Thoughts in a Haystack

This is more in the territory of Ed Brayton but the latest explosions of wingnut heads lighting up the night sky have to do with the impending courts martial of evangelical Christians in the military.

It will come as no surprise that it is, to put it charitably, bullhockey!

Warren Throckmorton is a Professor of Psychology at Grove City College (a Christian school where Guillermo Gonzalez wound up after he was [snicker] Expelled) who has in the past dismantled David Barton's crap, correctly, if inadvertently, titled The Jefferson Lies.

Throckmorton is all over the story:

Is the Military Preparing to Court Martial Christians? (UPDATED)

On the Military and Religious Proselytizing: Military Spokesman's Original Comments Used Out of Context

The Military's Policy on Proselytizing Is Not New and Is Consistent with Federal Law

Air Force Statement on Religious Proselytizing and Religious Materials on Desks

The short version is this: Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation had a meeting with the Air Force Judge Advocate General (the Air Force's top lawyer) to discuss the problem of military commanders using their positions to coerce those under their command to participate in religious functions that violate their subordinate's freedom of conscience. (See Ed's Blog generally on that point.)

Weinstein apparently said "Until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior."

Faux News faux pundit, Todd Starnes, then apparently asked a military spokes-person about such courts martials, who, correctly, replied on that point::

Court[s] martials and non-judicial punishment are decided on case-by-case basis and it would be inappropriate to speculate on the outcome in specific cases.

Typically for wingnuts, that was changed to "Pentagon May Court Martial Soldiers Who Share Christian Faith."

In short, it is another in a long line of wingnut manufactroversies.

Oh, look ... the pretty lights in the sky ...