Tag Archives: Prayer

Mikey Weinstein Belittles, then Speaks at Georgia School

Update: The recent articles reference complaints filed this past summer by UNG’s “Students for Secular Freedom.”  For background, Cadet David Gormley started a Change.org petition on April 27th calling for “Remov[ing] Christian Prayers From School Sponsored Events.”  This was apparently the day of UNG’s Memorial Retreat, according to a video uploaded to YouTube by Gormley but attributed to another student, Saara Wintersgill.  (Wintersgill is credited on another video from another ceremony the same weekend.) UNG’s SSF subsequently advertised the petition on Reddit, saying a “U.S. Public College Forces Sectarian Prayer on Cadets.”  An atheist posting of the controversy in April generated some interesting comments on both sides of the debate.  The SSF apparently has crossover with UNG’s “Skeptics Society,” for which Gormley and Wintersgill are listed as officers.  Wintersgill has previously published articles at the student paper on the activities of her group.

Cadet Daniel Holder of the University of North Georgia — “the military college of Georgia” — apparently objected to prayers offered at school events. After being “ignored” by the school, he called Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s MRFF. Weinstein promptly wrote a letter (PDF) to the school, accusing UNG of violating the Constitution and being “Christian supremacists” [emphasis added]:

UNG’s brazen contempt of our Constitution is undeniable…This state sponsored organization [the cadet chaplain corps] is a Christian Supremacist group…

Until the day comes that the United States chooses to follow the shining examples of Saudi Arabia, the Taliban, and Read more

Will Mikey Weinstein Fear US Marine Corps Chaplaincy? (Video)

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein — the man who runs a “charity” that claims Christians in the US military are trying to start a nuclear war — may have a new reason for fear. You see, RAdm Brent W. Scott just became the chief Chaplain of the entire US Marine Corps.

As the senior Navy chaplain serving in the Marine Corps, Scott will oversee nearly 300 chaplains and 250 religious program specialists currently supporting the spiritual needs of Marines. He will also serve as a key advisor to the commandant on religious accommodation, morals and ethics, and the spiritual welfare of the force.

New US Navy Chief of Chaplains RAdm Margaret Kibben, Chaplain Scott’s new boss, was enthusiastic about Scott and the importance of his position:  Read more

Mikey Weinstein to Sue over Medal of Honor? (Video)

Last year Michael “Mikey” Weinstein threatened to sue the US Army because it exposed a group of Soldiers to a chaplain’s prayer, which the chaplain closed with

through Your holy name…

In response, Weinstein demanded the chaplain be disciplined and the Soldiers be given an apology.  Weinstein threatened an “aggressive” Federal lawsuit (as opposed to a benign lawsuit, apparently) if the Army refused his demands.

To be clear, Weinstein was willing to sue because a chaplain said “through Your holy name” during a prayer to a group of Soldiers in an auditorium.

Based on events just this week, will Weinstein threaten to sue again?

On Monday, US Army Chief of Chaplains (MajGen) Donald Rutherford prayed in uniform and on national television — and, shockingly, closed with…”in Your holy name.”  Just Read more

Klingenschmitt Wins Colorado GOP Primary

Gordon Klingenschmitt, the former Navy chaplain discharged over a controversy about “praying in Jesus’ Name,” has won the GOP primary for the US House of Representatives for the 15th District in Colorado.

Klingenschmitt expressed confidence in a November victory, as the district is heavily Republican — and also boasts a significant military population.

Klingenschmitt was also sued, unsuccessfully, by Michael “Mikey” Weinstein and his wife, Bonnie, over “imprecatory prayers.” Klingenschmitt sued the Weinsteins in return, claiming abuse of process and defamation. His suit survived dismissal last January, with the defamation claim being allowed to proceed.

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FDR Prayer to be Added to Memorial

O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade…

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace…

Thy will be done, Almighty God…

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s D-Day prayer is to be added to the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC, now that President Obama has signed the change into law.  The prayer was previously discussed here, when the administration’s Bureau of Land Management opposed the prayer.

The full text of the prayer, from FDR’s address to the nation on D-Day, Read more

Mikey Weinstein Claims Victory in Lawsuit

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein recently claimed victory in a lawsuit — which is no small thing for a man who has lost 5 of the past 5 lawsuits he’s filed over the past decade in his attacks on military religious freedom. The announcement, though, was subtle.

One of Weinstein’s favorite media advocates, local journalist Pam Zubeck, included a nearly irrelevant reference to Weinstein in an article about Fort Carson:

Mikey Weinstein leads the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which won a settlement in a lawsuit against the Air Force Academy superintendent on behalf of a former employee.

Weinstein’s ego knows no bounds, so it is significant that this Read more

Commentators Cite Military Chaplains after SCOTUS Prayer Case

John Ragosta, Paul Finkelman and Steven K. Green, “legal scholars and historians who participated as amicus” in the recent Greece prayer case at the Supreme Court, struggled to understand what the Supreme Court intended to mean by its ruling:

The court fails, though, to explain what this means, an issue that the dissent takes up. Should prayers occur before the public is invited into the room? Should prayers be directed only at the board? Should the members themselves take turns invoking prayers, making it clear that they are personal and not “official” prayers?

These scholars missed the obvious issue that Read more

Moore, Mohler on Prayer and the Constitution

Dr. Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Dr. Russell Moore, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, both recently wrote fascinating pieces on the recent Supreme Court decision permitting “sectarian” prayer before legislative bodies. While he makes many good points, Mohler astutely highlights, and Moore focused entirely upon, one point that affects even the US military: calls from some that public prayers — for example, those in front of a military formation — must be “generic.”

The second very important argument made by Justice Kennedy is even more perceptive and, in the long run, more important. He asserted that the government has no competence under the Constitution to evaluate prayers in terms of content. Specifically, he said that the Establishment Clause actually would prevent the government from determining the content of any prayer — especially in terms of some supposed standard of nonsectarianism.

Put bluntly, government has no right to declare that the only God welcome in public is a “generic God.” That is a profoundly important constitutional argument…

The US government can no more create Read more

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