Christine “Chris” Rodda is Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s research assistant for his “charity,” the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. She wrote a blog late last Friday and posted it on Daily Kos and Medium, attacking ChristianFighterPilot.com by claiming retired Air Force Captain Cole “Twitch” Holloway was “maligned” in an article posted here on Thursday.

It’s odd that Weinstein and Rodda chose to go after that article.  It’s a short piece, and its tone is benign.  There are many more articles here of more direct impact to the MRFF — say, those noting Weinstein is a charity millionaire or that Rodda’s outrage is quite selective — yet they chose to go after one that didn’t even mention them.  Presumably, Rodda thought they could get emotional value out of the topic — so long as people didn’t bother to read the original article, and instead only saw her “interpretation” of it.

(Why not engage over an article that actually discusses the MRFF and religious freedom? For all his bluster and bloviating, Mikey Weinstein is scared. But that’s a topic for another time.)

As is typical, Rodda struggled with the truth.  She titled her blog “The “Christian Fighter Pilot” Sinks to New Low — Maligns Pilot with ALS for Not Being Christian”. Despite the fact she intentionally didn’t link to the article, many are aware of it, and even some of Rodda’s own readers were unable to find where anyone had been “maligned” within it. In her defense, Rodda did quote more than a third of the article, and then she said this about it:

.

That’s right. She never actually said what was maligning within the article. But that’s typical for Rodda (and for Mikey, as well): Describe something as “shocking” or otherwise reprehensible, yet never say what “it” actually is — nor provide the proof of what it is you’re saying.  It’s almost as if she didn’t take any writing classes above the 8th grade level.

‘Ipse dixit. Just trust me, folks.’ – Chris Rodda, MRFF

The simple fact is the article doesn’t “malign” or otherwise speak ill of anyone.

Rodda then included this quote that she said was “just as egregiously insensitive”:

“Left unsaid is whether the symptoms of the undiagnosed disease were the source of his callsign, ‘Twitch.’”

Again, she doesn’t say why that’s insensitive, much less “egregiously” so. Holloway’s callsign is Twitch.  He has ALS.  No one made either of those things up (you can see his callsign on the nametag in his picture) and no judgment is passed one way or the other.   Notice, too, that Rodda’s initial melodramatic accusation of “maligning” has now diminished to merely being “insensitive” — about something benign.

There are a few definitions for “malign,” but one of the more easily accessible comes from Dictionary.com:

to speak harmful untruths about; speak evil of; slander; defame

Nothing in the ChristianFighterPilot.com article spoke harmful untruths about Cole Holloway, nor did it speak evil of him.  It neither slandered nor defamed him.

There’s another word Chris Rodda and Mikey Weinstein should look up:

Libel.

So far, we’re 0 for 2 in Rodda’s in-depth takedown of her self-described “adversary.”

Certainly, she said something more than a vague accusation of “egregious” insensitivity, right?

Nope.

The rest of her blog is quotes from unnamed MRFF acolytes deriding ChristianFighterPilot.com — and Christianity.  That’s all she wrote.

On the other hand, late on Sunday, Marty France — a former USAF Colonel, retired as a BrigGen — essentially repeated Rodda’s logic (or lack thereof), saying the ChristianFighterPilot.com article was

horrible, nauseating, [and] made me sick and depressed [as it] attack[s], judge[s], and condemn[s]

Again, according to Chris Rodda, a single sentence she does not understand was “insensitive.”  Yet the former Head of USAFA’s Astro Department wants to vomit?  He apparently had some issues with both intestinal fortitude and reading comprehension, as the article clearly does not attack, judge, or condemn anyone or anything — not even Chris Rodda made those accusations, though in today’s society, some wilting flowers see offense where’er they turn.

Apparently blind to the irony, Brigadier General (retired) Martin France then said the article [emphasis added]

just assumes that if someone doesn’t wear their religion on their sleeve…then they’re Atheist heathens condemned…to burn in…”hell” for all time. How Christian of him to pass along those thoughts to Cole’s wife and family.

Again, it doesn’t seem he read the article.  Despite his supposed academic credentials, Brigadier General (retired) Martin France “assumes” something that is not remotely there.  He may want to look up the definition of the word “assumes” and do a bit of introspection.

Brigadier General (retired) Martin France then takes a step into the twilight zone, intolerantly accusing the Air Force of intolerance — again, pegging the irony meter as he says the Air Force [emphasis added]

tolerates — if not cultivates — a self-appointed Imam of Christian hate among its ranks, proclaiming another of his judgmental fatwas, in this case calling for Maj Holloway to find his…true path in his precious remaining days, his words dripping with his poisonous treacle of “love and hope.”

[The MRFF repeatedly refers to Holloway as “Major,” though the published articles referred to him as a Captain.]

So where does Brigadier General (retired) Martin France say any of those accusations appeared in the article on ChristianFighterPilot.com?

He doesn’t say.  In point of fact, they don’t appear in the article at all. He just assumed — and apparently made them up.

Doesn’t demonstrate much integrity, does it?

As Department Head, then-Col Martin France probably didn’t grade many papers in his final few years — but had he, pity the cadet souls who would have to suffer under a man who draws conclusions based on what he thinks or feels, not what is actually written.

Further, it remains shocking that a man who would spout such baseless bigotry, hatred, and vitriol had influence over USAFA cadets until just last year. Think about that for a minute: Those are kind of the allies Mikey Weinstein has in high places in the military.

More interesting than that drivel, however, is the balance of Rodda’s typically too-long introduction, which is basically summed up here:

MRFF has attempted to get the Air Force to take some sort of action regarding [ChristianFighterPilot.com] and his very un-officer-like writings, even filing an Inspector General complaint, but to no avail.

Now, if you’ve been harassing the Air Force and an Air Force officer for more than a decade — yet the Air Force has done nothing — what does that say about your complaints?

Chris Rodda essentially admitted Mikey Weinstein is impotent — and wrong. He’s been whining for a decade, “to no avail” — not because he hasn’t been heard, but because his whining has been worthless. To wit, Rodda and Weinstein were either too lazy to find out — or, more likely, too scared to publicly admit — that their IG complaint was found meritless and wrong.

Here’s the IG’s official response to the MRFF complaint about which Rodda crows:

Analysis: This complaint was already looked into and has been resolved. Subject is anonymous in his posts and is protected under free speech.

Resolution: Dismiss

Now, why would Chris Rodda bring up the IG complaint, but not its resolution? Simple: The resolution shows the MRFF is wrong, and it has been told so by the Air Force itself. It’s hard to raise money for Mikey if you admit all your complaints have been blown off as meritless.

Finally, there’s this entertaining tidbit from a clueless Rodda:

In the thirteen years since he started his “ministry” blog, he has only had to remove one post — a post equating homosexuality to bestiality.

First, there are no posts on ChristianFighterPilot.com that equate homosexuality and bestiality. Second, every post that has ever been put up here is still here — including the one Rodda claims equates the two. Rodda’s integrity trend continues.  By the way, that post has been there for years — no doubt, to the embarrassed chagrin of the yet-again wrong Chris Rodda.

It seems, once again, that just because USAF Brigadier General (retired) Martin “Marty” France, former USAF Captain Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, and former US Army Private (?) Christine “Chris” Rodda say something — they claim someone is maligned, or that homosexuality is equated with something, or that the Air Force did something, or that Christians are trying to take over the world — it doesn’t make it true.

When the MRFF says something, you’d do well to verify it.  As has been shown here repeatedly, you’ll likely find it very misleading — if not outright false.

The truth is far from them, but that is because they wish it so.

And that is a pity.

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