Tag Archives: religious freedom

Liberty U: Michael Weinstein Calls Christian Aviation Education “Horrifying”

Michael Weinstein — a self-described advocate of religious freedom — apparently has no limits to his disdain for Christianity.

Sojourners Magazine recently published an article on Liberty University’s School of Aeronautics — more specifically, their concentration in Unmanned Aerial Systems.  Provocatively titled “Drones for Christ,” author David Swanson sets out to describe

How Jerry Falwell’s Liberty U.—the world’s largest Christian university—became an evangelist for drone warfare.

Problem is, Swanson doesn’t succeed in his telling, because Liberty doesn’t Read more

Air Force Atheist Ponders Spiritual Fitness, Officially

An official article by Moody Air Force Base’s Public Affairs Senior Airman Jarrod Grammel is entitled “Atheist ponders spiritual fitness.”

As an atheist, people sometimes ask and wonder where I get my sense of purpose. I don’t believe that God created me and has a special purpose for me in life, but rather that I’m the result of 4 billion years of evolutionary success on a minor planet of an average star in a universe with at least 100 billion galaxies.

And that’s perfectly fine with me. My purpose Read more

Atheist Call their own Monument Mere Counterpoint, Attack

The group American Atheists recently installed a granite monument in front of the Bradford County courthouse in Starke, Florida.  The group placed the monument there as the result of a compromise, after a local Christian group refused to remove their Ten Commandments monument — and then both groups filed First Amendment lawsuits.

David Silverman, the American Atheists president, called his own monument a “counterpoint” and an “attack.”

“We’re not going to let them do it without Read more

DoD Celebrates SCOTUS Ruling on Homosexuality

The Department of Defense issued a plethora of statements celebrating the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which had prevented the Federal government from recognizing homosexual “marriage.”  The ruling paves the way for the US military to provide marital benefits to homosexual couples.

In an initial statement, the DoD “welcomed” the ruling and said  Read more

Atheist Jason Torpy Seeks Distance from Wikileaker Manning

Former US Army Captain Jason Torpy, currently leading the one-man Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, recently attempted to evaluate the decision by Private Bradley Manning to call himself a “humanist.”

In an article at the American Humanist Association, for which Torpy is the Treasurer, he writes “Is Bradley Manning Really a Humanist?”

[Manning lawyer] David Coombs…made a show that Manning had ID tags with “humanist” written on them…Coombs argued, “that his actions came from his deeply held beliefs that all lives had value, Iraqi and American.” Because the defense is leaning on Manning’s humanist beliefs, this trial also calls for humanist attention as well.

Torpy apparently thinks the humanist community needs to think Read more

Soldier Threatened over Chick-FIL-A

Many sites have now reported on US Army MSgt Nathan Sommers, a member of the US Army Band, who has apparently been targeted for his words or actions associated with “his conservative political and religious beliefs.”

As reported at FoxNews, Sommers

said he is facing retribution and punishment from the military for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his car, reading books written by conservative authors like Mark Levin and David Limbaugh, and serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at his promotion party.

For its part, the Army categorically denied Read more

Military Atheist Chaplain Amendment Fails

Most popular press covered the religious freedom portions of the controversies surrounding the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act.  Another interesting conversation, though, occurred with an official attempt by Congress to mandate atheist chaplains.

Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) offered the amendment to the [NDAA]. The amendment would have allowed humanists and other nonbelievers join the Chaplain Corps.

(The topic of atheist chaplains has come up many times before.)  Polis said atheists were “denied” a “right” because they could not “confide in an adviser who is not a mental health professional.”  The amendment was defeated, according to some reports, because it was “absurd.”  (This was actually the second Read more

Michael Weinstein Inspires Congressional Action, Part 2

Update: Weinstein responded:

Weinstein is the kind of guy who revels in the dislike of his adversaries.

“How terrified are these little pu***es in Congress that they have to pass an amendment about me?” he shouted in a phone interview from the foundation’s headquarters in Albuquerque, N.M., using a putdown associated with a woman’s genitalia.

Always classy.

In the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, US Rep John Fleming successfully changed the 2013 NDAA wording after the US Air Force appeared to be acting as a part of Michael Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s self-described “war” on Christians.

Weinstein also inspired US Rep Tim Huelskamp (R-Ks) to add an amendment of his own which would require the Department of Defense to report to Congress every time it met with an outside group for the purpose of

writing, revising, issuing, implementing, enforcing, or seeking advice, input, or counsel regarding military policy related to religious liberty.

This was clearly in response to Weinstein’s 23 April meeting with the JAG of the US Air Force, among others, which Weinstein bragged about to his like-minded media arm, Sally Quinn.  Rep Huelskamp even called it a “rebuke” of “anti-Christian zealot Michael Weinstein.”

The MRFF has sarcastically embraced this amendment, because it would “force” the DoD to report on its meetings with groups like Chaplain endorsers:  Read more

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