Religious groups who endorse US military chaplains have asked the US military for “equal time” after they hosted religious liberty critic Michael Weinstein at the Pentagon.  Said retired Chaplain (Col) Ron Crews, of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty:

Crews says if the Air Force wants to be serious about religious liberty, its sole and exclusive meeting should not be with a man who calls religious service members “spiritual rapists” or “human monsters.”

“[Mikey Weinstein] is not the person to talk about religious liberty,” he states. “So we’re asking for a meeting with senior Air Force officials to [request that] if they’re going to revise their policy, we want to make sure that the religious liberty of all the airmen who are serving courageously in the Air Force gets maintained.”

Further,

If the Air Force wants to be serious about religious freedom, its sole and exclusive meeting should not be with a man that calls religious service members ‘spiritual rapists’ or ‘human monsters’…

The military — specifically, the Air Force — has long been accused of granting Michael Weinstein special access to military leaders.  It seems Weinstein has had ideological allies at the top of the US Air Force, which may be why he has received such treatment. Weinstein boasts of ignoring anxious phone calls from four-star generals who try to seek his counsel while he’s watching his favorite sitcom, and Weinstein’s new young “special assistant,” former West Point cadet Blake Page, has said Weinstein is continuing to “make new friends in high places,” though the Tennessean said Weinstein only had the Pentagon meeting to “complain.”

For its part, the US military again denied Weinstein was being granted anything special, and seemed to indicate Chaplain Crews and others are entitled to a similar meeting:

Christensen categorically denied on Thursday that Weinstein had any role in formulating DOD or Air Force policy – that he was simply a citizen who requested to talk to Air Force officials.

Retired LtGen Jerry Boykin, now of the Family Research Council, is similarly seeking a meeting, as well as clarification as to what Weinstein was told.  After all, Weinstein was practically giddy after leaving the Pentagon, but the Air Force maintains the policies he advocates are not in place.  Boykin understandably wants an explanation of the contradiction:

“We’d like to get a statement saying exactly what assurances Mikey Weinstein did get from the Air Force,” Boykin told WND. “So we’ll be satisfied as soon as they tell us either that Mikey Weinstein is lying or give us an account of what those assurances were so that we understand the depth of the issue and the depth of the problem.”

DoD public affairs have simply said Weinstein “asked for and received” a meeting with top military leaders.

In the meantime, any other citizens want an audience with top military officials?  It seems you’re entitled.

More than 67,000 have signed an ACLJ petition calling on the Obama administration to “cut ties with anti-Christian extremists,” meaning Weinstein.  More than 144,000 have signed a similar petition from the Family Research Council calling on the Defense Department to disavow “radical secularists” and “anti-Christian activists.”

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