Tag Archives: religious freedom

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

Flightline Chapel Serves Airman in Afghanistan

An Air Force article highlights the opening of the first US Air Force Chapel on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

The location chosen for the most recent worship space was specific:

The non-denominational Christian worship service’s unique characteristic is its location inside the entry control point where it can reach airmen who otherwise may not be able to attend a worship service.

“The other chapels on base do an outstanding Read more

MRFF Changes Narrative on “So Help Me God”

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s discombobulated responses to the Air Force Academy decision to make “so help me God”  optional in the Cadet Honor Oath (he both welcomes it and threatened to sue) may have been his flailing efforts to regain the narrative in a losing effort.  His research assistant, Chris Rodda, seems to indicate the MRFF is trying to point the narrative in a different direction.  In a local news report on the Academy decision (original here):

Air Force Academy cadets are no longer required to say “so help me God” at the end of the Honor Oath. The change was made in response to complaints from a group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation…

Chris Rodda, of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said…”The people we are battling on this will say that nobody’s forced to say ‘so help me God.’ That actually is not true. The cadets received an email that said that they must say it for their commissioning oath to be legal.”

Rodda’s response is noteworthy because the Cadet Honor Oath has nothing to do with the commissioning oath, and nothing to do with the MSgt’s email.  Whether the MRFF is intentionally trying to alter the debate or if Chris Rodda is incompetently Read more

US Army Orders Halt to Christian Extremist Briefings

The Liberty Institute, the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, and the Family Research Council — all members of the Restore Military Religious Freedom Coalition — successfully waged a campaign to have the US Army order an end to briefings which labeled mainstream Christian groups “extremist.”

As reported by Todd Starnes at FoxNews:

“On several occasions over the past few months, media accounts have highlighted instances of Army instructors supplementing programs of instruction and including information or material that is inaccurate, objectionable and otherwise inconsistent with current Army policy,” Army Sec. John McHugh wrote to military leaders in a memorandum I obtained.

McHugh “directed that Army leaders cease all briefings, command presentations or training on the subject of extremist organizations or activities until that program of instruction and training has been created and disseminated,” Army spokesman Col. David Patterson, Jr., tells me.

Multiple briefings were presented as evidence of a widespread Read more

USAFA Says “So Help Me God” is Optional

In an anticlimatic but optimistically predicted result, LtGen Michelle Johnson declared that the “so help me God” portion of the USAFA Cadet Honor Oath is optional:

“Here at the Academy, we work to build a culture of dignity and respect, and that respect includes the ability of our cadets, Airmen and civilian Airmen to freely practice and exercise their religious preference – or not.” said Lt. Gen. Michelle D. Johnson, Academy Superintendent. “So, in the spirit of respect, cadets may or may not choose to finish the Honor Oath with ‘So help me God.'”

The current USAFA Athletic Director, Dr. Hans Mueh (BGen, Ret), was part of the faculty that decided on “so help me God” in 1984, when it was created in response to a cheating scandal:

“To add more seriousness to the oath, we decided to mirror the commissioning oath and add the words, ‘so help me, God,'” Dr. Mueh said.

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, the “religious freedom” advocate who Read more

USAFA Pulled Poster of Fallen Ace Robbie Risner’s Plane


General Mark Welsh, US Air Force Chief of Staff, announced that retired BGen James Robinson “Robbie” Risner passed away this week.

In a cruel twist of timing, the poster pulled down by USAFA last week (because it offensively said “so help me God”) was of BGen Risner’s F-100F, the “Spirit of St Louis II” — in which he crossed the Atlantic as Charles Lindbergh did, but in only 6 hours.  (The aircraft remains on static display in front of the USAFA Prep School.)

BGen Risner is probably most famous for his time as a POW in Vietnam’s infamous Hanoi Hilton — where he roomed with other well-known men like Col Bud Day and LtCdr John McCain.  BGen Risner, then a LtCol, was the ranking POW and the leader of the men in the prison — and it turns out he might have had an opinion on that “God and honor” thing going on at USAFA [emphasis added]:

When asked what kept him going throughout his imprisonment, Risner said in a 2004 interview on CNN Larry King Live that his survival was due to exercise and his “faith in God and Read more

Weinstein Retreats, Says USAFA Cadet Oath can be Optional

In a surprising turn, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein has apparently reversed himself — saying the US Air Force Academy cadet Honor Oath is acceptable.

On Wednesday night Weinstein was a 5-minute guest on Fox News’ Kelly File — in which he compared “so help me God” to robbing a bank. The ignoble articulation has whipped around the internet and now appears on a wide variety of websites — accompanied by comments excoriating Weinstein for his ridiculous accusations.

It seems Weinstein feels he’s losing the battle, and he may have actually surrendered.  As reported in the local Colorado Springs Gazette [emphasis added]:  Read more

Update: USAFA Reacts to So Help Me God

…Who is in charge of the nation’s military[?]  “Is it in fact the military chiefs or is it Mikey Weinstein?”

— Tony Perkins, Family Research Council President

A few news sources have picked up on the story about the US Air Force Academy pulling a poster that had the cadet Honor Oath on it — an oath that ends in “so help me God” (discussed here a few days ago).  Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, president of his self-founded charity, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, has celebrated this as his latest “victory.”

The cadet committee on the subject has met, though not yet made a recommendation to the Superintendent:

Academy spokesman Maj. Brus Vidal said the Honor Review Committee…discussed…making no change to the oath, making the “so help me God” portion optional, or striking the entire oath…

Vidal said. “We value an inclusive environment that promotes dignity and respect for all.”

The Public Affairs director did not explain how “no change to the oath” could follow LtGen Michelle Johnson’s order Read more

1 … 175 176 177 178 179 … 286