{"id":23995,"date":"2013-07-12T02:46:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T05:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=23995"},"modified":"2016-11-26T01:15:06","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T04:15:06","slug":"air-force-responds-to-congressional-inquiries-on-weinstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/air-force-responds-to-congressional-inquiries-on-weinstein\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force Responds to Congressional Inquiries on Weinstein"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks ago <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/05\/weinstein-revels-in-publicity-publisher-decries-pentagon-hostility\/\">it was noted<\/a> that the Air Force reacted to Michael Weinstein &#8212; a civilian critic of religious freedom in the military &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/02\/weinstein-says-jump-air-force-asks-how-high\/\">nearly instantaneously<\/a>, while it had failed to respond to Congress &#8212; the governmental body that writes its rules and authorizes its paychecks &#8212; in <em>weeks<\/em>.\u00a0 In fairness, it is worth noting the Air Force did <a href=\"http:\/\/lamborn.house.gov\/2013-press-releases\/update-on-fight-to-protect-religious-freedom-in-the-military\/\">eventually respond<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>US Rep Doug Lamborn (R-Co) had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianfighterpilot.com\/articles\/files\/lamborn.pdf\">co-signed a letter<\/a> demanding explanations for the April <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/29\/reports-us-air-force-consults-michael-weinstein-on-religious-policy\/\">meeting the Air Force held<\/a> with Weinstein.\u00a0 The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianfighterpilot.com\/articles\/files\/lamborn2.pdf\">response from the Air Force<\/a>\u00a0explains that Weinstein met with\u00a0nine Air Force staff members, including TJAG <a href=\"http:\/\/www.af.mil\/information\/bios\/bio.asp?bioID=8464\">LtGen Richard Harding<\/a> and Deputy Chief of Chaplains <a href=\"http:\/\/www.af.mil\/information\/bios\/bio.asp?bioID=15961\">Chaplain (BrigGen) Bobby Page<\/a>. The one &#8220;gotcha&#8221; &#8212; the Congressional inquiry\u00a0whether the Air Force was &#8220;aware&#8221; of Weinstein&#8217;s history of vitriolic attacks on Christians &#8212; was vaguely answered by Acting Secretary Eric Fanning:\u00a0 <!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I am familiar with both Mr. Weinstein and the MRFF, and I am confident the Air Force professionals who attended the meeting are exceptionally well-suited to determine the appropriate weight and consideration warranted by the concerns Mr. Weinstein raised.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Secretary&#8217;s letter closes with a stern reassurance:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>General Welsh and I take seriously the responsibility of safeguarding the First Amendment rights and free exercise of religion of our Airmen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Interestingly, based on the official government response, it seems someone isn&#8217;t being truthful about how the meeting came to be.\u00a0 Secretary Fanning said<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Mr. Weinstein requested the meeting&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeyWeinstein\/status\/330763314588172288\">Weinstein said<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christianfighterpilot.com\/images\/guests.jpg\" width=\"512\" height=\"102\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We were invited GUESTS of the Pentagon&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So who is telling the truth?<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-share=\"true\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-size=\"small\" data-action=\"like\" data-layout=\"standard\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\"><strong>ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><!-- blogpost --><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-ad-slot=\"2728423835\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6450825356098669\"><\/ins><script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks ago it was noted that the Air Force reacted to Michael Weinstein &#8212; a civilian critic of religious freedom in the military &#8212; nearly instantaneously, while it had failed to respond to Congress &#8212; the governmental body that writes its rules and authorizes its paychecks &#8212; in weeks.\u00a0 In fairness, it is worth noting the Air Force [&#8230;]<\/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":[134,4135,5284,78,82,3445,4136,2284,85,2,5218,7,10,171,3872],"class_list":["post-23995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-air-force","tag-bobby-page","tag-chaplain","tag-congress","tag-constitution","tag-doug-lamborn","tag-eric-fanning","tag-mark-welsh","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-richard-harding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23995","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=23995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23995\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}