(Image by Brett Davis / CC)
The Founding Myth and Christian Nationalism Intersect
By Zoe Sullivan
“I contend that America is a religion…Our religious symbols are guns and dollar bills. We hold those symbols to be sacred,” the Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simmons told me on inauguration day. We were discussing the role religion played in the January 6th insurrection. Jordan-Simmons runs Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), which focuses on overcoming social injustice through interfaith efforts that embrace active non-violence.
“One does not have to be a Christian to be a white supremacist,” she went on. “And I would dare say that those who were among that crowd on January 6th had a lot in common. And though you saw the flag, the Christian flag, and you saw the cross, there was a lot more for people to bond over. They’d have had everything to do with what it meant to be American and what it meant to be white.”
An Ohio Army National Guard lieutenant s application to be a military chaplain has been suspended while officials investigate allegations against him.
Lt. Chris Boyd, of Montpelier in northwestern Ohio, used Facebook to post criticisms of military leadership, according to screenshots provided by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.
The foundation, a civil rights organization that was alerted to Boyd’s posts by an anonymous Army captain, sent a letter to Ohio Adjutant General John C. Harris asking for an investigation of Boyd on Friday afternoon.
Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said Monday afternoon that he had not yet received a response to the letter to Harris office.
The struggle for religious freedom â from Thomas Jefferson to Black Lives Matter
Out of America s paradoxical history of religious liberty comes a great push for Black freedom and racial justice
January 23, 2021 5:08PM (UTC)
Thomas Jefferson | Black Lives Matter Plaza poster is seen on a building on the 16th Street NW next to the St. John s Episcopal Church (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)
UPDATE:
The question has arisen as to whether the Air Force will take steps to recall Larry Brock to active duty for the purposes of court martial. So we asked, and got this comment from an Air Force spokesperson: Lt. Col. (Ret) Larry R. Brock, Jr., retired from the Air Force Reserves in 2014. Since the Department of Justice has exercised federal jurisdiction over this case, they have the lead.
UPDATE:
Lawrence Guzman Romo, American GI Forum National Commander and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, issued a letter on Jan. 13 to Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Richard Clark and Vice Superintendent Col. Otis Jones, expressing shock by the actions of Larry Brock Jr., a 1989 Air Force Academy grad seen amid the violent protests Jan. 6 at the nation s capitol.
Editorial: Headstones didn t inform; they insulted
Express-News Editorial Board
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Headstones bearing Nazi swastikas are not worth keeping.
Their recent removal from Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery should be celebrated. The event should have been broadcast far and wide to raise awareness about the horrors of the Holocaust, the genocide of 6 million Jewish people and the murder of millions of others under the Nazi regime. This was a teachable moment. Never again.
Instead, the removal and replacement of two headstones for German prisoners of war Alfred P. Kafka and Georg Forst was a stunningly quiet moment, even if it was a welcome about-face from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The removal was chronicled by Express-News reporter Sig Christenson thanks to a tipster, not a formal announcement or press briefing.