Hemant Mehta, an atheist blogger at the pay-per-click Patheos, celebrated a “gotcha” against one-time Senatorial candidate Roy Moore when Mehta decided how to describe the faith of their lawyer.

The “issue” started when Kayla Moore, Roy Moore’s wife, reacted to claims they were anti-Semitic by noting “one of our attorneys is a Jew.”

Truth be told, the “I have friends who are…” defense is always awkward — but it is also common. (Even Michael “Mikey” Weinstein uses it in defending against claims he’s anti-Christian.) But not yet satisfied, critics began an in-depth investigation to figure out who this mystery Jew was — because, well, who knows?

Finally, Kayla Moore simply told them: 

“We read where we were against Jews — even calling us Nazis,” she wrote in an email to AL.com. “We have a Jewish lawyer working for us in our firm — Martin Wishnatsky. Judge hired him while Chief Justice, then I hired him at the Foundation.”

But Mehta — who chooses to call himself an atheist — says Wishnatsky can’t choose to call himself Jewish because he’s “actually a Christian“.

“I’m a Messianic Jew,” Wishnatsky said. “That’s the term they use for a Jewish person who has accepted Christ.”

Without apparent realization of the irony, Mehta goes on to chide Kayla Moore for not knowing the “truth.”

So let’s get this straight: A man can choose to call himself a woman, and that’s cool with an atheist like Hemant (despite the “truth”). But a man can’t choose to call himself Jewish and/or a Christian. Rather, he apparently has to meet Hemant Mehta’s criteria for what those are — and then accept whatever label is bestowed upon him.

That bigotry is apparently what passes as skeptical “free thought” these days.

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