Hassles Continue for Mikey Weinstein
By Christopher Blackwell

Sometimes standing up and doing the right thing can be more that a bit of a nuisance. Mikey Weinstein took on the Air Force Academy when his son reported harassment for being Jewish. Further investigation by Weinstein revealed that non-Christian cadets were routinely evangelized by other cadets, the Air Force officers running the Academy and evangelical chaplains that made up the clear majority of the ministry at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Weinstein is the middle of a three-generation family tie to the military. He was a former Air Force JAG and White House attorney for Ronald Reagan. He has become a vocal opponent of the military pressing evangelical Christianity onto its members.

On Nov. 20, Mother Jones reported he said, "We have the Christian Taliban and the Christian Al Qaeda inside our military."

Weinstein is certain that the right-wing Christians will stop at nothing to transform the U.S. Military into an army of God. For instance, there is the Officers Christian Fellowship, with chapters in every major U.S. military installation in the world, and he quotes its mission statement - to create a "spiritually transformed military, with ambassadors of Christ in uniform, empowered by the Holy Spirit." He points out it has boosted evangelical Christian presence in the military from a negligible presence 20 years ago to 30% today.

Uncovering a plan by the Pentagon to ship "freedom packages" to soldiers in Iraq that were to contain Bibles, proselytizing material in English and Arabic and Left Behind: Eternal Forces video games, Weinstein was able to help stop those packages from being sent.

Our newsletter first ran across the story of Weinstein in researching the scandal that erupted at the Air Force Academy over religious discrimination back in 2005. The Academy is right across the interstate from the Focus on the Family Headquarters and the Academy had close ties with that institution over the last several years.

The case started when cadets, and a chaplain at the academy, stated that there was a pattern of religious intolerance to anyone not Christian. Non-Christians were made to march in what was called a Pagan wing. Chaplains evangelized and encouraged their cadet church members to do the same and officers and teachers in the school routinely included religious messages in their speeches and e-mail. Employees were encouraged to buy religious advertisements in the school paper.

The coach of the academy's football team even hung a banner in the locker room stating they were part of “Team Jesus” and held prayers before and after games. Students were taught their loyalty was first to the Christian god, then their country and their family. This goes against the standard military pledge to defend the Constitution of the United States from enemies foreign and domestic. Needless to say all this evangelism made plain to non-Christians that they were not behaving as proper team members.

Ever since taking a stand against open religious harassment at the Academy, he has been under attack in the suburbs of Albuquerque, New Mexico. His home’s picture window has been shot out twice. Dead animals have been found on his front porch and animal feces smeared on his walls. His tires have been slashed many times. Men have phoned threatening his daughter. Women chant rhymes about shooting him in the head, and small children tell him he will burn in Hell.

Things remain serious enough for him to have a permanent ex-Marine security guard. All this just because he demanded that the Air Force give fair treatment to people of all beliefs and those with no religious beliefs.

While he had experienced some anti-Semite notes when he had been a cadet at the Academy, it had become much worse when his son,Curtis, entered the Academy in 2003. By then Colorado Springs had become a virtual Vatican of the Religious Right for its concentration of evangelicals. During a football game a classmate reportedly asked Curtis "How does it feel to know that you killed Jesus Christ?"

Weinstein founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and launched the first suit against the Air Force. On Oct. 10, 2005, CBS News reported the suit asked the Secretary of the Air Force to prohibit its members, including its chaplains from evangelizing, proselytizing or in any related way attempt to involuntarily convert, pressure, exhort, or persuade a fellow member of the Air Force to accept their own religious beliefs while on duty.

In that same broadcast Weinstein was quoted as saying that, "My problem is not with Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity or even evangelical Christianity. It's that whenever a religion- in this case a group of people- tries to engage the machinery of state, it is constitutionally repugnant and violative."

Mikey Weinstein had tried to work out the problem with the academy's leadership. After complete disinterest from the generals, he launched his foundation in 2005. It now has 25 full-time workers.

His agitation caused an Air force investigation of the Colorado Springs institution. The academy created mandatory training sessions on religious sensitivity, a cadet interfaith council, and a religious pamphlet for commanders.

Still, Weinstein says it spawned a generation of Air Force officers who are evangelical Christians and promote their faith with impunity. So the fight to stop religious indoctrination by officers continues. He doesn't believe the evangelicals will ever become more religiously tolerant and says the Constitution is the only weapon that can be used against them.

Weinstein has gotten over 6,000 complaints from soldiers that claim to have been persecuted by Christian evangelicals, 95% coming from mainstream Christians. Tipsters helped expose uniformed military officers publicly endorsing an evangelical study group and he has ferreted out an anti-Semitic Bible study group on one Army base website.

In his most recent lawsuit against the Department of Defense he leads off with the case of U.S. Army Specialist Jeremy Hall who alleges a major threatened to block his re-enlistment in retaliation for organizing a meeting of atheists.

Weinstein is not going to give up.

On Sept. 30, the Albuquerque Journal reported him saying, "We're not going to stop what we're doing," he said. "It was Arthur Ashe who said you reach a point in your life where going for it is more important than winning or losing."

----------------------------Editor's Note:--------------------------------------

For new readers who would like to see our in-depth coverage of the original Air Force Academy religious persecution scandal and Weinstein's original advocacy, you can get PDF copies of these past issues at:

http://aren.org/newsletter/send.html

Beltane 2005

Article page 11

RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS AT AIR FORCE ACADEMY

[Background of Academy problem]

ACTION Summer 2005

Article page 10

AIR FORCE ACADEMY NEW RELIGIOUS SENSITIVITY PROGRAM MAY ALREADY BE WATERED DOWN.

[Attempted solution watered down, Weinstein first mentioned, and Chaplain who created program fired]

ACTION Lamas 2005

Article page 7

AIR FORCE ACADEMY CASE CONTINUES FORWARD

ACTION Ostara 2006

Article page 7

AIR FORCE WATERS DOWN ITS POLICY ON FAITH

[Includes Weinstein's law suit]