Tag Archives: Sikh

Marine Aviator Criticizes Monifa Sterling, Religious Freedom Case

Carl Forsling, a retired Marine MV-22 pilot, recently took to Task and Purpose to criticize the current Supreme Court appeal of court-martialed Marine LCpl Monifa Sterling. One part of Sterling’s case, as you’ll recall, centered on her decision to post a paraphrased Bible verse on her desk — which she was ordered to take down. Forsling opines:

Sterling worked in a customer-service job at an ID center, so people conducting their official business had to read the verse. This made effectively made something that was supposedly for her own personal inspiration into proselytization.

To quote Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word…” How does a posting a verse from Isaiah translate into an attempt to convert other people to a religion?  In short, it doesn’t, but claiming that Read more

US Army to Grant Sikhs, Muslims, Jews Permanent Waivers

The US Army has changed its policies (PDF) to allow Sikhs, Muslims, and Jews to serve while wearing their religious accoutrements in uniform [emphasis added]:

Since 2009, religious accommodation requests requiring a waiver for uniform wear and grooming have largely fallen into one of three faith practices: the wear of a hijab; the wear of a beard; and the wear of a turban or under-turban/patka, with uncut beard and uncut hair. Based on the successful examples of Soldiers currently serving with these accommodations, I have determined that brigade-level commanders may approve requests for these accommodations…

Importantly, the policy specifically says the religious practice should be approved Read more

Christian Fighter Pilot Top 10 Stories for 2016

Just as in the past couple of years, issues of military religious freedom have generally been incorporated in larger societal issues in most groups’ “top ten” civil/religious liberty issues for the year.

For example, Howard Friedman at the Religion Clause noted the “transgender rights” stories at #3 without specifically mentioning the (substantial) military side to that story.  That said, at #6 he included the “battle over religious displays” and specifically included “Latin crosses as part of veterans’ memorials”.

The Baptist Joint Committee, a politically left-leaning group, included the controversy over the Russell Amendment to the 2017 NDAA at #6.  (The BJC opposed the proposed legislation.)

Some other notable but unmentioned events from the year include lawsuits filed and exemptions granted for Sikhs in the military, the national discussion over Bible verses posted by court-martialed Marine LCpl Monifa Sterling, or the Air Force reconsidering its policies after retired Air Force SMSgt Oscar Rodriguez was thrown out of a ceremony while reciting a religiously-tinged flag-folding script.

With that in mind, the most read articles from 2016 on ChristianFighterPilot.com Read more

Donald Trump on Military Religious Freedom

trumpprayDuring the presidential campaign, Donald Trump was asked about the erosion of religious liberty in the US military. In October, his campaign provided the following response:

Religious freedom in the military is under attack, just as it is across our society. We ask our men and women in uniform to risk their lives for us, and the least we can do is fight every day for their right to worship freely and express their faith while in uniform. My Secretary of Defense will be a person who understands and respects our military’s tradition of religious tolerance and freedom, and who honors the service of our Chaplain Corps as I do.

My Defense Secretary and I will never treat religious expression, whether by a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Sikh or any other faith, as a threat; rather, we Read more

Sikhs Still Seeking Tolerance, Acceptance by US Military

sikhtrioDespite claims by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter that tolerance is “a practical necessity” in the US military — and that nothing unrelated to someone’s qualifications should prevent them from serving — people who are prevented from serving for reasons other than sexuality aren’t reaping the fruits of that newfound practical “tolerance.”

Maj. Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi was recently in the news — and at the Democratic National Convention — highlighting the continued fight for Sikhs to gain Read more

Air Force Begins to Train Troops That Men can be Women

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Transgender activist Jean Burleton trained Air Force personnel on the truth of gender fluidity. (142nd Fighter Wing, Portland, Oregon, Air National Guard)

“Only in a fallen, sinful world can we say sexual attraction is permanent — but body parts aren’t.“

The 142nd Fighter Wing of the Portland Air National Guard in Oregon recently held a training session in which the Air Force trained its Airmen that gender is arbitrarily “assigned-at-birth” rather than a product of biology.

TSgt John Hughel begins the official press release by comparing Secretary of Defense Ash Carter’s removal of the ban on transgenders with President Eisenhower’s executive order integrating the military — terribly ironic, given that skin color is biologically determined and immutable, while transgender activists claim peoples’ bodies need to be physically “fixed” to match how they feel.

The training session was led by Jean Burleton, an activist who is a male but presents himself as a woman.  For context, Burleton previously defended the ability of 15-year olds to get sex-change Read more

Mikey Weinstein Lies about Religious Freedom and Blood in the Streets

One of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s favorite refrains is there would be “blood in the streets” if another religion did what Christian “fundamentalists” get away with in the US military. That his dramatic statement is an irrelevant logical fallacy matters not; it appeals to emotion and energizes his acolytes to call for the government to restrict the religious freedom of Christians in the US military, the Constitution notwithstanding.

Recently, in castigating USAF Major Steve Lewis’ display of a Bible, Weinstein verbosely said [capitalization original, emphasis added]:

Can you even IMAGINE the limitless, overflowing blood in the streets which would immediately occur if, say, another USAF official chose to similarly display, just as Major Steve Lewis presently exhibits his open and yellow-highlighted Christian bible in the very center of his official USAF desk, other sectarian, theological texts such as The Satanic Bible, the Islamic Quran, the Hindu Shruti, the Sikh Adi Granth and the Atheist movementʼs leading texts…?

There wouldn’t just be “blood in the streets.” It would be there “immediately,” and it would be “limitless and overflowing.”  All if another religious US troop dared to put out a religious text or symbol.

Weinstein’s fallacious implication reflects the research style of his assistant, Chris Rodda — meaning his argument is unsupported by evidence and it relies on assumptions and convenient omissions.

Why, for example, do you think Mikey Weinstein declined Read more

Activist, Constitutional Lawyer Get Military Liberty Wrong

Shannon Minter, a “transgender man” (that is, a woman) of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and David Codell, a constitutional lawyer in Los Angeles, celebrated the US military’s decision to permit service by openly transgender individuals in a recent column awkwardly titled “A more equal military“.  They summarized the victory thusly [emphasis added]:

As a result, persons of any race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity can provide equal protection to our nation through open, proud and equal service in our military.

They’re wrong, of course. In the most obvious example, persons of the Sikh faith are not permitted Read more

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