{"id":14496,"date":"2011-12-06T02:59:49","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T05:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=14496"},"modified":"2015-06-27T19:14:23","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T22:14:23","slug":"aclj-michael-weinsteins-mrff-is-radical-bullying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/06\/aclj-michael-weinsteins-mrff-is-radical-bullying\/","title":{"rendered":"ACLJ: Michael Weinstein’s MRFF is Radical, Bullying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday the American Center for Law and Justice’s David French wrote a scathing (and accurate) critique of Michael Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation (though it never mentions Weinstein by name).\u00a0 The piece is entitled “The Campaign Against the Cross is Not About “Freedom,””<\/a> and its genesis is the current controversy over the cross at a memorial on Camp Pendleton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

French minces no words:<\/p>\n

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is perhaps the most deceptively-named organization in the United States.\u00a0 Its tone is hysterical (it actually calls those who complain about religious influence \u201cspiritual rape victims\/tormentees\u201d) and its methods Orwellian.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

French also noted an example of the MRFF’s practice of publishing letters from those who claim to be active servicemembers, with their names redacted.\u00a0 Chris Rodda published a letter from a Marine senior NCO<\/a> that French called “incredibly profane and unprofessional.”\u00a0 The redacted writer even said would probably be “kicked out” of the military if he “said these same things to [his] superiors.”<\/p>\n

(Both French and the SNCO may be correct.\u00a0 The self-described “devout Lutheran” senior NCO said Jesus was his “personal Lord and Savior.” He then said those who erected the cross were “f—ing pathetic Marines.” As if to remove any doubt, he repeated in all caps:\u00a0 “F— those Marines who did that!\u00a0 F— THEM TO HELL!”)<\/p>\n

After noting the MRFF’s “abysmal” record of lawsuits, French notes the MRFF never actually\u00a0argues its points.\u00a0 Though a former JAG, Weinstein isn’t even able to articulate<\/em><\/a> a defense of his positions, nor is his research assistant Chris Rodda<\/a>.\u00a0 The reason is simple:\u00a0 They’re\u00a0only after shock value and attention.<\/p>\n

The MRFF is a group that virtually defines the term \u201cradical.\u201d\u00a0 Comparing viewing a religious symbol or hearing a religious message to \u201crape\u201d isn\u2019t rational dialogue.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t an argument.\u00a0 It\u2019s an attempt to demagogue and bully commanders \u2013 who are rightfully focused on warfighting and not on the Establishment Clause \u2013 into satisfying the loudest, angriest voice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To which there is a response:<\/p>\n

We can counter that voice with our own speech, with arguments based on law, reason, and truth.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The voices speaking truth in opposition to Weinstein’s MRFF have actually been effective in undermining his attacks on religious freedom in the military, much to his chagrin.\u00a0 Of course, that may mean he has to up the ante in his ‘loud’ and ‘angry’ methods of “litigation and agitation.”<\/p>\n

When he does, the calm voices of “law, reason, and truth” will remain long after the echo of his bluster fades away.<\/p>\n

As an aside, think Weinstein will threaten to sue the ACLJ for its criticisms, as he is so often wont to do?\u00a0 Since the ACLJ is a group of lawyers, and not an innocent unrepresented soccer mom<\/a>, he may pass on his normal intimidation tactic this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday the American Center for Law and Justice’s David French wrote a scathing (and accurate) critique of Michael Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation (though it never mentions Weinstein by name).\u00a0 The piece is entitled “The Campaign Against the Cross is Not About “Freedom,”” and its genesis is the current controversy over the cross at a memorial on Camp Pendleton. French […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[458,2552,2553,891,175,96,4,82,162,2551,149,85,2,5218,7,17,10,171],"class_list":["post-14496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-aclj","tag-american-center-for-law-and-justice","tag-bully","tag-camp-pendleton","tag-chris-rodda","tag-christian","tag-churchandstate","tag-constitution","tag-cross","tag-david-french","tag-marines","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}