Tag Archives: Public Expression

US Military Receives Torah Scroll in Afghanistan

The lengths to which the US military will go to protect the free exercise of its troops have been noted here many times before.  From delivering fresh palm fronds at Easter to helping servicemembers build a Sukkah, the military generally does an admirable job of trying to provide religious resources to those it separates from those resources in the call to war.

Recently, the base chapel in Kandahar, Afghanistan, received its first Torah scroll, created in memory of fallen servicemembers.  Chaplain (LtCol) Avi Weiss explains the significance of the scroll:

Capt Rubin at Jews in Green recognized this for the support of religious freedom that it is.

Military atheist Justin Griffith, on the other hand, Read more

Graduating Navy Pilot Training: Blessing of the Wings

A Naval flight training class graduation included a ceremony at their base chapel in which the chaplains performed a “blessing of the wings:”

This is a completely voluntary program, but one that is rather popular among many of the new aviators. While it is billed as a non-denominational ceremony, it is clearly a Christian program that culminates in the Catholic priest sprinkling holy water on the wings that these service members are about to pin on later that day.

Normally, this might bring conspiracy-theory advocates out of the woodwork, claiming this was further evidence of a secret coup by Christians to take over the world.  Or something.  Turns out, though, this story is actually about the participation by the US Navy’s newest Jewish Naval Aviators, in a Read more

LtGen Ronnie Hawkins Berated for God in Commander’s Call

US Air Force LtGen Ronnie Hawkins is the new head of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).  He is reportedly getting grief over a commander’s call in which he listed the personal “rules” he has lived by since he was a Captain — and they included references to God:

Hawkins, who just took over the directorship of DISA in January, said his presentation has been taken out of context… Read more

Poway Classroom Patriotic “God Banners” to Supreme Court

Last September, the patriotic “God banners” in Poway teacher Brad Johnson’s classroom were ruled unconstitutional by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals.  The appellate decision reversed that of the district court, which had previously written a strong ruling finding in Johnson’s favor.

The Thomas More Law Center recently appealed to the Supreme Court, with TMLC president Richard Thompson saying  Read more

Deployed American Troops Produce Video for “It Gets Better”

The Stars and Stripes notes some deployed American troops filmed a short video under the auspices of OutServe, a homosexual advocacy group, for the “It Gets Better” project,

an initiative created to show young gay and transgender individuals the happiness and potential that awaits them if they can make it through their tumultuous teen years.

The Stripes article was written at the end of January, shortly after the video was posted to YouTube.  There has been little public reaction to the publication.  (As a point of clarification, “transgender” individuals are still banned from military service.)

The video begs an interesting question:  What would the reaction be if uniformed, deployed (and armed) servicemembers posted a YouTube video on behalf of their non-Federal entity extolling the religious Read more

Mount Soledad Memorial Ruling Appealed to Supreme Court

The Liberty Institute has petitioned the US Supreme Court to reverse the ruling of the 9th Circuit, which held the 43-foot cross on Mount Soledad near San Diego was unconstitutional.  The 9th Circuit denied an en banc review.

Last year’s ruling by the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals capped two decades of legal challenges over the cross that was used for Easter celebrations in the early 1900s and later became a memorial to Korean War Read more

Weinstein Attacks USAFA Cadet for Class-wide Religious Email

The Colorado Springs Independent‘s Pam Zubeck — a veritable PR arm of Michael Weinstein’s MRFF — has a post stating a US Air Force Academy fourth class cadet (freshman) sent an inappropriate religious email to his classmates.  She said the cadet

has been “counseled” for sending an e-mail to the entire freshman class urging them to pray and citing specific Scriptures. [formatting original]

She then includes the content of the 500-word email, which had been sent only two days prior.  The email does, shockingly, “urge people to pray” and does, indeed, cite “specific Scriptures.”  What Zubeck fails to mention is the email is a forward of a daily devotional by Gloria Copeland, distributed on the same day the cadet forwarded it:  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

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