At an event celebrating 240 years of the US Navy Chaplain Corps, Navy Chief of Chaplains (RAdm) Margaret Kibben presented Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen John Paxton with a church pennant flown over the USS Essex:
Like shipboard nightly prayers, church pennants are a naval tradition likely Read more
A group of atheist US Army Soldiers from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, recently entered an anti-Christmas float in the Clarksville, TN, Christmas parade.
“We are people that enjoy the holidays just like everyone else, but we don’t subscribe to the religious dogma,” says MASH member Patrick Horst, an active duty soldier at Fort Campbell.
He said last year’s float was well received. “People are very tolerant, they understand that everyone is not Christian and we even picked up a few new members from having a float in the parade last year,” Horst said.
To their credit, the Soldiers tried to be clever rather than caustic. But by Read more
by Sonny Hernandez
When conservative Bible-believing Christians in the Armed Forces are vilified because of their constitutional right to exercise the tenets of their faith, it is impossible to mitigate the issue. Michael (Mikey) Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is importunate when making denigrating rhetoric against anyone in the Armed Forces who will not concur with his beloved self-conception or obscured beliefs. It can easily be deduced that the MRFF is not amicable towards religious liberty for conservative Bible-believers who are not ashamed of Christ and His Gospel. Nevertheless, Christ will be proclaimed! This is why Bible-believing Christians must know how to respond as this article will now cogently explain:
I. Comprehend Your Audience
Michael Weinstein of the MRFF masquerades as a defender of religious freedom for Read more
As reported in the New York Times, the US Army has granted Capt. Simratpal Singh a religious accommodation to wear the beard, unshorn hair, and turban as the outward expression of his Sikh faith — even while wearing the military uniform:
It is the first time in decades that the military has granted a religious accommodation for a beard to an active-duty combat soldier…But it is only temporary, lasting for a month while the Army decides whether to give permanent status to Captain Singh’s exception.
If it decides not to, the captain could be confronted with the decision of whether to cut his hair or leave the Army. He has said he is prepared to sue if the accommodation is not made permanent.
(This occurred not long after Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va) sent yet another letter to the DoD, as he has for several years, asking that the US military reconsider its policies prohibiting Sikhs from serving.) Singh, a West Point graduate, had previously sacrificed those religious Read more
Just before sunset on Veterans Day, she sat next to her husband’s headstone at Arlington National Cemetery, reminding her three children how their father was with God in heaven and what it means to have faith.
Faith has kept Heather Gray moving forward. It’s what has gotten her through the grief and trials she faced after her husband, Maj. David Gray, was killed by a suicide bomber in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, on Aug. 8, 2012…
One of David’s escorts had brought back a little box, one that usually holds wet wipes, and told Heather he didn’t know what it was, but thought it was something she would like to have.
“Each kid had given David a small toy of theirs to take with him while he Read more
The news coverage of Michael “Mikey” Weistein’s attack against US Air Force Academy football players taking a knee in the end zone before the game is now widespread. As a result, USAFA has released a statement which sheds some interesting light on the situation [emphasis added]: Read more
Around the country and around the world, US military bases are helping troops celebrate the season of Christmas. (Many bases are also simultaneously celebrating Hanukkah, though the Jewish holiday is this week, preceding Christmas by a couple of weeks this year.) For the most part, it seems many bases aren’t shying away from calling them what they are, though a few are sticking to the more generic “holidays.”
In an interesting “multicultural blessing,” local Japanese Shinto priests and an Air Force wing chaplain conducted a “dedication and blessing ceremony” for a new fire truck at Yokota Air Base, Japan:
The rituals featured a formal reading of prayer and a food and drink offering to the Shinto gods…
After the Shinto priests’ ritual, Maj. Oscar Fonseca, 374th Airlift Wing chaplain, offered up prayers for the fire engine.
The Mission Support Group commander “offer[ed] prayers” during Read more