Tag Archives: religious freedom

Big Mountain Jesus Survives Lawsuit. Again.

Update: As of November 2015, the full Ninth Circuit refused to re-hear the FFRF appeal, effectively ending the case.

The Montana ski resort statue known as “Big Mountain Jesus” has survived the most recent challenge to have it torn down (from the appeal argued in July). The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a small atheist group that scours the country for signs of religion over which to be offended, sued because the statue is technically on federal land, though the land is perpetually leased to a ski resort. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty defended the statue.

The statue was built in the style of European shrines by the Knights of Columbus to honor the 10th Mountain Division.  The Division’s soldiers fondly recalled the many shrines they saw during their combat in World War II. In that regard, it was not raised as a religious shrine itself, as the FFRF claims, but as a memorial that invokes those shrines as an homage to the 10th Mountain Division.

The Appeals Court panel found, in a 2-1 ruling, the statue was essentially secular in purpose — including as justification its “irreverent” use:  Read more

Demons Rule at US Air Force Academy

The Air Force recently announced the victory of the Demons over their adversaries during US Air Force Academy basic training, which ends as the new cadets begin their academic year.

Much has been made of the apparently “supernatural” terminology sometimes invoked during Basic Cadet Training (BCT) at the US Air Force Academy. For example, each of the squadrons of cadets is known by a letter, from A to as high as J, depending on the size of the incoming class. They are:  Read more

Homosexual Air Force Officer Criticizes Former Christian Subordinate

As previously noted, retired SMSgt Phillip Monk recently appeared at a religious freedom forum for GOP presidential candidate and US Senator Ted Cruz (video here).  SMSgt Monk spoke briefly about his experience of discrimination in the military as a result of the conflict between homosexuality and religious faith.

SMSgt Monk’s story was criticized on a Facebook page called “Team Perry,” which cited an official military investigation to claim his allegations were “nonsense.”  The raison d’être of the “Team Perry” page is to defend former Lackland AFB squadron commander LtCol Craig Perry: Perry was fired under controversial circumstances last year, and the posts on the page claim to reveal details proving the Air Force treated him unjustly (despite military investigations and reports to the contrary). It took a surprising degree of intellectual inconsistency (or simple hypocrisy), then, for Team Perry to cite an Air Force investigation to criticize Monk while simultaneously claiming similar investigations were unjust when they dealt with Perry.

That Monk’s story would be criticized on the Team Perry page may seem odd until you realize Perry and Monk were stationed at Lackland AFB together. Further, it turns out LtCol Craig Perry was fast friends with then-fellow squadron commander then-Maj Elisa “Liz” Valenzuela, SMSgt Monk’s commander and the target of his complaints.

There’s nothing wrong with them being friends. But clearly Team Perry is judging SMSgt Monk not just on public reports or even insider information, but also from the viewpoint of a close family friend of his ‘antagonist.’

As if to prove the point, now-LtCol Valenzuela is Read more

Chris Rodda Denigrates Beliefs of Chaplain Endorser

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s research assistant Chris Rodda has taken the MRFF attacks on military Christians to a new level. Weinstein and company have previously railed against Christians who expressed their religious beliefs, even if they did so in a church service. They’ve also blasted Christians for nothing more than having certain beliefs.

Mikey Weinstein’s research assistant, Chris Rodda.

Now, Chris Rodda has gone a step further, holding up for derision not expressed beliefs or even the beliefs of any particular service member. Instead, Rodda attacked cherry-picked (and misrepresented) policy statements from a chaplain’s endorsing agency, as if that implicated either a service member or religious freedom in general. Rodda’s characteristically rambling article at the Huffington Post is entitled “Ranger Chaplain’s Endorsing Agency: Women in Combat ‘Contrary to Nature,’ ‘Biblical Duty of Man to Defend Woman’.”

It’s worth noting that Rodda’s headline isn’t even true. Her quotes on nature and the duty of man came from the assemblies of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) in 2001 and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) in 2002. The OPC and PCA are two of seven member denominations of the endorsing agency known as the Presbyterian and Reformed Commission on Chaplains and Military Personnel. Those assemblies are not any chaplain’s endorsing agency. Rodda appears to have chosen sensationalism over integrity, which is ironic for someone who focuses so much on debunking “liars.”

Regardless, Rodda writes as the representative of Read more

Military Religious Freedom at Ted Cruz Rally

A religious freedom rally hosted by GOP Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz last week in Iowa was focused largely on businesses who were sued or driven out of business by homosexual activists intent on forcing others to support their lifestyle choices.

However, there were two notable inclusions whose antagonist was actually the US government:

Former Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, who was fired for his views in what Dr. Al Mohler said was evidence of “erotic liberty” superseding religious liberty; and  Read more

President Ponders God’s Judgment for the Nation’s Immorality

Over the past few months a significant number of Christian leaders have cautioned that God may judge the United States of America for its flaunting of sin, including the open support for and advocacy of the homosexual lifestyle and the epidemic of abortion.

Scoffers have roundly criticized and dismissed such statements, with one going so far as to ask why God would destroy America for homosexuality but not slavery:

If God were going to destroy America why didn’t he do it when we enslaved, brutalized, and murdered thousands of his children shipped over from Africa?

To be accurate, most mainstream faith leaders have said God will judge America, not (necessarily) destroy it. Is such a pronouncement really that fringe?

Ask President Abraham Lincoln.

Though less so today, years ago, many Read more

National Organization for Marriage Calls for Defense of Military Chaplains

The National Organization for Marriage, one of the primary groups that tried to defend traditional marriage in the United States, has become the latest non-military group to recognize the attacks on Christians in the military occurring because of the rise of socially endorsed ‘sexual freedom.’ Importantly, they noted these attacks are coming despite constant reassurances that acceptance of homosexuality would have no impact on those who didn’t agree:

Some radical activists who champion support for gay ‘marriage’ in the military have demanded that military chaplains who stand up for traditional marriage be dismissed from military service, told by the government to “get the hell out of the military chaplaincy” and calling Read more

Another Military Memorial Under Attack

Update: The creator of the monument explained the reason for his design here:

Al Larsen intended the small Latin cross in each silhouette to mark a grave — like the rows of white crosses at the Normandy American Cemetery in France, where more than 9,000 American World War II troops are buried.

“This is what it means to me,” Larsen said in an interview Wednesday. “It don’t mean no church thing.”

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State claims otherwise.

Todd Starnes at FoxNews highlights an effort by the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State to have a war memorial removed from a park in Knoxville, Iowa:

“It was clear to us it was a memorial to fallen veterans,” Mayor Brian Hatch told me. But it wasn’t clear to everyone.

About a month ago a citizen filed an anonymous complaint — arguing that the memorial was promoting Christianity and therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Mayor Hatch told me the city council ignored the complaint.

“We didn’t take any action because it (the memorial) did not have any religious ties to us at all,” he said. “I only see it as a memorial to the veterans and it shocked me that someone could see it otherwise.”

The offended party apparently called the AU, and the fight was on.

Americans United has since published a snarky reply, noting Read more

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