Tag Archives: MRFF

Navy Reverses, Rules for Embattled Chaplain Modder

For the past six months, US Navy Chaplain (LtCmdr) Wes Modder has been fighting for his career after his commander, CAPT Jon Fahs, requested he be “detached for cause” (PDF) and then defend why he should be retained in the Navy. The primary charge was he “failed to show tolerance and respect” when he made certain statements about sexuality.

Last week, the US Navy Personnel Command informed Captain Fahs that his request for Chaplain Modder to be Detached for Cause was denied, as was his request for Modder to “show cause” to remain in the Navy. Rear Admiral David F. Steindl wrote (PDF):

Your request for detachment for cause in the case of LCDR Modder…has been reviewed and is disapproved. I have found the evidence of substandard performance in this case does not meet the standard of gross negligence or complete disregard of duty… LCDR Modder will not be detached for cause.

In other words, the Admiral said CAPT Fahs was wrong.

To be “detached for cause” (DFC) in Read more

Mikey Weinstein has Lunch with Pam Zubeck. Film at 11.

Pam Zubeck has written for The Colorado Springs Independent, a small, left-leaning local paper, for a few years. Some time ago she became a veritable public affairs officer for Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, taking on his mantle and acting as his outlet for just about anything he had to say. (For the record, that’s a characterization she really dislikes.)

Last Wednesday, Zubeck had lunch with Weinstein…and that was apparently newsworthy for a small paper in town. She asked him about his next big thing:

Mikey Weinstein, the crusader against religious bias in the armed forces, will ask the Air Force Academy to remove the words “in the year of our Lord” from diplomas for the class of 2016, which Read more

Mikey Weinstein Fails to Intimidate Air Force Chaplain (Video)

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein continues his self-declared “war” on Christians in the US military, but he is finding it increasingly difficult to coerce US troops to accept his demands.  Much of the military has discovered the best response is simply to stand up to him. Weinstein’s only tool is intimidation, and when it fails, he is toothless.

In an apparent effort to play to the July US Supreme Court decision on homosexuality, Weinstein recently claimed in a blog and subsequent interview that he would “prosecute” chaplains if they preached something that did not pass his muster [formatting original]:

If chaplains believe that they MUST publicly and visibly preach to their troops a message that their LGB comrades are sexual-deviant “sinners” because of their “choice” to be gay, then these views are fatally noxious and totally destructive to unit cohesion, good order, morale, and discipline in the armed forces.

Despite Weinstein’s attempts to restrict the free exercise of US troops, chaplains are free to preach the tenets of their faith — and they have continued to do so.

In fact, just a few days prior to Weinstein’s ultimatum, Air Force Chaplain (Capt) Sonny Hernandez spoke eloquently and forcefully on the Gospel during Read more

Demons Rule at US Air Force Academy

The Air Force recently announced the victory of the Demons over their adversaries during US Air Force Academy basic training, which ends as the new cadets begin their academic year.

Much has been made of the apparently “supernatural” terminology sometimes invoked during Basic Cadet Training (BCT) at the US Air Force Academy. For example, each of the squadrons of cadets is known by a letter, from A to as high as J, depending on the size of the incoming class. They are:  Read more

Chris Rodda Denigrates Beliefs of Chaplain Endorser

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s research assistant Chris Rodda has taken the MRFF attacks on military Christians to a new level. Weinstein and company have previously railed against Christians who expressed their religious beliefs, even if they did so in a church service. They’ve also blasted Christians for nothing more than having certain beliefs.

Mikey Weinstein’s research assistant, Chris Rodda.

Now, Chris Rodda has gone a step further, holding up for derision not expressed beliefs or even the beliefs of any particular service member. Instead, Rodda attacked cherry-picked (and misrepresented) policy statements from a chaplain’s endorsing agency, as if that implicated either a service member or religious freedom in general. Rodda’s characteristically rambling article at the Huffington Post is entitled “Ranger Chaplain’s Endorsing Agency: Women in Combat ‘Contrary to Nature,’ ‘Biblical Duty of Man to Defend Woman’.”

It’s worth noting that Rodda’s headline isn’t even true. Her quotes on nature and the duty of man came from the assemblies of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) in 2001 and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) in 2002. The OPC and PCA are two of seven member denominations of the endorsing agency known as the Presbyterian and Reformed Commission on Chaplains and Military Personnel. Those assemblies are not any chaplain’s endorsing agency. Rodda appears to have chosen sensationalism over integrity, which is ironic for someone who focuses so much on debunking “liars.”

Regardless, Rodda writes as the representative of Read more

Another Military Memorial Under Attack

Update: The creator of the monument explained the reason for his design here:

Al Larsen intended the small Latin cross in each silhouette to mark a grave — like the rows of white crosses at the Normandy American Cemetery in France, where more than 9,000 American World War II troops are buried.

“This is what it means to me,” Larsen said in an interview Wednesday. “It don’t mean no church thing.”

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State claims otherwise.

Todd Starnes at FoxNews highlights an effort by the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State to have a war memorial removed from a park in Knoxville, Iowa:

“It was clear to us it was a memorial to fallen veterans,” Mayor Brian Hatch told me. But it wasn’t clear to everyone.

About a month ago a citizen filed an anonymous complaint — arguing that the memorial was promoting Christianity and therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Mayor Hatch told me the city council ignored the complaint.

“We didn’t take any action because it (the memorial) did not have any religious ties to us at all,” he said. “I only see it as a memorial to the veterans and it shocked me that someone could see it otherwise.”

The offended party apparently called the AU, and the fight was on.

Americans United has since published a snarky reply, noting Read more

Coast Guardsman Receives Pastafarian Gift at Retirement

Master Chief Petty Officer Bob Sebaste of the US Coast Guard had a retirement ceremony in June in which he was presented with an interesting gift [emphasis added]:

I retired recently after 29 years of service in the US Navy and US Coast Guard. The guys I work with know that I am an ordained minister in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. For our holiday party, for example, I ensured that His Noodly Goodness was properly represented, as well as the Festivus pole and other more mainstream (mundane) religious symbols.

In any case, at my retirement ceremony, they presented me with this most excellent headgear, appropriately decorated with my CG rank insignia.

The concept of the “flying spaghetti monster” is Read more

J. Christ Becomes Permanent Professor at US Air Force Academy

Christ said his desire to improve conditions in the Air Force and around the world is his main source of inspiration in teaching cadets and leading the department…

Brig. Gen. Andrew Armacost, the Academy’s dean, said Christ’s…leadership abilities will benefit the Academy.

It’s Colonel John Christ according to the official article, but for an institution that has been (wrongly) accused of promoting Christianity, Read more

1 … 61 62 63 64 65 … 162