{"id":2877,"date":"2010-01-06T00:30:06","date_gmt":"2010-01-06T08:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=2877"},"modified":"2015-06-27T19:16:24","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T22:16:24","slug":"weinstein-v-ammerman-continued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/06\/weinstein-v-ammerman-continued\/","title":{"rendered":"Weinstein v Ammerman, Continued"},"content":{"rendered":"

In September, Michael and Bonnie Weinstein filed a civil lawsuit against the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches<\/a> and Gordon Klingenschmitt<\/a>.\u00a0 The primary issue seems to be Klingenschmitt’s “imprecatory prayer” against Weinstein and Barry Lynn, as was noted in a previous analysis<\/a>.\u00a0 (Weinstein has amended his lawsuit twice in the intervening months, but only the original is currently publicly available<\/a>.)\u00a0 This case will be interesting for religious freedom in general, not just in the military, since it may delineate what control–if any–the government is willing to place on public prayer.\u00a0 Initial commentators, including allies of the Weinsteins, doubted they would succeed in their suit.\u00a0 However, despite the initial furor, there has been little in the media since.<\/p>\n

The case continues, however.\u00a0 It appears one of the initial issues will be jurisdiction, which is a legitimate question in this case.\u00a0 Weinstein is a resident of New Mexico, the CFGC is headquartered in Texas, and Klingenschmitt is presumed to be a resident of Colorado.\u00a0 Weinstein is suing in Texas district court.\u00a0 Since the CFGC is in Dallas, it would appear to make sense that Weinstein would sue the CFGC in Texas.<\/p>\n

However, the CFGC’s connection to the complaint is tenuous.\u00a0 As noted already, the precipitating action in this litigation appears to be a prayer by Klingenschmitt, not anything done or said by the CFGC or its head, Jim Ammerman.\u00a0 The CFGC’s role in the prayer is nonexistent, except insomuch as Klingenschmitt is a Chaplain sponsored by the organization.<\/p>\n

In the lawsuit, Weinstein connects the CFGC and Klingenschmitt by saying that Klingenschmitt is the CFGC’s “henchman” and “called upon his followers to commit violence, or even kill, Michael Weinstein…” on the CFGC’s behalf.<\/p>\n

From a purely academic standpoint, it appears that Klingenschmitt is Weinstein’s conduit to the CFGC, rather than the other way around.\u00a0 This is particularly true since Weinstein said he “was undeterred” by Ammerman’s actions, which seems to make Klingenschmitt’s prayer\u00a0the impetus for the lawsuit.\u00a0 Those conditions seem to make Klingenschmitt the primary plaintiff, not the CFGC.<\/p>\n

Klingenschmitt, however, is not a resident of Texas.\u00a0 If the justice system agrees that he is the “actual” defendant, rather than the CFGC, then a Texas court does not appear to be the proper venue for such litigation.<\/p>\n

Why, then, would Weinstein sue a Colorado resident in Texas?\u00a0 It is possible that, despite the fact he was the primary actor, Klingenschmitt isn’t the intended “target.” As Weinstein notes in the lawsuit (in statements quite irrelevant to the charge at hand), Weinstein’s MRFF has challenged the CFGC’s “right…to be an official “endorser” of Chaplains” in the US military.\u00a0 Thus, Klingenschmitt’s prayer may have simply provided a vehicle (albeit not a good one) with which to go after the CFGC, which Weinstein has previously called a “filthy, bigoted…blight” and a “national security threat” as grave as Islamic terrorists.<\/p>\n

Given that Weinstein is asking for “compensatory damages,” it would appear he may plan to go after the CFGC’s finances as a means to his end.\u00a0 Since\u00a0he is suing in his personal capacity, it would seem he–and not the MRFF–would personally benefit from a winning case.\u00a0 Interestingly, shortly\u00a0after\u00a0this incident, the MRFF took pains to point out that Weinstein had been “exhausting\u00a0[his] personal assets for the mission of [the] MRFF.”\u00a0 That is\u00a0no small feat for a man who traded in his\u00a0yellow Viper in 2006\u00a0(which may have replaced the\u00a0red one he had in 2004)\u00a0for a Lotus<\/a>, and who\u00a0took home compensation of more than $250,000 from his non-profit organization in 2008.\u00a0 Like many non-profits<\/a> in the current\u00a0economy<\/a>, however, the MRFF has been making persistent pleas for cash and Weinstein\u00a0may, in fact, be short on money (as, ironically enough, the CFGC may be as well).<\/p>\n

The basis for involving the CFGC, according to the lawsuit, appears to be the supposition that Klingenschmitt was retaliating against the MRFF for its attacks on the CFGC’s endorsement authority.\u00a0 Weinstein’s suit says:<\/p>\n

those actions by [Weinstein] and the MRFF are what led to the Defendants to [sic<\/em>] threaten [Weinstein’s] life and the lives of his loved ones.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Except…publicly available information disagrees.\u00a0 In fact, the “co-victim” of Klingenschmitt’s prayer, Barry Lynn of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, flatly recognized that the motivation for the prayer was the AU\/MRFF letter to the Secretary of the Navy<\/a> complaining that Klingenschmitt was still calling himself “Chaplain” and using pictures of himself in a Navy uniform.\u00a0 (Within the prayer itself Klingenschmitt even references the “press releases this week attacking [him] personally.”)\u00a0 Lynn said:<\/p>\n

We wrote to Navy officials<\/span>, arguing that Klingenschmitt was attempting to mislead people, as he is a former <\/em>chaplain.<\/p>\n

I guess we got Klingenschmitt\u2019s attention<\/span> because he has now placed a disclaimer on this Web site admitting he\u2019s no longer in the military. And<\/span>…over the weekend he called on supporters to launch “imprecatory” prayers<\/span> against AU Executive Director Barry W. Lynn and MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein. (italics original, underlining added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Religion News Service came to a similar conclusion.\u00a0 Answering its own question about why Klingenschmitt offered the prayer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The reason? Lynn and Weinstein had chided Klingenschmitt for not identifying himself as a former, not current, naval chaplain on his Web site.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(In the same article, which came out well before Weinstein’s legal action, Weinstein undermined his own future lawsuit when he said Klingenschmitt was free to pray:<\/p>\n

A little prayer, [Weinstein] said, doesn’t bother him.<\/p>\n

“They can keep doing it every hour of every day,” Weinstein said, “but it is hurtful, wrong, damaging, un-American, un-Jewish, un-Christian and, at the end of the day, un-human to be praying for harm and death.”)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus, it had nothing to do with the CFGC, and nothing to do with the MRFF’s actions against the endorsement powers of the CFGC.\u00a0 Weinstein’s attempt to connect the CFGC to the “threats” in Klingenschmitt’s prayer may not stand.\u00a0 If they do not, and he loses the CFGC as a defendant, it is possible that the court will not have jurisdiction over the remaining defendant, who does not appear to be\u00a0a Texas resident.<\/p>\n

The issue of jurisdiction has yet to be decided, and, predictably,\u00a0Motions to Dismiss and Quash have already been filed.\u00a0 Currently, a trial date is set for late 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In September, Michael and Bonnie Weinstein filed a civil lawsuit against the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches and Gordon Klingenschmitt.\u00a0 The primary issue seems to be Klingenschmitt’s “imprecatory prayer” against Weinstein and Barry Lynn, as was noted in a previous analysis.\u00a0 (Weinstein has amended his lawsuit twice in the intervening months, but only the original is currently publicly available.)\u00a0 This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[121,4,82,276,85,2,5218,7,11,17,10],"class_list":["post-2877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-ammerman","tag-churchandstate","tag-constitution","tag-gordon-klingenschmitt","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-prayer","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877","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=2877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}