Tag Archives: religious freedom

American Atheists Belittle US Declaration of Independence

There’s a word to describe being so irrationally in opposition to something you fail to see even the obviously noble or good.

The activist organization American Atheists stepped in it recently when they took to Facebook to defend their newest billboards that mock the religious beliefs of the presidential candidates:

We think the future of the United States is serious business, and its leadership should not be based upon the influences of religion in our political system. Take Rep. Paul Ryan’s comments, for example. Ryan stated, “Our rights come from nature and god, NOT from government.” Is this the type of leadership we need in our country?

American Atheists were so quick to demean Rep Paul Ryan, a conservative Catholic, that they didn’t bother to recognize he was paraphrasing the US Declaration of Independence. American Atheists ended up denigrating precisely the “type of leadership” that founded the Read more

Clinton: Religious Liberty is Falling in World

The US Department of State recently released its 2011 Report on International Religious Freedom covering 199 nations and territories.  US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the state of religious freedom is worsening in the world:

“When it comes to this human right- this key feature of stable, secure, peaceful societies- the world is sliding backwards,” Clinton said.

While much of the publicity has focused on Egypt and Libya for obvious reasons, Secretary Clinton’s statement is particularly enlightening in that two of the primary countries called out in the report are Iraq and Afghanistan — whose governments have only survived because of the support of the United States and the sacrifices of its military.

In other words, religious freedom is suffering Read more

Chris Rodda Shows MRFF Opposition to “Wrong Kind” of Christians

Chris Rodda, the researcher for Michael Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation, recently answered an email from an MRFF critic who questioned their stance against the Holman Bibles.  Much of the reply was pedantic or boiler plate from their other replies (another MRFF employee, Andy Kasehagen, has also published identical thousand-word copy/paste replies to different critics’ emails).  The meat of her reply, though, was interesting:

The reason for MRFF’s actions to get the official military emblems removed from the Holman Bibles was much more than just the constitutional issue of a government entity endorsing religion.

The Holman Bibles also contain a large section of materials promoting an organization called the Officers’ Christian Fellowship (OCF)…The other issue with these Bibles is that they violate the JER and specific branch regulations that prohibit the endorsement of a non-federal entity. The OCF is a non-federal entity, so allowing an official military emblem on a book promoting the OCF, as these particular Bibles do, is in clear violation of these regulations.

While Rodda repeats the MRFF position, the military — which enforces its regulations — disagreed.  After all, if there was any such violation, it Read more

Hasan Fined by Military Court for Religious Beard

Accused Fort Hood shooter US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan — yes, he is still in the US Army — has been fined by his military judge for refusing to shave.  Hasan is required to abide by military dress and personal appearance regulations, which generally prohibit beards.  (As noted earlier, beards are also prohibited in the militaries of some predominantly Islamic countries.)

Beards are a violation of Army regulations. Hasan’s attorneys say he keeps declining to shave because he believes that doing so would violate his Muslim faith.  Read more

Air Force Colonel: There are Many Roads to God

Critics of religious freedom in the US military have sometimes claimed that speaking one’s faith while being associated with the military is forbidden.  For example, Michael Weinstein’s MRFF used to have a stockpile of chaplains’ articles from local base papers they would re-publish, often with little comment except shock and the implication that what the military member (a chaplain) was doing was wrong (an implication their acolytes were quick to assume was fact).

MRFF volunteer Rick Baker has gone further, saying uniformed officers can’t even put a religious bumper sticker on their private car.  Chris Rodda, Weinstein’s research assistant, has gone so far as to explicitly state it is wrong for officers to “publicly espouse” their religious beliefs on the internet, even when they do so as private citizens.  (She’s wrong, of course, but that hasn’t stopped her in the past…)

It is worth noting that these criticisms have been aimed Read more

Military Guidance on Politics, Facebook Muddied by Commentary

Update: Based on new information, some conclusions in this article have been updated here.

Every now and then members of the military post official articles that might best be understood as “public service announcements” for their fellow troops.  They often cover high interest issues (like politics, social media, and religion, see below) or regulations that are the topic du jour.  Unfortunately, because these articles carry no weight (unless they are written by a senior Air Force leader issuing official guidance), they can often add confusion to the issue they mean to clarify — especially if they’re wrong. 

For example, a Public Affairs troop recently wrote “Rock the vote, but beware of guidelines,” which was a combination of encouraging voting while cautioning on the restrictions on political activity:  Read more

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