General Julie Bentz Prays for Her Troops, so Mikey Weinstein Wants Her Fired

US Army MajGen Julie Bentz is the vice director of the Joint Improvised Threat Defeat Organization. She was also recently the keynote speaker of the 56th annual Kansas Prayer Breakfast held on March 15th.

That’s why Michael “Mikey” Weinstein wants her fired.

Advocates for religious freedom [sic] say a two-star general violated the U.S. Constitution and endangered troops when she told those gathered at a prayer breakfast about her “greatest privilege.”…

Weinstein is calling for an investigation and said Bentz should be removed from her position.

How did Gen Bentz violate the Constitution? Weinstein quotes thusly [emphasis his]:

My greatest privilege is standing in front of my king and my God, carrying every member of my organization to his throne and asking for his protection, his mercy, his love on each of them and their families and whatever are their concerns and burdens of the day. That is what I have come to believe is the essence of leadership.”

Pedro Irigonegaray, a longtime MRFF supporter and Kansas attorney, used a bit of logical fallacy in focusing on Gen Bentz’s phrase:

Irigonegaray said he was frustrated by Bentz’s remarks and asked how the community, or the crowd she was speaking to, would have responded if she had talked about carrying her troops to Allah.

The only question remaining is whether Weinstein, Irigonegaray, and the MRFF really are that thickheaded, or they’re playing the part for money and attention.

As is obvious to the casual observer who listens to the rest of Gen Bentz’s sentence, she

stand[s] in front of my king and my God…asking for his protection, his mercy, his love on each of them and their families and whatever are their concerns and burdens of the day.

Gen Bentz prays for her troops.

It would take a special kind of fool to think that was remotely questionable, much less a violation of the US Constitution.

But wait, there’s more:

By Friday morning, Weinstein had found at least three other instances dating to 2011 in which Bentz said she relied on faith as a leader.

The only scandal there is there weren’t more instances. Every Christian relies on their faith, whether as a leader, follower, CEO, or mail room clerk.  That Gen Bentz should say so is unsurprising.  It is also unsurprising the US military finds it completely permissible, as demonstrated by its decision to rebuff Mikey Weinstein’s attacks on LtCol Michael KerstenLtGen Steven Kwast, and USAFA Cadet Jake Watkins, among others, for doing the same thing.

All Weinstein has done is prove he thinks military Christians aren’t allowed to say they’re Christians. How’s that “religious freedom” thing work again, Mikey?

But wait, there’s more:

Saying “it’s her job to bring everybody to Christ,” [Weinstein] said, is a “vicious violation” of the U.S. Constitution.

Mikey Weinstein might be outright lying, since he provides no evidence Gen Bentz ever said that. If she had said that, it wouldn’t be a violation of the US Constitution, “vicious” or otherwise. Weinstein, who has a law degree from McGeorge School of Law, apparently missed the day they taught that the United States does not have thought crimes.

Besides, with some allowance for denominational nuance, every Christian believes their ultimate job is to “bring everybody to Christ.” When was the last time a Christian was kicked out of the military or tossed in jail for having this core belief? It would seem Mikey Weinstein is the only person who thinks this is a crime.

For his part, Irigonegaray served the role of MRFF shark-jumper, essentially saying Gen Bentz’s prayer breakfast speech had endangered US troops.

This is potentially the longest stretch Mikey Weinstein has made in recent memory in an attempt to stamp out religious freedom in the US military. If nothing else, Weinstein has given the military a setup for an easy win for its troops’ liberty.

Mikey Weinstein must be getting desperate.

As an aside, the Capital-Journal deserves kudos for extensively quoting Weinstein’s multiple alliterative adjectives, letting the public get a peek into the spittle flinging invective standard for Mikey Weinstein’s soliloquies.

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4 comments

  • Mikey is an idiot, I wonder what his scores were in law school on the First Amendment, maybe he should have gone back and retake that course.

  • I don’t think the quote from the lawyer is thickheaded. I think if you found out a Muslim officer (yes, they exist) was praying to Allah and hinting at policy decisions based on the Quran you’d be losing your minds.

    • @Andrew

      …and hinting at policy decisions based on the Quran

      You’ve created a strawman. What you meant to say was

      …praying to Allah and saying he relied on his faith as a leader.

      No minds would be lost. It would be what any reasonable person would expect.
      Are you reasonable?

  • There IS a faith-based military organization where policy decisions are based on a Holy Book and EVERYONE relies on their faith to tell them how to be leaders and good soldiers, and it’s called ISIS. We’re NOT them, because we take the moral highground… and if you look into it, the moral highground is something very different than just OUR Holy Book being the True one.