A fundamentalist Christian military? Follow procedure! Wednesday July 9, 2008 By Randi Kaye -
AC360° Correspondent
Wait ’til you hear this!
So many of you were fired up about yesterday after I blogged about Army Specialist Jeremy Hall, an atheist soldier who is suing, among others, the Department of Defense and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
TOPEKA, Kan. — Justice Department officials want a lawsuit filed by a Fort Riley soldier and a foundation over alleged violations of religious freedoms dismissed saying his complaints weren't taken to the chain of command.
Government attorneys, in a motion filed this week in federal district court in Kansas City, Kan., said Spc. Jeremy Hall and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation lack standing to sue the Pentagon.
Hall and the foundation claim the military permits religious discrimination by fundamentalist Christians who try to force their views on others, especially subordinates.
CNN Segment Convinces Majority
of
Non-Christians that Army
Discriminates;
Nearly Half of
Christians Agree
Thursday July 10, 2008
Jeremy Hall, a 23-year-old U.S. soldier is suing the Department of Defense for allegedly discriminating against him because of his religious beliefs. Army Spc. Jeremy Hall, raised as a Baptist, claims that he lost his Christian faith while serving two tours of duty in Iraq and that subsequently his atheist beliefs caused him to be denied promotions in the Army and to have his life threatened by other troops according to an interview Hall had with CNN. The military assigned a bodyguard to protect him and returned him stateside.
Mediacurves, a Service of HCD Research studied over 200 Christians and over 100 hundred non-Christians to determine the impact of CNN's segment on the issue.
MRFF’s Long Fight for
Military Religious Freedom
"Clearly Confirmed"
by ADL's Rapid Request for "Clearly Needed"
Congressional Hearings
New York, NY
June 30, 2008
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), concerned that religious harassment and unwelcome proselytizing are an ongoing problem in the military and the nation's service academies, today called on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to hold "clearly needed" hearings on religious activity in the military.
After the MRFF / Jeremy Hall segment aired on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°, we were inundated with emails from viewers. Most were supportive, but as always, there were also quite a few vocal opponents. In this newsletter, we have featured just a fraction of the emails we received over the last few days.
On June 25, I posted a piece here titled MRFF Urges DoD to Pull the Plug on TBN Special, Demands Investigation, regarding the objections of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) to the re-airing by the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) of a 4th of July Christian concert special. MRFF considers roughly twenty minutes of the two-hour "Red, White, and Blue Spectacular," including an interview with a U.S. Army general and the dipping of two American flags by a military color guard to Christian pop star Carman, to be in violation of military regulations, the U.S. Code, and the Constitution.
The New York Times reports on growing controversies over religious indoctrination and possible establishment clause violations at the nation's service academies. And the complaints are coming from cadets at those academies:
Our fight is against those with passion. We need yours.
In our fight in the media and the courts, your assistance is vital to the success of our mission. We have had offers of assistance from many excellent attorneys nationwide, but we are continuously looking for others in all areas of the country.
If you'd like to offer your legal services to MRFF, please contact us at [email protected].
What a whirlwind! Our federal lawsuit is attracting quite a bit of attention, from CNN's Anderson Cooper to the Associated Press, to the ADL, our work is being widely showcased and supported.
We received an outpouring of support due to this exposure, but I wanted to show you two emails in particular that speak volumes. The first is a note from a Christian veteran who contacted us after seeing us on CNN, the second is a great example of the ignorance we are up against. In addition to these, we received THOUSANDS of notes, overwhelmingly supportive, that show how truly widespread the Constitutional destruction is in our Armed Forces.
The good news is, our message is truly resonating with people, as demonstrated in this Wall Street Journal study regarding our CNN story. We are the only ones fighting this fight. Thank you for standing with us.
-Mikey
FRIENDS OF MRFF
Just released:
"The Family:
The Secret Fundamentalism at
the Heart of American Power"
by Jeff Sharlet
"[Sharlet] has managed to infiltrate the most influential and secretive fundamentalist network in America, and ground his reporting in the most astute and original explanation of fundamentalism I’ve
ever read. . . . Indispensable."
- Hanna Rosin,
former religion reporter
for the Washington Post
Just released:
"In Justice: Inside the Scandal
That Rocked the Bush Administration"
by David Iglesias