In an effort to provide encouragement in the current environment of stress and concern, the Air Force Reserve posted a video on their Facebook page from their Public Affairs that highlighted spiritual resilience, or what provides someone “meaning and purpose.” The video was from the perspective of the Air Force chaplaincy and featured an interview with Air Force Reserve Command Chaplain (Col) Randy Marshall. It also featured a variety of Airman talking about what ‘gave [them] purpose every day.’ For some, but not all, it was their faith in Jesus Christ.

That did not make Michael “Mikey” Weinstein happy:

Weinstein fired off a letter to everyone in the Air Force chain of command claiming the video was [formatting original]

WRETCHEDLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND TOTALLY ILLICIT CHRISTIAN SUPREMACY PROSELYTIZING

Naturally, seeing a member of the US military mention Jesus Christ must be “wretched” to those who harbor hatred toward the Christian faith, but in a country that protects religious liberty, it is objectively neutral. In the warped mind of Mikey Weinstein such gall is “unconstitutional” – even though it isn’t in the real world where grown ups interact. Without citing any law, Weinstein complained the video was not only illegal but was also “TOTALLY” illegal, and Weinstein also tossed in the word “SUPREMACY” because, well, no one really knows. The “CHRISTIAN” accusation is notable because the video was not exclusively Christian. As to whether a video can be “PROSELYTIZING”, well, let’s just say as mesmerizing as TV and Facebook are, it just doesn’t work like that.

In the words of the great prophet:

Amazing, every word of what you just said was wrong.

That didn’t stop someone at the Air Force Reserve from acceding to Weinstein’s demand and pulling the video down almost immediately, however. It seems they didn’t want a distraction from the efforts to support Citizen Airmen right now – apparently not realizing that this would have been the perfect opportunity to shut Mikey Weinstein down.

Spiritual resilience in a time of global crisis? Who needs that? Do we really need to let Mikey Weinstein make those kinds of decisions for the US military?

Ironically, Mikey Weinstein is at a loss as to what to do with all the other public expressions of faith in the US military right now. Around the world, US military chapels have followed the trend of local churches and gone online, streaming their videos on internet sites like Facebook to support the servicemembers they serve even if a virus won’t let them come together as a congregation. Want to see a public expression of faith in Jesus Christ by a US servicemember? You can probably just pull up the Facebook page of your local US military chapel.

And Mikey can’t figure out how to stop it.

Ultimately, spiritual resilience includes faith, and not just the faiths that garner one heckler’s personal approval. The idea that the government can restrict ideas and expression because of their particular religious content is why the First Amendment to the US Constitution was written.

And yet the only person demanding that the government obstruct public displays of religious faith is the one claiming everyone else is violating the US Constitution.

Think about that for a minute.

You can watch the video here or here:

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