The Wall Street Journal had a fairly balanced article on the recent dust up over Air Force leaders choosing to meet with religious freedom critic Michael Weinstein at the Pentagon in late April.  Author Mollie Ziegler Hemingway accurately notes that there’s been a bit of sensationalism in recent headlines:

Initial reports on these matters were exaggerated, taken out of context or simply false.

But she also acknowledges that, exaggerated or not, there are still some valid concerns:

For one thing, the Pentagon statement clarifying that military personnel would not be court-martialed if they “evangelize” also said that “proselytization” is considered a [UCMJ] offense. Yet the definitions of those two words are almost identical…

Further, the WSJ piece notes that regardless of any hyperbole in recent claims, there remains concern over the mere fact the Air Force met with Weinstein: 

If the Pentagon wants to reassure soldiers that they won’t be persecuted for sharing their faith, the fact that military leaders have met with Mikey Weinstein…isn’t helping…The foundation fights what Mr. Weinstein decries as the undue influence of evangelical Christians in the U.S. military.

Why the concern?  Because Weinstein himself has his own definition of “coercive proselytizing:”

The Associated Press once quoted [Weinstein] as saying that a Christian-themed bumper sticker on an officer’s car or a Bible on an officer’s desk can amount to “pushing this fundamentalist version of Christianity on helpless subordinates…”

One reason the Pentagon meeting caused such a stir was that Mr. Weinstein, on his foundation’s website, already takes credit for dozens of campaigns to limit the influence of religion in the military…

The Sally Quinn piece also huffed Weinstein’s “influence” over the Air Force.  Given his prior statement and the influence he claims (even Jews in Green, which has strained to give Weinstein the benefit of the doubt, called him “extremist”), it seems even the WSJ thinks the cause for alarm was not unreasonable.

Just recently the Navy Office of Diversity encouraged its Sailors to “heed the warning signs of hatred” because

fear and indifference to hatred creates an opportunity for evil to thrive.

How easily we forget — or how easily we fail to see history repeat itself with new actors.  All it takes for Michael Weinstein to prevail is for good men to do nothing.

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