Michael “Mikey” Weinstein used to say he would give his last drop of blood — and encourage his kids to give their last drop of blood — to defend the right of people to have their religious beliefs, even if he disagreed with them. While most of Weinstein’s talking points haven’t changed over the past ten years, this one has: He dropped this oft-repeated phrase long ago — likely because he knows it isn’t true.

Still, he leaned in that principled direction recently when on a “religious liberty panel” — a panel with such “diverse” religious liberty experts as the ACLU, AU, and Pedro Irgonegaray, one of Weinstein’s MRFF “voices.” In that panel, Weinstein said:

I don’t care what their [religious] views are. What I care (about) is when they try to use the power of the U.S. military to propagate it.

That’s a demonstrably false statement. Just take one quick example: When US Air Force Major Christina “Thumper” Hopper told an interviewer her purpose in life was to glorify God, Weinstein had a conniption, literally claiming Hopper was part of an attempt to subvert the US government.

Hopper had not tried to use the power of the government to do anything — meaning she hadn’t crossed the line Weinstein claimed he held — yet Weinstein attacked her with all the vitriol and invective of a jilted teenage boy.

The logical conclusion, of course, is that Weinstein is lying. To some audiences he has to maintain some semblence of respectability, and to those audiences he’ll apparently claim that he “doesn’t care” about someone’s religious views or even that he might defend someone whose views he finds disagreeable.  That stand, were it true, would be admirable and consistent with the American construct of religious liberty.

But Mikey Weinstein’s actions belie his words claiming a moral high ground.

Perhaps his statement was simply incomplete. Mikey Weinstein “doesn’t care what [your] views are,” so long as he approves of what those views are.

And if you’re a Christian in the military, Mikey doesn’t like it — and he’ll do everything he can to attack you.

Fortunately, bullies don’t fare well when their victims stand firm.

Stand up to Mikey, ignore his threats, and he takes his bruised ego and sulks away.

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