Tag Archives: Public Expression

DADT Non-Event: West Point Hosts Homosexual Wedding

The repeal of DADT in the US military was such a non-event that these non-events keep making the news:

Two graduates of West Point are set to become the first men to marry each other at the storied military academy. Larry Choate III, class of 2009, will marry Daniel Lennox, class of 2007, on Saturday at the U.S. Military Academy’s Cadet Chapel.

Homosexual women previously did so, though the “first” event wasn’t as newsworthy as the second.

United Church of Christ Chaplain Cynthia Lindenmeyer, a 1990 West Read more

Most Read: The Religious Rights of Those in Uniform

Over at the Journal of Faith and War, one of the most read articles is “The Religious Rights of Those in Uniform,” written by Robert “Skip” Ash, a 22-year Army veteran and Jay Sekulow of the ACLJ.

The lengthy but thorough essay gives an excellent discussion on the issues of religious liberty, the law, the Constitution, and military policy.

There are growing numbers of persons and advocacy groups in the United States actively seeking to remove from public life — including in the armed services — virtually all symbols and expression of religion and America’s religious heritage by advocating strict separation of church and state. Many of these groups are already actively engaged in filing lawsuits against DOD and its leaders over various concerns about religious expression in the armed services…  Read more

Air Force Investigation Finds No Religious Discrimination

An Air Force investigation was initiated after SMSgt Philip Monk filed a complaint of religious discrimination, claiming he was relieved and reassigned earlier than planned after a conversation with his commanding officer, Maj Elisa Valenzuela.  The Air Force issued a press release about the investigation, saying the charges of religious discrimination were not substantiated:

The investigation, initiated Aug. 15 by Col. Mark Camerer, 37th Training Wing commander at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, found the claim unsubstantiated…

“The weight of the evidence shows that religion was never discussed between the two,” Camerer said in an Air Education and Training Command release.

“In the end, this is a case about command authority, good order and discipline, and civil rights — not religious freedoms,” he said.

Interestingly, no one ever publicly claimed “religion was…discussed between the two,” but it raises the question as to whether one must explicitly voice a religious belief for it to be actionable.  The investigation also made an interesting comment about the statements at the heart of the controversy [emphasis added]:  Read more

Senator Ted Cruz on Military Religious Liberty

This is an administration that has told servicemen and women that they cannot share their faith or risk discipline.  This is an administration that has reprimanded an Air Force chaplain in Alaska for writing in a blog post “there are no atheists in foxholes.”  Now, mind you, he was quoting President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who, I might note, has some passing familiarity with the military…

“The Administration” can either be interpreted as a broad swath of people that includes the Secretary of Defense, or potentially a direct reference to the President.

It is exceedingly difficult — though it has been tried — Read more

Military Atheists Target Fellow Religious Troops. Again.

In what appears to be a trend, a few atheist members of the US military seem to have taken on a “militant” practice of their faith — by aggressively going after their fellow religious troops.

In May 2012, Army Sgt Justin Griffith led his “internet atheists” against a prayer event hosted by the families of his fellow Fort Bragg Soldiers — while those families’ Soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan.

In March 2013, an Air Force Chief Master Sergeant proudly announced that he’d purged his squadron of posters for “Christian” events — even official events sponsored by MWR.

In August 2013, Captain Sara Sharick — an Army recruiter — indicated she might use her Army position to try to steer a potential recruit away from his school of choice, Christian-founded Liberty University, because it was home to “the crazies.”

Later in August, Daniel Smith — a civilian commissary store director — claimed the presence of Gideon Bibles in Air Force Inns was unconstitutional.  He lodged complaints with the intent of removing those Bibles, so traveling active duty Airmen wouldn’t have access to them.

Now, another incident from earlier this year has recently come to light.

It seems another Army atheist took issue with his fellow Soldiers and their families  Read more

Army Prayer Breakfast Recalls World Trade Center Cross

On 11 September 2013, more than 400 Soldiers attended a Memorial Prayer Breakfast hosted at the Spirit of Fort Hood chapel.  The guest speaker was retired US Navy Chaplain Ron Swafford, who was one of the few to visit Ground Zero after the attacks:

“I just happened to be there the day that they found those crossed I-Beams that came out of the rubble forming a cross,” he recalled. “It was quite impressive because all the workers just stopped and gathered Read more

White House Answers Two Year Old Military Atheist Petition

In 2011 Dustin Chalker, a former Army Sergeant and now-discarded plaintiff of Michael Weinstein’s MRFF, created a petition on WhiteHouse.gov calling for an “End [to] the Military’s Discrimination against Non-Religious Service Members.”

The petition was two years old and was the second oldest unanswered petition on the site.  The White House responded last Friday:

Thank you for your petition regarding the importance of ensuring non-religious members of our armed forces are not discriminated against…

The Obama Administration strongly supports every American’s right to religious freedom. This support extends equally both to the many members of our armed forces who hold religious beliefs and to those members of the military who do not hold such beliefs.

The response then addresses the Army’s Global Assessment Tool, which changed last year.  In essence, the response to the petition says it is moot.

The White House response ignored Read more

Michael Weinstein as Subject Matter in AF EO Course

It was noted once here before that Michael Weinstein met a newspaper’s definition for “conspiracy theorist”, though it wasn’t trying to talk about Weinstein at the time.  In that vein, Judicial Watch recently obtained training materials from an Air Force Equal Opportunity course, which had a similar unintended subject matter — listing character traits for Michael Weinstein without meaning to.

What was it the AF training was trying to describe?

An extremist.

The following text describes how the EO course inadvertenty describes many character traits that Weinstein displays.  While most won’t be interested in such a character analysis, the reason for noting this is to highlight the fact that Michael Weinstein is no run-of-the-mill “religious freedom” advocate, despite his claims.  He is, as the course material shows, a religious “extremist” intent on bending the US military to his will — even if it contradicts human liberty and the protections of the US Constitution…and an Air Force training course actually helps explain that.

Quoting from Nazis, communists, Klansmen, and others on the fringe: Political extremism in America by George and Wilcox (1992), the Air Force Equal Opportunity Read more

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