Tag Archives: military religious freedom foundation

Soldier Loses Scholarship over Same Sex Marriage Retreat

US Army SSgt Kacie Griffin has reportedly lost her opportunity to go to college and become an officer due to a recent controversy over homosexuals and a Strong Bonds marriage retreat.

SSgt Griffin was the chaplain assistant to Chaplain (Maj) Scott Squires at Fort Bragg, which was planning the Strong Bonds event earlier this year. A homosexual couple apparently expressed interest in the event; Chaplain Squires was unable to lead a marriage event with homosexuals attending, so he rescheduled the retreat — so the homosexuals filed a complaint. The investigating officer recommended Chaplain Squires be reprimanded.

For her part, SSgt Griffin was handling the administrative part of the retreat:

“Griffin informed Chaplain Squires of the application and informed the applicant that Chaplain Squires would speak with her. For this purely administrative act, an Army investigator determined she ‘gave the impression she was not eligible for the event’ and should be reprimanded for failing to ‘timely answer’ her question,” First Liberty Institute attorney Michael Berry said.

Though the “investigation” was reportedly finished months ago — and despite Read more

First Liberty Cites Mikey Weinstein after Creation of Religious Liberty Task Force

Monday, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the creation of a Religious Liberty Task Force that will attempt to proactively protect the religious liberty of American citizens. During the announcement, AG Sessions said [emphasis added]:

A dangerous movement, undetected by many, is now challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom. There can be no doubt. This is no little matter. It must be confronted and defeated..

We have gotten to the point where courts have held that morality cannot be a basis for law; where ministers are fearful to affirm, as they understand it, holy writ from the pulpit; and where one group can actively target religious groups by labeling them a “hate group” on the basis of their sincerely held religious beliefs…

The Task Force will help the Department fully implement our religious liberty guidance by ensuring that all Justice Department components are upholding that guidance in the cases they bring and defend, the arguments they make in court, the policies and regulations they adopt, and how we conduct our operations.

It’s an outstanding thing to hear our government say — to Read more

USAFA Football Player First to Proclaim Homosexuality, and Faith

Widespread news stories are covering US Air Force Academy football player and sophomore Cadet Bradley Kim for publicly announcing his sexuality:

A defensive back for the U.S. Air Force Academy’s football team came out Friday as the first openly gay football player to play for one of the three major U.S. service academy teams.

Sophomore Bradley Kim announced his sexual orientation to teammates, on social media and in OutSports.com, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.

The response is being described Read more

ACLJ’s Skip Ash, Jay Sekulow Rise to Counter Mikey Weinstein

The ACLJ has recently begun to more firmly establish itself as one of the most articulate and assertive defenders of military religious freedom, specifically as it pertains to the attacks on religious liberty by Michael “Mikey” Weinstein.

Two weeks ago, Skip Ash (who has already written some lengthy and well-cited rebuttals to Weinstein and his acolyte John Compere) wrote an article detailing how the ACLJ had stood in opposition to Weinstein’s attacks on Bibles in POW/MIA displays. Noting Weinstein’s MRFF had sent yet another letter demanding an investigation (after their first demand was denied), Ash notes the ACLJ also wrote another letter to the DoD, saying

Our purpose, as always, is to educate DOD IG personnel on what the Constitution actually requires and permits vis-à-vis such displays and to refute the broad (though, admittedly, consistent) Constitutional misinterpretations of the MRFF and its supporters. The MRFF and its supporters grossly misunderstand what the Establishment Clause requires, and they too frequently interpret freedom of religion to actually mean freedom from religion.

As has been noted in the past, such Read more

FE Warren Air Force Base Commander Pulls Bible from POW Display

Update:  “Shame” from the Washington Times.  Also at the Baptist Joint Committee., with more vitriol from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

I lived on what I referred to as faith. There were four. One was faith in myself. Two was faith in those around me. Three was faith in my country. And four was faith in my God.
– US Air Force Capt (Ret) William Robinson, the longest-held enlisted Prisoner of War in American history

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein is again gloating about his success in persuading a military base to remove a Bible from a POW/MIA remembrance table.

But it isn’t the giant scandal it may seem.

For Weinstein, POW displays are the gift that keeps on giving. There are Read more

MRFF Makes Veiled Threat Against Critics

Joan Slish has long been a source of fascinating inside information at Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s MRFF.  She sometimes seems to tell it like it is, even to the MRFF’s detriment (see here, here, and here, for example).

Slish is one of several people who “corresponds” with those who write hate mail to the MRFF — even if it comes from a supposedly fake email address. (Her 1500-word responses are almost precisely the same copy/paste text every time.) Why bother “writing” to a junk address? Apparently, the correspondence is distributed among the MRFF faithful as some sort of mark of pride. Fair enough, if that’s really where you want to exert your energy.

But what if the email address is legitimate?

That’s what makes this thinly veiled threat from Slish concerning:  Read more

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