The leading activist in the fight to make the U.S. military live up to constitutional church-state protections is glad the Pentagon has decided not to allow an Air Force “flyover” as part the annual God and Country Festival in Nampa, Idaho – the first time military authorities have denied the sponsoring group’s request in 42 years.

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A little over two years ago, because of an article I wrote about the Christian nationalist history revisionism that was showing up in the Junior ROTC American history curriculum, I was pulled away from my work fighting the history revisionists by an organization I had never heard of -- the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). It was just before Memorial Day 2007, and my first assignment from MRFF was to investigate the issue of military participation in evangelical Christian rallies disguised as patriotic events. Concerns had been raised about one event in particular -- an annual event held at Stone Mountain in Georgia. Scheduled to be a major part of this weekend long evangelical rally were a plethora of military exhibits, speakers, color guards, and bands, with the highlight being the hourly military flyovers, including a B-2 flyover during the Sunday worship service while U.S. Air Force Major Brian “Jethro” Neal, a B-2 pilot, was giving his personal Christian testimony.

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WOW!!. Look what you and MRFF have done,

Mikey !!! BRAVO!!!
This one CLEARLY belongs to you!

YOU DID IT!!!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Contact: Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Christian Defense Coalition, 540-538-4741, 202-547-1735; Brandi Swindell, Director, Generation Life, 208-867-1307; Patti Syme, Director, The God and Country Rally, 208-573-9300

NAMPA, Idaho, July 3 /Christian Newswire/ -- This marks the first time in the 42 year history of the event that a flyover request was denied by the Pentagon.

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One thing we do here at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is to do a quick check on any military chaplain whose name shows up in the news for anything other than a routine reason. So, with the news this morning that President Obama had selected the chapel at Camp David as his church, we did our usual thing of checking to see if any big red flags popped up regarding the chapel's pastor, Lt. Carey Cash. Within minutes, we found Lt. Cash quoted as saying, "First we get the military, then we get the nation," a statement that, needless to say, we considered a big, giant red flag.

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Please Note: The commentary in this article is not meant to imply an endorsement of MRFF by MOAA.

‘To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards out
of men’ - Abraham Lincoln

On the Trail of an Email Personality

Of all the emails we receive on a daily basis, there is no more prolific subject than religion. While MOAA’s efforts to improve the quality of life for every member of the military, we do not get involved on the topic of faith. The Battle of the Bilge will only run email or web page analysis on religious topics when there is a direct military link, such as the bible burning incident in Afghanistan or the restrictions on speaking in uniform at faith based events. But for every topic that does involve the military, we receive dozens that do not. One of the most frequent names that appear in email forwards, in both scorn and praise, is Michael Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Battle of the Bilge tracked down Mikey, as he asked to be called, and had a long night time chat about the foundation, the troubles facing the military and his mission, which has turned his life upside down.

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Al Jazeera Special Report
Covers Advance of Fundamentalism
in US Military

A June 23, 2009 report from Al Jazeera (English) by Josh Rushing, "Fault Lines - Religion in the Military", expertly covers a topic the US media has been reluctant to address: an aggressive effort, often abusive, coercive and even illegal, to advance a heavily sectarian, supremacist form of Christianity in the United States military.

As I wrote back in May, the antics of disgraced former Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, and his retaliation against the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, after the two organizations issued a joint letter to the Chief of Naval Operations requesting an investigation of his use of his image in uniform to solicit funds for political causes, led MRFF to take a closer look at Klingenschmitt's endorser, the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (CFGC) and its leader, retired Army colonel Jim Ammerman. What we found was astounding, and led to a decision by MRFF to formally demand that Ammerman, whose agency provides the ecclesiastical endorsements required by the Department of Defense for over 270 military chaplains and chaplain candidates, be stripped of the authority granted to him and his organization by the DoD to endorse military chaplains.

Newsweek magazine reported this week that a civil rights watchdog group is accusing the military of using its presence in Muslim countries to spread Christianity among the population, a “serious” violation of military protocol. What implications are there for those people who suddenly see themselves staring at the cover of a Christian Bible and are pressured into believing in something they don’t? What actions should the military take, both at the command level and rank-and-file, to prevent this from happening?

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation was formed to address issues relating to proselytism (which is forbidden) in the U.S. military. Over the last few years, you may have read about the founder, Mikey Weinstein, in his battle over aggressive evangelism in the Air Force Academy. He is an alumnus of the Academy, himself – and was absolutely appalled by the anti-Semitic treatment his son was receiving there from evangelical Christians. That offensive treatment was not limited to Jews only – it was affecting everyone who was not an adherent of that particular, aggressive brand of evangelical Christianity.

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