Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel credited the Anti-Defamation League with a turnabout at the US Air Force Academy with respect to religion:
The Department of Defense is proud – very proud – to have worked with the ADL to make our military more open, and more equal, and more just. One example of this historic partnership is at the Air Force Academy, where only a few years ago there were troubling accusations of Read more
Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s discombobulated responses to the Air Force Academy decision to make “so help me God” optional in the Cadet Honor Oath (he both welcomes it and threatened to sue) may have been his flailing efforts to regain the narrative in a losing effort. His research assistant, Chris Rodda, seems to indicate the MRFF is trying to point the narrative in a different direction. In a local news report on the Academy decision (original here):
Air Force Academy cadets are no longer required to say “so help me God” at the end of the Honor Oath. The change was made in response to complaints from a group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation…
Chris Rodda, of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said…”The people we are battling on this will say that nobody’s forced to say ‘so help me God.’ That actually is not true. The cadets received an email that said that they must say it for their commissioning oath to be legal.”
Rodda’s response is noteworthy because the Cadet Honor Oath has nothing to do with the commissioning oath, and nothing to do with the MSgt’s email. Whether the MRFF is intentionally trying to alter the debate or if Chris Rodda is incompetently Read more
Mark Thompson at Time Magazine’s “Swampland” blog has made an occasional habit of bagging on the Air Force or US military. Yesterday, he recapped the USAFA “so help me God” Cadet Honor Oath issue in a somewhat sarcastically tinged blog noting
the Colorado Springs, Colo., academy has decided to make the “so help me God” coda to its cadet oath optional after a complaint from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (not surprisingly, the Christian Fighter Pilot group denounced what it calls a “dramatic change” on its website).
It would seem Thompson has become the latest “journalist” to fall victim to Read more
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
In an anticlimatic but optimistically predicted result, LtGen Michelle Johnson declared that the “so help me God” portion of the USAFA Cadet Honor Oath is optional:
“Here at the Academy, we work to build a culture of dignity and respect, and that respect includes the ability of our cadets, Airmen and civilian Airmen to freely practice and exercise their religious preference – or not.” said Lt. Gen. Michelle D. Johnson, Academy Superintendent. “So, in the spirit of respect, cadets may or may not choose to finish the Honor Oath with ‘So help me God.'”
The current USAFA Athletic Director, Dr. Hans Mueh (BGen, Ret), was part of the faculty that decided on “so help me God” in 1984, when it was created in response to a cheating scandal:
“To add more seriousness to the oath, we decided to mirror the commissioning oath and add the words, ‘so help me, God,'” Dr. Mueh said.
Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, the “religious freedom” advocate who Read more
In a surprising turn, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein has apparently reversed himself — saying the US Air Force Academy cadet Honor Oath is acceptable.
On Wednesday night Weinstein was a 5-minute guest on Fox News’ Kelly File — in which he compared “so help me God” to robbing a bank. The ignoble articulation has whipped around the internet and now appears on a wide variety of websites — accompanied by comments excoriating Weinstein for his ridiculous accusations.
It seems Weinstein feels he’s losing the battle, and he may have actually surrendered. As reported in the local Colorado Springs Gazette [emphasis added]: Read more
As is his common weakness, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein fails to answer a simple question, instead launching into irrelevant talking points. Megyn Kelly had a simple question: why not let “So Help Me God” be optional, like it already is?
His reply: “It’s like saying why don’t you just opt out of not robbing a bank?”
“Mikey, chill.”
This situation is Read more
…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