Mikey Weinstein Complains about USAFA Football Coach. Air Force Yawns.

UPDATE: While Weinstein’s original complaint was almost completely ignored, a wide variety of sites has picked up on USAFA’s decision to ignore Weinstein.  One site pointed out Weinstein was violating his own organization’s mission statement — leading one to wonder if his Board of Directors should sanction him.

For his part, Mikey Weinstein is now awkwardly spinning this incident to claim it is an MRFF “victory,” despite the fact he previously called the USAFA response “bulls–t” when it didn’t bow — and still hasn’t bowed — to his demands.  It would seem not doing what Weinstein wants is also an MRFF “victory,” meaning Weinstein can never lose…


As discussed last week, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein demanded an investigation of Air Force tight ends football coach Steed Lobotzke because he “tweeted” Bible verses.

The Air Force responded with a collective yawn [emphasis added]:

All athletic coaches’ social media accounts are personal and not maintained by the Air Force Academy Athletic Department. The views and comments within these accounts are personal and not the views of the Air Force Academy or Air Force. However, we appreciate that the accounts could appear official and have advised that an appropriate disclaimer be included to avoid confusion in this regard.

The Academy remains committed to protecting individuals’ right to practice any religion they choose, or no religion, provided their practices do not violate policy or law, or impede mission accomplishment, military readiness, unit cohesion, standards or discipline.

In response, Mikey Weinstein issued an impotent statement saying

there will be a lot more to come on this.

Coming from a man for whom “follow through” is a term he only learned on the Golf Channel, the Air Force doesn’t have much to worry about.

wein8xConsider the magnitude of hatred that must drive such sheer idiocy. Mikey Weinstein appears to sincerely believe — or at least wants to believe — it is an “illegal action” for a positions coach on the USAFA football team to quote the Bible on social media.

Fortunately, the rights and liberties Mikey Weinstein would attack are protected in America by our venerated US Constitution.

Though he’s paid himself nearly $2 million from his personal charity, Weinstein didn’t even bother to file the complaint himself. Rather, he had his (presumably also well-paid) lawyer Donald Rehkopf file an IG complaint that was comical in its citation of “facts.” Rehkopf cited two primary sources for the “facts relevant to this complaint”: a CSIndy blog by Pam Zubeck, which was fed by information provided by Mikey Weinstein, and another internet site that essentially just repeated that report. [Update: Apparently aware their site was being used as evidence to attack USAFA, the Gospel Herald deleted their article.]  In other words, Weinstein is creating internet stories and then using the existence of those internet stories as justification for an IG complaint.

When your case doesn’t have enough “facts,” just create your own, eh?

lobotzkeusafaWeinstein’s hatred is so thick it apparently blinded him to a couple of fundamental facts. Primarily, Weinstein attorney Donald Rehkopf cites regulation after regulation governing the conduct of government employees… apparently blissfully unaware of the fact Coach Steed Lobotzke isn’t a government employee.

USAFA football coaches are contractors hired by the non-profit Air Force Athletic Association. In fact, their contracts specifically say they’re not government employees.

Oops.

Even if Coach Lobotzke had been considered an Air Force employee, there would be this gem from the Military Commander and the Law just recently released [emphasis added]:

Generally, the Air Force views personal web sites and weblogs positively, and it respects the right of Airmen to use them as a medium of self-expression, including religious expression, even if their status as Air Force members is apparent.

Mikey Weinstein’s crotchety get-off-my-lawn attitude toward Christians, Christianity, and the Bible that is driving these lunatic complaints is pretty pathetic. While sad, at least it is recognizable for the bigoted vitriol that it is.

The Air Force Academy’s response was commendable. USAFA chose its words and actions carefully, likely because it understood the impact of the contractor relationship — something Mikey Weinstein did not. The statement also comes very close to affirming the virtue of the freedom to post Bible verses on social media — probably because USAFA PA likely recognizes how the public will view the benign behavior Weinstein is attacking.

It’s a small, almost imperceptible step. But we’re gradually working toward a time when the Air Force will affirm the virtue of faith — even the Christian faith — within the military environment. At some point, these attacks on religious liberty will become so base, so militant that the military will be forced to defend the good in its troops’ religious faith.

And we’ll have Michael “Mikey” Weinstein to thank for driving the military to take such a principled stand.

Keep it up, Mikey.  We’re almost there.

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2 comments

  • Anonymous Patriot

    It will be completely lost on Mikey Weinstein, and his followers, that his reactionary rhetoric to Christians is a big factor in why Donald Trump got elected.

  • We pray for our enemy Mikey Weinstein that Jesus would intervene in his life
    and Mikey would come to know the reality of Christ Jesus the Messiah, in Jesus name amen.