Military Religious Freedom Foundation wants to take right away?

Why do they forget this part of the First Amendment?

Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

If no one is forced, then they should not try to take rights away from people. The only time I think this group is right is when the military forces anyone in matters of their faith.

Group calls for DoD to withdraw from Prayer Day event
Army Times
By Leo Shane III
Staff writer
April 17, 2014

Military Religious Freedom Foundation Mikey Weinstein said senior Pentagon civilians and officers have complained to his group about military participation in a National Day of Prayer event on Capitol Hill.
(Courtesy of Mikey Weinstein)

Longtime critics of Christian conservatives’ influence in military culture are demanding the Pentagon back away from involvement in a National Day of Prayer event on Capitol Hill next month, saying it’s a thinly veiled rally for far-right fundamentalists.

In a letter to military leaders and the White House, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is asking officials not to provide speakers or ceremonial support for the event, which they argue would show favoritism and endorsement of evangelical Christians.

“The planned participation by uniformed U.S. military personnel in this private fundamentalist Christian religious event, run by a non-federal entity, is an unequivocally clear violation of [a] plethora of DoD regulations and instructions,” the letter states. “The U.S. military absolutely cannot endorse these searingly sectarian events by its public participation in them.”
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Chaplain casualty-care video game draws fire

Oh my God how much more are they going to keep getting wrong? They are right here in Orlando on top of everything else!

Chaplain casualty-care video game draws fire
By Michael Peck
Posted : Wednesday Feb 13, 2013

An Army computer game to train military chaplains may bring judicial rather than divine intervention. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is vowing to stop the project, and possibly file a lawsuit in federal court.

The simulation, tentatively named Spiritual Triage, is being created for the Army’s Chaplain Center and School at Fort Jackson, S.C., but the school doesn’t want it.

“The school still hasn’t made any requests for the simulation, nor does it intend to at this point,” said spokeswoman Julia Simpkins.

Spiritual Triage is beginning development at the Army’s Simulation and Training Technology Center, which awarded the contract to Orlando, Fla.-based Engineering and Computer Simulations. Scheduled to be completed by September, Spiritual Triage is intended to expose chaplains and chaplain assistants to stressful situations such as ministering to dying soldiers.

“Non-player characters are used to elicit feelings and conditions that one may encounter, such as fear of death and dying, faith, guilt, separation, despair, grief, as well as physical trauma such as pain, burns, amputations, and disfigurement, to name only a few,” according to the ECS website.
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Fort Gordon: Soldiers Not Forced to Aid Churches

Fort Gordon: Soldiers Not Forced to Aid Churches
Jul 19, 2012
The Augusta Chronicle, Ga.

Fort Gordon officials said Wednesday they do not compel soldiers to do charity work for churches.

The question was raised when a national organization, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, complained about soldiers assisting Catholic Social Services.

The group, which has also raised questions about the Augusta Mayor's Office and church prayer breakfasts, released a statement this week saying it had pressured the fort to stop the practice.

"The Freedom From Religion Foundation has stopped a violation in which soldiers were being forced to mow Catholic Charities' lawn," the Tuesday press release stated.

"FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel drafted and sent a letter on July 5 on behalf of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and also signed by American Atheists, objecting to using U.S. soldiers to support Catholic Social Services of Augusta. The Regimental Noncommissioned Officer Academy's Advanced Leader Course (ALC) at Fort Gordon, Ga., ordered soldiers to 'provide area beautification support to the Catholic Social Services.'
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3-star Air Force General ripped for presentation referencing God

3-star ripped for presentation referencing God
By Markeshia Ricks - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 17, 2012

Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins, the new head of the Defense Information Systems Agency, is under fire for a commander’s call Wednesday that included references to God. But Hawkins, who just took over the directorship of DISA in January, said his presentation has been taken out of context.

As part of an all-hands meeting with DISA employees, Hawkins apparently showed a power point presentation that contained two slides titled “Ronnie’s Rules” that outline 18 priorites, the first and last of which are “Always put God first, and stay within His will” and “Always remember God is good — all the time!”

Hawkins said in a response to a query from Air Force Times that he stated at the all-hands meeting that “Ronnie’s Rules” were his personal road map for living and he has used it since he was a captain. He said he tries to live by these rules every day.

“Those two slides, in particular ...were in no way a directive or expectation I have for our dedicated men and women,” said Hawkins, who previously served as deputy director of command control, communications and computer systems, Joint Staff at the Pentagon. “The rules are my own personal guide posts, or moral compass.”

Linked from Stars and Stripes
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Fight over crosses at Camp Pendleton Goes on

Army tells Sikh officers to change appearance

Army tells Sikh officers to change appearance

Torn between their Sikh faith and their military duty, two soldiers are fighting Army policy that requires them to shave their beards, cut their hair and remove their turbans.

Kalsi, a doctor trained in emergency medicine, and 2nd Lt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan, a dentist, were first recruited for the Army’s Health Professions Scholarship Program. Kalsi said the recruiters with the Army Medical Corps gave assurances that wearing a beard and turban — mandatory articles of the Sikh faith — would not be a problem. And during several years of graduate school and medical training, Kalsi and Rattan both said their beards and turbans drew no concerns.
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Lawsuit on religion in military expanded

They all serve equally. They all wear the same uniform, serve under the same commander, the same flag but we forget that while they act as a unit, a family, they are also very different. Different backgrounds, different lives and different thoughts. Along with their individuality, there is also different beliefs. They need to be treated as their faith is a private matter just as if they marry or not is a private matter. It has nothing to do with their duty or their skills. No one should ever decide the faith of someone else or force it upon them. When they do, especially when it comes to the men and women serving this nation, it deludes the reason they serve. Religious freedom should be held highly but too many find no problem with this line being crossed.

Lawsuit on religion in military expanded
By John Hanna - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Dec 29, 2008 18:29:13 EST

TOPEKA, Kan. — A newly expanded federal lawsuit alleged Monday that the military doesn’t take complaints of religious discrimination seriously enough and allows personnel to try to convert Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan to Christianity.

The Military Religions Freedom Foundation and a Fort Riley, Kan., soldier suing Defense Secretary Robert Gates now allege that a bias toward evangelical Christianity pervades even the Army’s suicide prevention manual and the Air Force’s sponsorship of an evangelical motocross ministry.

The Defense Department said complaints about religious discrimination are relatively few and pointed to military policies against endorsing any religious view.

Spc. Dustin Chalker and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation filed their amended lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan. They filed the original lawsuit in September.

Chalker, a combat medic, is an atheist whose original complaints included being forced to attend military formations where Christian prayers were given. The foundation, based in Albuquerque, N.M., says it represents about 11,000 military personnel, almost all of them Christians upset about what they view as discrimination by more conservative and evangelical personnel. click link above for more

Endorsing or enforcing faith within the military?

Is this endorsing or enforcing faith within the military? Big difference and both are wrong. I keep addressing the fact that there is much to be debated even within branches of the Christian faith, yet one is being pushed over all others. This is not just about pushing Christianity on the troops, which also insults the other faiths in the military, it insults the core of the individual.

There are many atheists, agnostics, you name it and they are still good people. There is a long list of reasons why a person does not believe in God or a Higher power or any other choice of faith and it is not up to us to tell them they have to belong to any of them in order to be a "good soldier" or even a good citizen.

I am a chaplain, not a member of the military and I have never served. I just married into it and was raised with it. I have also invested a lot of time in my faith. The point is, it's "my" faith. There are people who are truly blessed and comforted by their faith and that's a wonderful thing.

When the mind, body and spirit are all addressed when trying to heal PTSD, miracles happen. It does not matter what faith it is as long as there is a reconnection to it. Even those who have no particular faith at all are finding that their spiritual connection to something they always held helps. But this book is not about healing the individual according to their own faith. It's saying point blank that if someone is not a "believer" they are damaging the troops. For the General in charge to endorse this book, it slaps the troops in the face. Not only was it a mistake for him to endorse this book, it was wrong to top that off with pushing it. Faith is up to the person and their connection to God under the faith they believe in or not believing at all. It's up to them.

General Petraeus' Endorsement of Religious Book Draws Fire

Bryant Jourdan


Military.com

Aug 21, 2008
August 20, 2008 - Gen. David Petraeus is used to controversy surrounding the war in Iraq, but his publicized thoughts on an Army chaplain's book for Soldiers put him squarely in the middle of the ongoing conflict over religious proselytizing in the U.S. military.

The book is "Under Orders: A Spiritual Handbook for Military Personnel," by Army Chaplain (Lt. Col.) William McCoy, and according to Petraeus' published endorsement of the work, "it should be in every rucksack for those times when soldiers need spiritual energy."

But the endorsement - which has spurred a demand by a watchdog group for Petraeus' dismissal and court martial on the grounds of establishing a religious requirement on troops - was a personal view never intended for publication, the book's author now says.

"In the process of securing … comments for recommending the book I believe there was a basic misunderstanding on my part that the comments were publishable," McCoy said in an Aug. 19 email to Military.com. "This was my mistake."

In addition to Petraeus, Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling also is quoted plugging the book in press releases and advertisements and on the jacket.

"General Petraeus has, by his own hand, become a quintessential poster child of this fundamentalist Christian religious predation, via his unadulterated and shocking public endorsement of a book touting both Christian supremacy and exceptionalism," Weinstein told Military.com Aug. 16.

And by endorsing a book that argues only those who believe in God can fully contribute to the military mission or unit, Weinstein contends that Petraeus insults ""the integrity, character and veracity of approximately 21 percent of our armed forces members who choose not to follow any particular religious faith."
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http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/10970