Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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1. 

   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

2. 

   The defence of a Christian view never seems to be settled by debate: exchange of facts, reference to historical events.…

3. 

   But …… Rwanda is a safe place: Parliament says so.https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/8/contentsSafety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 S 2 Safety…

4. 

   Religion can survive only on the most unquestionable assumptions. The statements made on Sundays on the BBC as if they…

5. 

   Yes, if I’ve got anything remotely like a phobia, as an ex-fundy, its bibles, churches, tracts etc. I like to…

IN “an almost inconceivable” move, Ohio Republican congressman Mike Turner of Ohio, above, introduced legislation earlier this year to make it illegal for members of the U.S. military to communicate in any way with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Turner’s determination to completely neuter the MMRF —established to oppose the spread of religious intimidation by Christians in positions of power within the U.S. military—was highlighted in a report of a marine getting slighty injured as a result of being distracted by a “witnessing” Christian NCO during an active drill.

According to this Daily Kos report published yesterday (Thursday) a complaint lodged with the MMRF alleged that the NCO repeatedly told those under his command that he MUST “anoint” [his subordinates] in the “blood of Christ” or [they] will be “serving Satan” and that:

He does this even during live combat action training drills.

But if Turner gets his way, military personel will be in danger of being punished, even court-martialed, if they turn to the MMRF for help.

Turner’s legislation comes in the form of an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)—an amendment that was passed earlier this year in the GOP-led House Armed Services Committee.

Wiring for The Daily Kos, Chris Rodda, Senior Research Director for the MMRF, said:

Getting wind that some of the Marines in his unit were going to contact MRFF for help, the ‘witnessing’ senior NCO attempted to scare them into believing that it was illegal for them to contact MRFF and that they could be prosecuted under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) if they did so.

Referring to Turner’s amendment she said:

Yes, this is how scared the Christian nationalists are of MRFF’s success in fighting for the religious freedom of our service members and against the spread of Christian nationalism in our military. They now see the only way to try to stop us is to make us illegal for military personnel!

Image via YouTube

Another win for the MMRF

Image via YouTube

Fortunately, the complaint made to the MMRF by the marine and 21 others had a brilliant outcome after the organisation’s founder and President Mikey Weinstein, above, passed the complaint on to the commander two levels up from the “witnessing” NCO.

Within a matter of hours Weinstein received the following response:

This Marine whom you have identified to us has been temporarily suspended forthwith from further command responsibilities pending an immediate internal investigation I have initiated and possible follow on referral to NCIS and JAG for further review and action if necessitated.

Rodda pointed out that Turner’s amendment—which prohibits anyone in the military from taking “any action or make any decision as a result of any claim, objection, or protest made by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation without the authority of the Secretary of Defense”—would have made it illegal for this marine commander to take the action that he did to protect the constitutional rights, not to mention the safety, of the marines under his command. 

He added:

If Turner’s amendment is not removed in the final version of the NDAA when the conference committee, made up of both House and Senate members, meets in September, this will be the reality — service members across the military will have suffer all manner of religious discrimination, harassment, and aggressive “witnessing” and their commanders will be powerless to stop it. This is what Rep. Mike Turner and the other Christian nationalists and Christian supremacists want. 

If you haven’t done so already, please take a minute to submit our petition letter opposing Turner’s amendment to your representative and senators. Turner’s amendment must be stopped so that MRFF, as well as military commanders, can continue to protect the most basic constitutional rights of our men and women in uniform.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) as of January 2019, 70 percent of military personel identified as being Christian. In contrast, statistics gathered in the UK show that, as at April 1, 2023, 57.4 percent of the UK Regular Forces claimed to be Christian.

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