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Michael \u201cMikey\u201d Weinstein and his research assistant Christine \u201cChris\u201d Rodda have been railing against US Army 1LT Alex Stovall for the past couple of months. Stovall is a member of the Army Reserve, and he\u2019s also a candidate for Arizona\u2019s ninth congressional district.<\/p>\n
Stovall\u2019s political comments \u2013 made as a candidate in the vein of Donald Trump \u2013 have drawn much of the MRFF\u2019s ire, as has the fact he\u2019s shown up in campaign ads and interviews while in uniform.<\/p>\n
Making political comments while a civilian \u2013 that is, a Reservist not on orders \u2013 is a non-event. There are quite a few US military members in Congress on both sides of the aisle (according to the CRS<\/a>, 14 in both houses), and they\u2019ve certainly all made political comments about their political adversaries and the Nation\u2019s leadership. When not on military orders, they are civilians and can speak as such — which is why Army Capt Alan Kennedy sued his chain of command<\/a> over the punishments he received while participating in BLM “protests” while not on orders.<\/p>\n Even as a failed lawyer and JAG who was apparently relegated to administrative law while in the Air Force, Mikey Weinstein should still know this, but the accusation makes for \u201cgood\u201d press for him. It attracts the attention of those who don\u2019t know any better \u2013 even if it\u2019s not entirely true.<\/p>\n Wearing the uniform while engaged in political activity is certainly an issue (and it has been an issue for others in the past), but it has nothing to do with religion or religious liberty in the US military, which makes you wonder why Weinstein is trying to become the uniform police for the military. The nexus for Weinstein\u2019s cabal comes in the fact that Stovall is a Reserve chaplain candidate \u2013 and this is<\/a> where Weinstein and Rodda go off the rails, recently saying [emphasis original]:<\/p>\n There is another \u201cbig lie\u201d in 1LT Stovall\u2019s tweets and campaign videos and appearances \u2014 his claim that he\u2019s a military chaplain. He isn\u2019t!<\/strong> He is merely a chaplain candidate. And even though his chaplain lie was exposed by the Army Times<\/em>, he persists in his fallacious claim, keeping his lie up as the pinned tweet at the top of his campaign Twitter page\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n …This is the big one \u2013 HIS LIE ABOUT BEING A CHAPLAIN. 1LT Stovall is not<\/em> a chaplain, either in the Army or the Army Reserve. He is merely a chaplain candidate…<\/p>\n Stovall\u2019s lie that he is a chaplain violates another section of DoD Directive 1344.10 \u2013 Section 4.3.2.2., which states that a candidate may not (emphasis added):<\/p>\n \u201cDepict or allow the depiction of themselves in uniform in a manner that does not accurately reflect their actual performance of duty<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 1LT Stovall continues to lie in his \u00a0political campaign, falsely claiming to be an Army chaplain when be [sic<\/em>] is merely a chaplain candidate.<\/strong><\/p>\n THE ARMY MUST PUNISH 1LT ALEX STOVALL!!!<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Except, that\u2019s exactly the opposite<\/em> of how it actually works. The military frequently calls its chaplain candidates \u201cchaplains.\u201d Here’s just one example, from the DoD\u2019s \u201cfirst female Muslim chaplain<\/a>,\u201d which was announced when she became a chaplain candidate<\/em> last year<\/a> [emphasis added]:<\/p>\n Chaplain candidate<\/u><\/strong> Saleha Jabeen was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Chicago at the Catholic Theological Union by the Air Force chief of chaplains, Dec. 18, becoming the first<\/u><\/strong> female Muslim chaplain<\/u><\/strong><\/em> in the Department of the Defense.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n