Freedom of Religion in The Military is At Risk

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Sunsilver
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Freedom of Religion in The Military is At Risk

Post by Sunsilver »

I just became aware of this through a FB friend who is Jewish. Military recruits and most military personnel are being subjected to unwanted proselytization by right-wing Christians. The militant right wing has such a pervasive influence that being a non-Christian is becoming a barrier to to taking officer training, and non-Christians, Muslims, and of course, LGBT personnel are being subjected to considerable harassment.
In October 2014, MRFF exposed Army ROTC program’s unconstitutional restrictions against non-Christians.[36] An active duty U.S. Army officer informed MRFF that a list of available “broadening assignments” (i.e. assignments available to captains who have completed their required course and stint as a company commander) contained a listing for the position of Assistant Professor of Military Science for the ROTC program at Wheaton College which required that applicants “Must Be Of Christian Faith,” a violation of Article VI, Clause 3 of the Constitution, which states: "No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
Most disturbing of all is this:
The United States Air Force, in response to the pressure caused by the release of internal training material via a Freedom of Information Act request, revised the ethical indoctrination course material to which nuclear missile launch officers were exposed as a standard component of their training. The course was defended by a spokesman for the Air Force's Air Education and Training Command as a means towards "[helping] folks understand why we're doing what we're doing. In the missile launch industry, it takes a certain mindset to be able to walk in the door and say, yes, I can do that".[28] Included in the course is a PowerPoint presentation Who Are You When No One Is Looking: Five Ethical Principles For Service To The Air Force, a presentation which reveals a Christian militarist perspective and which heavily quotes Judeo-Christian scripture and contains a synopsis of the Just War Theory of St. Augustine of Hippo. Controversially, the PowerPoint also contains a slide excerpting the words of former Nazi Party member, SS Sturmbannführer, aerospace engineer and rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun, who is quoted as stating: "We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon [the ballistic missile] to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world best be secured," in reference to his 1945 surrender to American occupation forces and subsequent recruitment by the United States Office of Strategic Services via Operation Paperclip.[29] MRFF client and missile officer training attendee Damon Bosetti recounted to the media that he and his Air Force colleagues would refer to the religious portion of the ethics training course as the, "Jesus loves nukes speech."[28] In September 2011, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) encouraged the Air Force to resume the class.[30]
Also, this:
In October 2013, MRFF exposed close ties between dominionist groups meeting with DoD officials and fundamentalist leader calling for military takeover of U.S. Government. On October 3, 2013, MRFF Senior Research Director Chris Rodda reported in the Huffington Post[33] and DailyKos on the extremely close ties between the Restore Military Religious Freedom (RMRF) coalition, RMRF coalition member the Family Research Council, and Rick Joyner, the head of MorningStar Ministries/Heritage International Ministries who proposed a “military takeover” of the U.S. Government on September 30, 2013. Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. “Jerry” Boykin, who serves as the Family Research Council’s Executive Vice President, appeared on Rick Joyner’s Prophetic Perspectives on Current Events for four of the five episodes in the week leading up to his September 30 proposal for a military takeover of the government. MRFF is working to uncover additional information regarding the relationship between these religious dominionist leaders and Department of Defense officials with a FOIA request filed on September 23, 2013 regarding a meeting on September 12 of the previous year between representatives of the RMRF and the DoD.
This is especially disturbing in light of the Jan. 6th investigation, which has shown many of the insurrectionists had military backgrounds. :(

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_ ... Foundation

The founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, Mike Weinstein, has had so many death threats made against him that he has had to hire security to protect himself and his disabled wife. :shock: :(
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
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