By Jason Leopold A couple of weeks ago, military command and staff officers at Creech Air Force base in Nevada circulated an e-mail at the request of the senior base chaplain to all personnel stationed at the facility, inviting them to attend a Bible study class in which the topic for discussion characterized Jews as [...]
By Chris Rodda Here we go again — the new session of Congress has just begun and another bill about military chaplains praying in Jesus’ name has already been introduced. On Jan. 7, Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-NC) introduced H.R. 268, a bill “To amend title 10, United States Code, to ensure that every military [...]
The U.S. Army’s suicide prevention manual advises military chaplains to promote “religiosity,” specifically Christianity, as a way to deter distraught soldiers from taking their own lives, according to an amended federal lawsuit filed last week against Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the Department of Defense. The 2008 Army Suicide Prevention Manual says “Chaplains… need [...]
Barack Obama’s decision to have the evangelical megachurch leader Rick Warren conduct the invocation at next month’s presidential inauguration suggests that fundamentalist Christians still wield enormous power within the federal government and will likely continue to be a dominating force under an Obama administration. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the U.S. military where, [...]
The parents of a Fort Benning Army soldier who was brutally beaten by other soldiers two months ago in what appeared to be a case of anti-Semitism are upset that criminal charges were not leveled against the individuals responsible for the attack. Moreover, Randi and Jonathan Handman criticized the director of the southeast chapter of [...]
Some members of the Jewish community are calling for the immediate removal of a retired Navy captain who represents the interests of Jewish soldiers at Fort Benning, Georgia Army base that they said made light of anti-Semitic attacks on a soldier. Three weeks ago, Pvt. Michael Handman, 20, was lured into a laundry room at [...]
A U.S. Army soldier was brutally beaten by other soldiers in his platoon earlier this month following two incidents in which a drill sergeants allegedly used anti-Semitic slurs to address the soldier. Pvt. Michael Handman, 20, who has just completed his fifth week of basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, was recently released from a [...]
This story was updated on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008. The U.S. Army has been subjecting soldiers to fundamentalist Christian prayer ceremonies against their will during mandatory military events in violation of their basic constitutional rights, according to a new lawsuit filed against Secretary of Defense Robert Gates by a U.S. Army soldier. On at least [...]
The California Council of Churches IMPACT (CCCI), one of the country’s largest Christian organizations, announced Friday, September 5th, 2008 that it endorses the charitable mission of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) to preserve the separation of church and state in America’s armed forces. CCCI intends to support the Federal lawsuit filed against the Department [...]
As a result of the exposure by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) of endorsements by Gen. Petraeus and Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling on the cover of Under Orders: A Spiritual Handbook for Military Personnel — a book promoting Christianity and denigrating non-theists — it appears that these endorsements are going to be removed from [...]
