Tag Archives: MRFF

Air Force Hammered over Preferential Treatment of Weinstein

The Air Force, DoD, and even the Obama Administration continue to be hammered by conservative media and religious freedom advocates over the decision to host Michael Weinstein at the Pentagon in a meeting about “religious issues.”

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council called it an “anti-Christian offensive” on the part of the US military.

And [Weinstein] is the man the Pentagon heeded to create its policy on faith? An anti-Christian militant who’s threatened by gift collections for needy children?

A Catholic blogger took Weinstein to task, as many did, for calling Christians “monsters” in a recent virulent op-ed.  While saying he didn’t necessarily agree with evangelical Christians, the blogger said  Read more

Reports: US Air Force Consults Michael Weinstein on Religious Policy

According to his own statements reported at a Washington Post blog, Michael Weinstein (of his self-founded Military Religious Freedom Foundation) met at the

Pentagon on April 23 where they discuss[ed] religious issues in a group that included several generals and a military chaplain.

The blog was written by Sally Quinn, who has been friendly to Weinstein’s cause in the past.  Weinstein seems inimitably pleased at the invitation, as likely any private citizen in America might be if US Air Force leadership had a personal meeting with them on “religious issues in the military.”  It’s unclear what grants Weinstein that legitimacy, beyond a spate of failed lawsuits and a series of self-published op-eds that would put even the most advanced thesaurus to shame (save the one he apparently plagiarized).

It would seem at least one senior leader was there, as the article claims one attendee was LtGen Richard Harding — The Judge Advocate General of the Air Force, who is the senior legal advisor to the Chief of Staff, General Mark Welsh:  Read more

Southern Baptist Website Blocked on Military Computers

Update: The DoD says the SBC website was blocked because malware was detected, but that connection from military servers would be restored “today.” The Southern Baptist Convention weighed in, with a caution not to rush to judgment.  Also at the Air Force Times, Christian Post, and Baptist Press.

FoxNews reports that the Southern Baptist Convention website was blocked on military servers — and the military confirmed it:

The Dept. of Defense confirmed to Fox News late Wednesday that the SBC website had been blocked — but not intentionally.

“The Department of Defense is not intentionally blocking access to this site, said Lt. Col. Damien Pickart. “We are working diligently to investigate what might be causing access issues for some of our service members and to correct the situation as quickly as possible.”

Part of the reason the situation requires “correction” is that certain servicemembers need access to the site as part of their function: namely, the many SBC chaplains in the military:

“It’s a concern for the Dept. of Defense to block the website of one of the major evangelical denominations in the country,” Crews told Fox News. “The Southern Baptist Convention has the largest number of chaplains in the military representing Southern Baptist soldiers and churches. Those chaplains need access to their denomination’s website.”

As noted the last time the issue of military internet access came up, it’s not as simple as “the government is censoring/blocking/etc” or being hostile toward Read more

US Army Removing Bible References from Gun Scopes

FoxNews reports on the continuation of a “scandal” from 2010:  Trijicon, the maker of the much-vaunted ACOG gun sight, was known for putting an abbreviated Bible verse reference on the end of its serial numbers.  Michael Weinstein found out, claimed that Islamic terrorists were offended when they were shot by rifles with these scopes, and demanded the Army remove them.  Trijicon ultimately offered to provide kits to remove the references.  (After threatening legal action against Trijicon, Weinstein also apparently implied his MRFF was a Christian organization…)

The Army now claims these inscriptions violated the terms of the contract:  Read more

Weinstein Responds to Chuck Norris with Name-Calling

Apparently, Michael Weinstein finally got around to reading the columns by Chuck Norris, discussed here last week, and saw the number of MRFF-inspired incidents on the list.

His response was classic playground-bully Weinstein:  He called Chuck Norris names.

And then there are the septuagenarian martial arts film stars who proclaim biblical creationism as fact, can act almost as well as a bar of soap, and who are as smart as a box of rocks.

Chuck Norris, the intelligence-challenged Read more

Army Disavows Presentation Supporting Weinstein Ideology

The news of a US Army briefing seemingly supporting a doctrine of Michael Weinstein — and the firm decision by the Army to disavow the presentation — made surprisingly wide press this weekend.

At issue was a briefing given by a US Army Reservist on “Extremism and Extremist Organizations” (PDF, with notes) which listed “evangelical Christians,” “Ultra-Orthodox Judaism,” “Sunni Muslims” and “Catholicism” alongside “al Quaeda [sic]” as “religious extremism.”  (In fact, evangelical Christianity was at the top of the list.)  The briefer was apparently a Military Equal Opportunity officer, ironically enough.

An attendee of the briefing — who describes himself as an evangelical Christian — took issue, obtained a copy of the briefing, and provided it to the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty (CARL) and the military Catholic Archdiocese:

“Men and women of faith who have served the Army faithfully for centuries shouldn’t be likened to those who have regularly threatened the peace and security of the United States,” retired Col. Ron Crews, Read more

Chuck Norris, Religious Liberty, and Michael Weinstein

Chuck Norris recently cited “36 examples of religious liberty assault” (in Part 1 and Part 2) to defend an assertion that religious liberty is under attack in America.  About a third of his examples involved the US military, all of which have been discussed here before (amplifying remarks follow):

  • Culture and courts are also trumping citizens’ First Amendment rights who are refusing on religious grounds not to support or participate with groups and events that run contrary to their faith and practice. As a result, wedding cake bakers, T-shirt makers, bed and breakfast owners, pastry shops, high-school teachers, military chaplains, restaurant owners, photographers, parents, churches and others have been harassed, bullied, suspended, fired and sued for merely exercising their Christian beliefs. [As described by CARL.]
  • A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a cross displayed as part of the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial in San Diego, Read more
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