Tag Archives: north carolina

Complaints Claim “Real Men Provide” is Sexist Toward Women

A fascinatingly simple and pithy billboard in North Carolina has generated an unusual amount of attention and angst:

A billboard appeared last weekend on a highway connecting the city of Winston-Salem to Greensboro that reads, “Real men provide. Real women appreciate it.”

One woman is organizing a protest against the billboard, calling it insulting — but only insulting to women:

Molly Grace, a boutique owner in Winston-Salem, said she sees the sign as an attempt to silence women who want to be seen as equals to men.

“It’s absolutely, absolutely insulting to single mothers, to women who Read more

UCC Church Sues to Perform Homosexual Weddings

The United Church of Christ has joined a lawsuit in North Carolina claiming its religious freedom is being infringed by a law and the state constitution, which define marriage as one between a man and a woman.

North Carolina criminalizes the act of marrying someone without a valid license — and since no license will be issued to same-gender couples, multiple-partners, or anyone else who isn’t one man and one woman, clergy who performed services for such “marriages” could theoretically be subject to criminal penalties.  Since the UCC wants to perform homosexual weddings, they assert their religious exercise is being restricted:

Attorney Jake Sussman, who is representing the plaintiffs, says this is the only existing marriage equality case to make a First Amendment claim. It’s also the first case for marriage Read more

Army Chaplain: Government Trying to Silence Military Christians

Retired US Army Chaplain (Col) Ronald W. Benzing, now an endorser for the Associated Gospel Churches, addressed a local men’s group in North Carolina, describing how the US military has been trying to “silence” Christians. He cited what he described as a fairly recent incident:

“Two months ago we had an Army chaplain in Alaska who was told by an Air Force chaplain who was a senior chaplain, ‘You can’t preach that sermon Read more

Baptists Help the National Guard Stay Clean

A few months ago, a DoD article highlighted the service of the North Carolina Baptist Men, a disaster relief group that also volunteers to assist local military exercises:

[The Baptist Men] call themselves the “disaster junkies”, assisting the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross by setting up mobile hospitals, showers, laundry services, child care facilities, and cooking stations that are capable of feeding 50,000 or more people a day.

For the National Guard’s Operation Panther exercise, the group was washing the troops’ laundry, as many as 120 loads per day.  The group is composed largely of retired military, and they even structure themselves like a military unit:  Read more

Atheists Broaden Attacks on Military Memorials

An atheist thinks this is an illegal “Christian shrine.”

Multiple military war memorials are now under attack by atheists who consider the presence of a Christian cross offensive.

Former soldier and current atheist Jason Torpy, the one-man association of military atheists (MAAF), has previously lodged complaints with the US Marines over the Camp Pendleton cross (which has yet to be resolved).  He is opposed to the cross in Arlington National Cemetery for the same reason.

This follows the national trend of several activist organizations that have been threatening cities and towns with lawsuits if they fail to remove memorials which contain Read more

Fort Bragg Atheists Test Military Politicking Rules

Some may have assumed that with a Democratic President (and the stereotype that the US military leans Republican/conservative), most of those testing the limits of permissible political activities or commentary would be “right wing” or conservatives.

They would be wrong.

The blog for the Rock Beyond Belief event organized by Justin Griffith at Fort Bragg recently posted an article about North Carolina’s Amendment 1, which would modify the NC State Constitution to say the only domestic legal union in the state is Read more