{"id":338,"date":"2009-06-11T03:00:39","date_gmt":"2009-06-11T10:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=338"},"modified":"2015-06-27T19:16:49","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T22:16:49","slug":"christian-military-leaders-targeted-intimidated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/11\/christian-military-leaders-targeted-intimidated\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Military Leaders Targeted, Intimidated"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Weinstein and his Military Religious Freedom Foundation have routinely called for court martial, punishment, and\u00a0have even implied harm\u00a0against\u00a0military members publicly associated with expressions of religious thought.\u00a0 Weinstein has reserved particular vitriol for senior officers, including the Chief Chaplains of both the Army<\/a> and Air Force<\/a>, the Secretary of the Army<\/a>, the members<\/a> (and Chairman<\/a>) of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, military academy leadership<\/a>, and others<\/a>.\u00a0 His intent appears to be to silence or exclude Christians by changing military policy and public opinion where he can, and intimidation using public excoriation where he cannot.<\/p>\n

It is likely that the MRFF’s criticisms of military leadership will continue.\u00a0 They have already leveled criticism at the Obama administration’s selection for the new Secretary of the Army, New York Republican Congressman John McHugh.<\/p>\n

Michael Weinstein called McHugh “suboptimal”\u00a0and said his nomination furthers the “national security threat” of “far right Christian fundamentalism” because McHugh is a “Christian supremacist.”<\/p>\n

President Obama’s nomination…is yet another glaring warning that [he] will NOT engage the chronically serious national security threat…from far right Christian fundamentalism run amuck. McHugh’s atrocious Congressional voting record on church-state matters…brands him as just another Christian supremacist tarantula on the American Constitutional wedding cake.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Weinstein’s rapid descent into disdainful namecalling and gross mischaracterizations is almost comical in its ignorance and inaccuracy.\u00a0 Apparently, Roman Catholicism, which is McHugh’s stated religion, is now a fundamentalist denomination under Weinstein’s ever-changing definition of Christian threats.\u00a0 Also, “Christian supremacist” McHugh appears<\/a> to\u00a0support\u00a0overturning<\/a> the current policy on homosexuals in the military.\u00a0 Weinstein’s asinine statements reinforce the prior evidence that the MRFF\u00a0prejudicially categorizes the religious beliefs of its chosen adversaries in any manner it sees fit.<\/p>\n

[The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers joined the assault, with leader Jason Torpy saying<\/a><\/p>\n

John McHugh almost ensures a continuation of the stranglehold of dominionist Evangelical Christians on our military…]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another person likely to gain Weinstein’s ire as a Christian threat is Lt Gen Mike Gould, slated to become the superintendent<\/a> of the USAF Academy this week.\u00a0 Gould has previously said<\/a> that his mantra for success is simple: “faith, family, and fitness.”\u00a0 (See the related article<\/a> for an interesting comparison on priorities.)\u00a0 He noted\u00a0that the importance\u00a0is perspective<\/em>–knowing that “the job” isn’t everything:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important [for Airmen] to maintain perspective across their lives, which goes well beyond the actual workplace.<\/p>\n

First, they must maintain a strong faith and make time to worship.<\/p>\n

Airmen must also realize that taking care of families takes a conscious effort.<\/p>\n

Finally, they need to take care of themselves.<\/p>\n

If Airmen maintain that perspective of faith, family and personal fitness, it only follows that they\u2019ll be happy in what they\u2019re doing, they\u2019re going to have fun on the job and they\u2019ll find satisfaction in their contribution to their country. If you keep that type of outlook in your time in the Air Force you\u2019ll be productive and live a good, happy life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For his remarks, warnings of the imminent threat created by Gould have already been raised by MRFF proxy Jeff Sharlet.\u00a0 In a recent joint interview<\/a> with Weinstein, Sharlet said Gould “forced” Rick Warren on his subordinates, as discussed in his Harpers article<\/a> that cites the MRFF.\u00a0 Gould was “impressed” with a presentation given by Warren and allegedly sent an email to his subordinates recommending they read Warren’s book.<\/p>\n

Weinstein often\u00a0says that by attacking these leaders he is attempting to reverse a “religious test” in place within the military\u00a0(Constitution Article VI: “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States”). At every opportunity he has ridiculed expressions of Christian faith and claimed that they violated the Constitution, even though they have passed legal and Constitutional muster.<\/p>\n

But as time has gone on, the reason has become more clear.\u00a0 While once Weinstein said his “war” was against<\/a> “pre-millennial, reconstructionist, dominionist, evangelical Christians,” he has gradually dropped the adjectives until\u00a0finally resorting<\/a> to the more common attacks against “fundamentalists” or “evangelicals”:<\/p>\n

This is not a case of Jew versus Christian, or right versus left. It is a case of fundamentalist Christians versus the Constitution. [Fundamentalists are] homophobic, misogenistic, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic [and have] a virulent desire to subordinate the Constitution … to…the weaponized gospel of Jesus Christ.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Recently,\u00a0an MRFF spokesman even\u00a0said that some basic Christian tenets are inconsistent with the Constitution–and thus Christians who hold those beliefs are incapable of military service.<\/p>\n

Weinstein’s attacks against Christianity have been visceral and personal, but his intentions are political and judicial.<\/p>\n

It is almost as if Weinstein would have the\u00a0United States\u00a0put in place\u00a0his own “religious test” that would violate the Constitution:\u00a0prohibiting Christians from serving in the military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Weinstein and his Military Religious Freedom Foundation have routinely called for court martial, punishment, and\u00a0have even implied harm\u00a0against\u00a0military members publicly associated with expressions of religious thought.\u00a0 Weinstein has reserved particular vitriol for senior officers, including the Chief Chaplains of both the Army and Air Force, the Secretary of the Army, the members (and Chairman) of the Joint Chiefs of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[4,2,5218,7,10],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chaplain","category-culture","tag-churchandstate","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","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=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}