Tag Archives: mikey weinstein

American Bible Society Celebrates 200 Years of Military Ministry

The American Bible Society is celebrating its 200th anniversary, noting that among its earliest leaders were members of the Founding Fathers and that it has a nearly two-century history of providing Bibles to the US military:

The first president of the American Bible Society, Elias Boudinot, was also the first president of the Continental Congress, and its second president was John Jay, the first chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Its distribution of millions of Scriptures to American forces dates to the Mexican War of the 1840s, when Mexican civilians were also provided with Bibles. At one point two decades later, during the Civil War, ABS representatives were able to reach both sides simultaneously.

The ABS has provided Bibles in “military themes” and colors for Read more

Sites Highlight Nomination of Jewish General as Chief of Staff

goldfeinA wide variety of sites, most connected in some fashion specifically to Jewish news, have highlighted the fact President Obama has nominated a Jewish General, General David Goldfein, to be the Chief of Staff of the US Air Force:

Gen. David Goldfein will become the second Jew to command the U.S. Air Force…

Goldfein, who has been the vice chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force since August, will be the first Jewish combat pilot to hold the top position, and will be the second Read more

Petraeus: Anti-Muslim bigotry aids Islamist terrorists

petraeusIn a column at the Washington Post, former US Army General and CIA Director David Petraeus rails against “inflammatory political discourse…against Muslims and Islam:”

Those who flirt with hate speech against Muslims should realize they are playing directly into the hands of al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

The terrorists’ explicit hope has been to try to provoke a clash of civilizations — telling Muslims that the United States is at war with them and their religion. When Western politicians propose blanket discrimination against Islam, they bolster the terrorists’ propaganda.

Petraeus doesn’t say what Americans should do about this objection to Read more

The Citadel Denies Uniform Exception for Hijab

Update: New articles identify the student as Sana Hamze.

Update: Norwich University in Vermont has reportedly granted the same unnamed applicant the right to wear a hijab in her uniform. CAIR implies the student may yet take legal action against the Citadel.  Alumni from Norwich reacted similarly to those at the Citadel, with at least one noting Norwich has a civilian program for those who do not wish to adhere to the rules of the military corps of cadets.

citadelThe Citadel, “The Military College of South Carolina,” has denied a request for a waiver from an incoming cadet to wear a hijab with her cadet uniform, among other exceptions. From the President of The Citadel, retired LtGen John Rosa:

The Citadel has relied upon a highly effective educational model requiring all cadets to adopt a common uniform. Uniformity is the cornerstone of this four-year leader development model. The standardization of cadets in apparel, overall appearance, actions and privileges is essential to the learning goals and objectives of the college. This process reflects an initial relinquishing of self during which cadets learn the value of teamwork to function as a single unit…

The Citadel recognizes the importance of a cadet’s spiritual and religious beliefs, providing services for specific needs whenever possible…

The prospective cadet, who had already Read more

ACLJ Defends Military Prayer from “Anti-Christian Zealots”

After Michael “Mikey” Weinstein wrote a letter calling the Marine Corps University’s National Day of Prayer event unconstitutional, the American Center for Law and Justice quietly sent a letter to BGen Helen Pratt defending her handling of the event.

The ACLJ letter (PDF) was “quiet” because, while it was sent at the end of April, the ACLJ didn’t publicize it until just prior to the prayer event.

When Weinstein saw it, he was apparently red-faced.

After a well-worded rebuttal of Weinstein’s errant legal analysis, the last few pages of the ACLJ letter “introduce” BGen Pratt to Mikey Weinstein — using his own ‘colorful’ words. And this was apparently a subject of great embarrassment for Weinstein, whose MRFF quickly fired off another letter defending Weinstein, a letter that could best be summarized as a two-year old saying “nuh-uh.”

As an example, given the singular opportunity to rebut Read more

US Military Celebrates National Day of Prayer

praydeployDespite one ill-fated and ill-willed attempt to keep some US troops from joining together in prayer, the US military celebrated the National Day of Prayer around the world.

Renowned Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias spoke at a National Prayer Breakfast gathering at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to more than 300 US troops, their families, and civilians.  There and at a simultaneous symposium he talked on ‘Where is God in Suffering?’ and  Read more

USAF Enlisted POW Cites Need for Faith

robinsonIn a interesting case of coincidental timing, at the same time Michael “Mikey” Weinstein was demanding the removal of Bibles from POW/MIA displays — Bibles that represented “the strength gained through faith” in captivity — the longest-held enlisted POW, retired Capt. William A. Robinson, was telling Airmen at Lackland AFB about the faith he needed to survive [emphasis added]:

“I had faith in myself, faith in those around me, faith in my country and faith in my God,” said Robinson.

Capt Robinson’s story was mentioned here in 2013 — the first time a POW/MIA table was attacked.  (Notably, the IG and EO office defended the table then, and the story died.) Of course, it isn’t just him. Retired USAF Col Fred Cherry said the same thing, as have many other POWs.

Faith in God helped Read more

MRFF’s Chris Rodda Advocates Military Religious Discrimination

It’s been long established that Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s awkwardly-named Military “Religious Freedom” Foundation actually fights against the religious freedom of Christians in the US military. Examples abound of cases in which a reasonable, principled religious liberty group should have stood up in defense of an Airman, Soldier, Marine, or Sailor, but Weinstein either refused to defend the troop because they were Christian or outright attacked their religious liberty instead.

Fortunately, genuine religious liberty groups have stood in the gap for such Christians — and have defended them even from Weinstein himself. One of the more notable groups is the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has a long history of, unlike Weinstein, consistent, principled defense of religious freedom regardless of a person’s particular religious belief.

(To wit, the Becket Fund has been fighting for the right of Sikhs to serve in the US military while still being able to practice their religious faith; Weinstein has so far refused to do so, tacitly acknowledging that a “win” for the Sikhs would ultimately be a win for other faiths — including Christians.)

More recently, Mikey Weinstein tried to attack the religious liberty of Read more

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