In a post thick with irony, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein took to the internet last week to decry the “extremist” Franklin Graham who “personally targeted” him. The context was Weinstein’s attack on the pre-game prayers by US Air Force Academy cadets, which Weinstein has called “putrid” and illegal. When Graham responded, Weinstein said [emphasis added]:

Well-funded Christian fundamentalist organizations are using social media to attack MRFF!…

Extremist Christian preacher Franklin Graham personally targeted me and our Military Religious Freedom Foundation, asking followers to support and encourage actions meant to undermine our Constitutional rights.

(Said the well-funded anti-Christian organization that uses social media to attack others…) What was it that Franklin Graham said that Weinstein so feared? From Graham’s official Facebook page [emphasis added]:

Atheist Mikey Weinstein and his ironically named Military Religious Freedom Foundation is now picking on the US Air Force Academy…football team!…Since when is voluntary prayer scandalous or putrid?…I call this a foul! Join me in praying that the religious freedoms of these young men will not be taken away as a result of one bitter person bent on removing God and His Son Jesus Christ from everything in this country. America owes its blessings to Almighty God—and our founding fathers knew that.

Pray that the Falcons will be allowed to continue their voluntary time of prayer—and let them know your support and encouragement in the comments below.

So let’s get this straight:

The only “personal” text in the Graham post is describing Weinstein as “bitter” and an “atheist.” That’s hardly “target[ing],” but Weinstein has never been one to avoid sensationalism. (To add more context, Weinstein has called Franklin Graham a bigot and “scourge” who has contributed to the deaths of US troops.)

More importantly, the “actions [that] undermine our Constitutional rights” that Weinstein claimed Graham was “encourag[ing]” were… prayer. Voluntary, silent prayers by individuals.

Weinstein seriously thinks other people praying “undermines” his consitutional rights and should be banned in America?

In point of fact, he does. Mikey Weinstein thinks he should be the one to determine the fundamental rights and liberties of Christians, and he has decided that if Christians pray, they’re violating his rights.

If that sounds too far from reality, what it really boils down to is mere Facebook envy.

Mikey Weinstein has just under 4,000 Facebook “likes” on his personal page. Franklin Graham has just over 3 million.

If Weinstein’s Facebook posts get more than a dozen comments, its because a relatively rare dissenter has entered the page to voice their opinion.

Graham’s post received more than nearly 20 thousand comments.

So its partly ego: Mikey Weinstein is simply bothered that someone else (particularly someone he so despises) is getting more attention than he, and that the “massive” amount of attention is in opposition to his cause.

It’s also partly role-playing the “repressed” victim for the benefit of his contributors — or, more accurately, for the benefit of his bottom line. By playing the martyr and encouraging his acolytes to engage on social media Mikey Weinstein may win a few more donors to his “charity” — his self-founded charity whose largest expense is Mikey Weinstein’s own quarter-million dollar paycheck. (The irony meter pegged when Weinstein’s supporters started questioning Graham’s paycheck.)

Contrary to the beliefs of some adolescents, one’s personal value is not measured in terms of Facebook “likes.” (In full disclosure, ChristianFighterPilot.com has even fewer, though most follow the page itself and do so discreetly.) Mikey Weinstein’s ego, though, is fairly fragile, and he rarely passes up an opportunity for public exposure.

Still, it kind of makes you wonder. If Facebook is any indicator, nearly 4,000 people “like” Mikey Weinstein’s bigoted attacks on military religious freedom. If nothing else, it proves even an extremist in America can find a few like-minded followers.

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