to last week’s conflagration over the memorial cross raised by Marines on Camp Pendleton indicates the Marine base had no idea the ruckus that was about to ensue.
Which, of course, they didn’t, because the Marines were acting on their own, not on the part of the Corps or the government. (Of course, local attorney Randall Halmud said the group was still culpable: “When they erected their cross on that hilltop, they violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution…”)
Public supporters of the cross, many from the Marine base itself, have swarmed news sites with comments. The people themselves varied from atheist to religious, military to civilian.
A Facebook site has appeared entitled Keep the Camp Pendleton Cross. The page highlights some history of the memorial — a site which contains more than the cross. Notably, the memorial was rebuilt by more than 100 Marines from RCT-1, has been visited by entire units, and was even the subject of a prior Public Affairs news piece.
A few supporters of the memorial seem to have found MAAF Jason Torpy’s website, leaving messages of their Read more
Update: FoxNews reports on the “investigation” of the cross. The ACLJ has written a letter to Camp Pendleton explaining the appropriateness — and Constitutionality — of allowing the cross to remain. They, too, highlight the Argonne cross in Arlington mentioned below. In reference to the Utah trooper crosses mentioned below, the Highway Patrol logo has been stripped from the crosses and a disclaimer has been added in a bid to avoid their court-ordered removal.
It didn’t take long: When Jason Torpy of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers saw the LA Times report on the Camp Pendleton cross, he was quick to call it
a “wonderful gesture” in remembrance of the fallen Marines, but said its location on public land “makes us feel like the federal government privileges Christianity over non-Christians like us, makes us feel like second-class citizens…”
[T]heir desire to erect a large cross to honor their memory is perfectly acceptable, so long as it is on church land or their own property, not on federal land.
Further, Torpy claims the Marines’ cross is an intentional effort to by the government to afford preference to Christianity:
Military service is being exploited Read more
Despite Michael Weinstein’s continuous ridicule of the US Air Force Academy, Jason Torpy and his Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers paint quite a different picture — and Torpy looks like a calm foil to Weinstein’s blustering grandstanding:
Continuing what is now nearly a year of collaboration, the Air Force Academy has made significant changes to training as a result of reviews by the Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers… Read more