Tag Archives: MRFF

Michael Weinstein Cuts Pay, Now Under Half of Charity’s Revenue

Michael Weinstein, the only paid officer and President of his Military Religious Freedom Foundation, reduced his personal compensation by nearly $80,000 in 2010, according to his most recent tax documents.  That same year, his “charity” saw a slight decrease in revenue of about $13,000, despite $120,000 in grants from the Rockefeller Family Fund and $10,000 from the Aspen Community Foundation.

In prior years Weinstein’s exorbitant salaries — which are paid by himself, to himself, from his charity’s revenue — have been highlighted as inconsistent with both his implications that donations to his charity “support the troops” and with the general practices of other charities, whose president/CEO compensations are generally markedly lower (even if the charities are markedly larger).

The $218,201 Weinstein paid himself from the MRFF funds still represented 41% of his charity’s total revenue in 2010.  That’s down from the 54% he paid himself in 2009, though it still represents a substantial percentage of what his donors are presumably Read more

Rep Randy Forbes Calls on Air Force to Put God Back in Motto

US Representative Randy Forbes (R-Va) has written a letter (PDF) signed by 35 members of the House asking the Air Force restore a unit’s motto that was changed after an atheist’s complaint.  The incident to which Rep Forbes is referring was actually first reported on ChristianFighterPilot.com, with the Religion Clause and the ADF Alliance Alert subsequently citing this site.

As noted three weeks ago, the USAF Rapid Capabilities Office responded to “needling” from former Army Captain Jason Torpy, an atheist, and changed its motto from “Doing God’s work with other people’s money” to “Doing miracles with other people’s money.”

The letter, addressed to Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley and Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz, says:

It has come to our attention that the US Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) has modified the logo on its official patch to remove its reference to “God,” following a complaint from Read more

US Army Censors Catholic Chaplains

Update: The Army defended its actions, with FoxNews saying it was a “cautionary move to preserve “military order and discipline,”” not censorship.

In a surprisingly underreported story, the US Army reportedly censored — and then admitted the wrong of censoring — US military Catholic chaplains during their performance of their Catholic Mass.  Catholic priests were apparently given letters to read to their parishes explaining the Catholic opposition to the Department of Health and Human Services mandate requiring insurance coverage for things that violate Catholic beliefs.

On Thursday, January 26, Archbishop Broglio emailed a pastoral letter to Catholic military chaplains with instructions that it be read from the pulpit at Sunday Masses the following weekend in all military chapels. The letter calls on Catholics to resist the policy initiative, recently affirmed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, for federally mandated health insurance covering sterilization, abortifacients and contraception, because it represents a violation of the freedom of religion recognized by the U.S. Constitution.

The US Army’s Chaplaincy office responded:  Read more

Ross Perot to Keynote USAFA Character Symposium

The 2012 National Character and Leadership Symposium at the US Air Force Academy will be held from 22 to 24 February.  Ross Perot will be the keynote speaker.

Other speakers will come from a variety of backgrounds and careers, including a Medal of Honor recipient and

  • Retired Brigadier General Dick Abel, former President of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and former Executive Director of the Military Ministry of Read more

Richard Dawkins Should Disinvite Aiden from Rock Beyond Belief

The controversy over the “glam goth” band Aiden being invited to play to a military audience at the atheist Rock Beyond Belief at Fort Bragg has seen comments on a wide variety of websites.  In the tradition of “crowd-sourcing” solutions, one commenter came up with a unique idea to ameliorate the scandal:  Richard Dawkins should ask that Aiden be removed from the lineup.

Much of the discussion seems to be centered on whether Aiden Read more

Swords and Plowshares: The Bible as Literature and the US Army

While some will doubt the degree to which Christianity and the Bible permeate American culture, it is often interesting to see people cite quotations from the Bible, often unknowingly.  (It’s often more entertaining to see them claim something is in the Bible that isn’t, though.)

A recent article from Army.mil talked of an Army unit helping give Afghans a way to live their lives without having to fight for the Taliban to support themselves.  The Army is trying Read more

LtGen Boykin “Pressured” Out of West Point Prayer Breakfast

Fox News and Commentary indicated retired LtGen William Jerry Boykin withdrew from the February 8th National Prayer Breakfast at West Point — after West Point asked him to withdraw.

The U.S. Military Academy pressured a retired U.S. lieutenant general to withdraw from speaking at a West Point prayer breakfast after Muslims and atheists complained, Fox News & Commentary has learned…

“[Boykin] asked them to rescind the invitation, but they were reluctant to do that so he said he would take them off the hook.”

The article also noted Michael Weinstein jumping the shark Read more

General Boykin Withdraws from West Point Prayer Breakfast

The Associated Press reported a West Point press release indicating General Jerry Boykin had withdrawn from the upcoming West Point National Prayer Breakfast:

Late Monday afternoon, West Point issued a brief statement saying Boykin had decided to withdraw speaking at the Feb. 8 event and that another speaker would be lined up in his place.

The choice of Boykin to speak at the event was criticized by several groups because of his prior statements about Islam:

CAIR also asked West Point officials to retract Boykin’s invitation

“It gives Islamophobes a platform Read more

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