“Tattoo, tattoo, lights out in five minutes, standby for the evening prayer…”
A short but interesting article from the US Navy describes how Navy chaplain candidates — “chaplain candidate program officers,” or “CCPOs”) — are visiting aboard the embarked nuclear aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74).
Of note [emphasis added]: Read more
Yes, it’s really a thing. The 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson AFB, NC, recently decorated and then burned seven pianos in an event that recalled their unit history as part of the Eagle squadrons in the Battle of Britain. As described by FltLt Douglas McKay, a Royal Air Force pilot on exchange with the USAF at Seymour Johnson: Read more
The Attorneys General from 26 states have signed a bipartisan brief in the ongoing case by the American Humanist Association to tear down the Bladensburg Peace Cross, a cross-shaped World War I memorial. As published by the Attorney General for South Dakota:
“The State Attorneys General are requesting the Federal Courts to recognize important Constitutional rights and respect the dedication, sacrifice, and freedoms earned by our veterans,” said Attorney General Jackley…
South Dakota and 24 other states are requesting the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm a lower court’s ruling, which found the U.S. Constitution allows veterans memorials with religious symbolism…
Jackley highlighted something militant atheists are often hesitant to admit [emphasis added]: Read more
Following a Federal judge’s ruling against them a few weeks ago, the American Humanist Association has now filed an appeal of its lawsuit against the Bladensburg Peace Cross, a 90-year old World War I memorial in Maryland:
“The Bladensburg Cross is an enormous Christian symbol on government property and has the clear effect of endorsing religion,” said Monica Miller, senior counsel for the Appignani Humanist Legal Center. “We will continue defending the First Amendment rights of Read more
In what is becoming an annual tradition, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein and his self-founded “charity,” the oddly-named Military Religious Freedom Foundation, have been nominated for or have won recurring Christmas-villain awards for his attacks on military religious freedom.
Weinstein “won” the Liberty Institute’s Scrooge Award in 2014, after he was nominated for his infamous “cadet whiteboard” attack, in which he aimed his invective at a US Air Force Academy cadet who had the gall to write a Bible verse on a dry erase board. Weinstein has been nominated again this year for his attack on, again, US Air Force Academy cadets — this time, members of the football team who choose to take a knee prior to their games.
MRFF supporters are aware of the voting for Liberty Institute’s award and are trying to shoot the moon, apparently thinking that being viewed as a rich, crass, stone-hearted cynic is a good thing.
After missing out last year, Mikey Weinstein’s MRFF has been nominated for Read more
Around the country and around the world, US military bases are helping troops celebrate the season of Christmas. (Many bases are also simultaneously celebrating Hanukkah, though the Jewish holiday is this week, preceding Christmas by a couple of weeks this year.) For the most part, it seems many bases aren’t shying away from calling them what they are, though a few are sticking to the more generic “holidays.”
In an interesting “multicultural blessing,” local Japanese Shinto priests and an Air Force wing chaplain conducted a “dedication and blessing ceremony” for a new fire truck at Yokota Air Base, Japan:
The rituals featured a formal reading of prayer and a food and drink offering to the Shinto gods…
After the Shinto priests’ ritual, Maj. Oscar Fonseca, 374th Airlift Wing chaplain, offered up prayers for the fire engine.
The Mission Support Group commander “offer[ed] prayers” during Read more
Michael “Mikey” Weinstein maintained his perfect record of zero wins in his years of lawsuits against the American government over religion.
Many may not even be aware he had been part of another lawsuit, but in May of this year Weinstein said he had “join[ed] forces” with the American Humanist Association to try to have the Bladensburg Peace Cross torn down. (Despite innumerable threats, Weinstein hasn’t filed a lawsuit on his own in years.) The Peace Cross is a 90-year old World War I memorial in Maryland.
In a summary judgment, a Federal court just dismissed (PDF) that lawsuit.
Importantly, US District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow’s ruling avoids the semantic gymnastics of other cases by not trying to avoid the fact that a cross is, indeed, a religious symbol. The ruling says that simply being a cross does not inherently mean it is unconstitutional [emphasis added]: Read more