Tag Archives: Public Expression

Transgender Fighter Pilot To-Be Awaits Policy Change

The New York Times recently bemoaned that it was “unfair” to US troops who have publicly announced their gender identity issues for the US military to fail to follow through with its unstated promise of letting them serve in whatever gender expression they chose.

To be clear, US military policy states those who “identify” as a gender other than their actual one have issues that disqualify them from serving. In July of last year, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter stood up a “working group” to study the impact of allowing troops with gender issues to serve [emphasis added]:

“At my direction,” Carter said, “the working group will start with the presumption that transgender persons can serve openly without adverse impact on military effectiveness and readiness, unless and except where objective, practical impediments are identified.”

The working group was to study the issue over the succeeding six months.

Eight months later, the New York Times chided Carter for Read more

Bladensburg Peace Cross Defended by 26 State Attorneys General

The Attorneys General from 26 states have signed a bipartisan brief in the ongoing case by the American Humanist Association to tear down the Bladensburg Peace Cross, a cross-shaped World War I memorial. As published by the Attorney General for South Dakota:

“The State Attorneys General are requesting the Federal Courts to recognize important Constitutional rights and respect the dedication, sacrifice, and freedoms earned by our veterans,” said Attorney General Jackley…

South Dakota and 24 other states are requesting the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm a lower court’s ruling, which found the U.S. Constitution allows veterans memorials with religious symbolism…

Jackley highlighted something militant atheists are often hesitant to admit [emphasis added]:  Read more

The Citadel Considers a Hijab in Uniform

citadelFor the first time in its history, The Citadel is considering a request for a uniform exception that would allow a cadet to keep a religious accoutrement. Interestingly, the request came from a female (and females were only allowed in The Citadel at all starting in 1995).

The Citadel is considering a request from an admitted student that she be allowed to wear a hijab in keeping with her Muslim faith, a move that would be an unprecedented exception to the school’s longstanding uniform requirements.

The Citadel is not the US military, nor is it a state actor — but it does receive state money. That Read more

Court: Flying Spaghetti Monster Is Not a Religion

As if it needed to be said, a US District Court has ruled that the Flying Spaghetti Monster and his creed of Pastafarianism is satire, not religion:

In a 16-page decision, the U.S. District Court of Nebraska ruled on April 12 that Pastafarianism is satire, not sacred, and that anyone who thinks it is a religion has made an error “of basic reading comprehension.”

(This comes as the Associated Press trumpeted the “First Pastafarian Wedding.”) This has affected the US military in the past, when atheists and critics Read more

Congressman, Freedom Advocates Object to POW/MIA Bible Removals

Update: More recent coverage of this “controversy” cites the VA saying “the hospital received complaints from…a former prisoner of war who was not a Christian.” Given that such a claim would have been a coup for Weinstein, and it has appeared in no other report, it is likely an error in reporting.

Update: The ACLJ published a statement contradicting Mikey Weinstein’s machinations and a petition calling for a defense of the Bible in “Veterans’ Displays.”  The Army Times covered the removal of a Bible from another display, this one at Tobyhanna Army Depot (which hosts 93 soldiers), where no one apparently knew how the Bible even got there.

powtable1US Congressmen and a variety of religious liberty groups have objected to the forced removal of Bibles from POW/MIA remembrance tables at facilities in Ohio and Texas. The removals came at the request of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, who called the inclusion of the Bibles an act of “supremacy.”

Congressman Doug Collins (R-Ga), also a Reserve AF Chaplain, had previously said he was “appalled” that the VA “caved” to Weinstein’s “antics.”

This organization has devoted itself to attacking Christians and undermining the religious freedoms guaranteed to our men and women in uniform by the Constitution.

In response, the reliably infantile Mikey Weinstein

called Collins an ignoramus and “worthless sack of Read more

Navy: Ship Commissioning Not Changed over LGBT Bill

portlandThe US Navy has disputed reports that the USS Portland (LPD 27) will be commissioned in Portland, rather than where it is being built in Mississippi, because of Mississippi’s recently passed legislation protecting religious objections to homosexuality.

When the Navy announced the commissioning would happen in the namesake town of Portland, activists and some news outlets seized on the timing, with CBS reporting that “Navy ceremony moved over Mississippi anti-gay law objection.” The Navy disagreed: Read more

The Government’s Reaction to Religion versus Sexuality

“Evidently religious freedom does not exist within the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act or the Illinois Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.

“In our opinion, neither the State of Illinois nor the U. S. Supreme Court has the authority to tamper with the definition of marriage.  God alone created marriage and declared thousands of years ago that it was to be between a man and a woman.  Not two men.  Not two women.  We may be out of step with an increasingly anti-Christian culture, but we are in compliance with God’s design and that is what ultimately matters.

“To be absolutely clear, we cannot host a same-sex wedding even though fines and penalties have been imposed by the IL Human Rights Commission.  Our policy will not be changing.  We are not looking for a fight, but when immoral laws are purposely passed (or deemed constitutional) that blatantly conflict with God’s Word and when the heavy hand of government tries to force us as Christians to embrace sinful behavior, we have a moral obligation to resist and stand for Biblical truth.  “It is better to obey God than men”.   Acts 5:29.”
— Jim Walder, owner of TimberCreek Bed-and-Breakfast

The state of Illinois is attempting to fine and punish TimberCreek Bed-and-Breakfast for declining to host a same-sex ceremony.

When the government enforces Read more

US Army Grants More Exceptions for Sikhs

Update: Follow up on Harpal Singh and the status of Capt Singh’s case here.

The US Army has decided to permit three more Sikh adherents to attend Basic Training while maintaining the articles of their faith:

“After months of waiting, I’m ecstatic that I can finally serve both God and country,” Private Arjan Singh Ghotra, one of the plaintiffs, said…

Religious accommodations were also granted to Specialist Kanwar Singh [and]Specialist Harpal Singh.

While the exceptions are notable, they are still precisely that: exceptions. Thus, the US Army is still not officially more “friendly” to service by Sikhs, a point Read more

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