Tag Archives: mike berry

Conflict between Military Religious Freedom, Sexual Freedom Continues

Update: Multiple news sources now report that 11 states have sued the Federal government for its edict attempting to require public schools to let children use the bathroom of their choice, rather than the bathroom of their gender.

When the homosexual movement began in earnest to assert its lifestyle in society a few years ago, it claimed — some would say knowingly falsely — that all it wanted was the “freedom to love.” What difference did it make to you, after all, if someone wanted to love a man instead of a woman?

Those who dared to call for protection of religious liberty were shouted down as unnecessary and were accused of harboring hatred, bigotry, and being the go-to slur of “homophobe.”

Of course, as everyone now realizes, those “homophobes” were right.

Just a few years ago it would have been laughable to claim the State would force a Christian — a private citizen — to participate in and affirm a “wedding” between homosexuals.

And yet that is precisely what has happened.

Just recently it would have been unthinkable that Read more

MRFF’s Chris Rodda Advocates Military Religious Discrimination

It’s been long established that Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s awkwardly-named Military “Religious Freedom” Foundation actually fights against the religious freedom of Christians in the US military. Examples abound of cases in which a reasonable, principled religious liberty group should have stood up in defense of an Airman, Soldier, Marine, or Sailor, but Weinstein either refused to defend the troop because they were Christian or outright attacked their religious liberty instead.

Fortunately, genuine religious liberty groups have stood in the gap for such Christians — and have defended them even from Weinstein himself. One of the more notable groups is the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has a long history of, unlike Weinstein, consistent, principled defense of religious freedom regardless of a person’s particular religious belief.

(To wit, the Becket Fund has been fighting for the right of Sikhs to serve in the US military while still being able to practice their religious faith; Weinstein has so far refused to do so, tacitly acknowledging that a “win” for the Sikhs would ultimately be a win for other faiths — including Christians.)

More recently, Mikey Weinstein tried to attack the religious liberty of Read more

“Anti-Religion Hysteria” as VA Removes Bible From POW Table. Again.

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein recently declared “victory” after a second Veterans Administration facility altered the traditional POW/MIA remembrance table in response to his complaints.

An MRFF representative, retired US Army Capt Jordan Ray, had filed the complaint about the facility more than an hour and a half away from him — so far out of his way, in fact, that he asked the VA to take the time to photograph the “new” display so he didn’t have to drive down to do it himself, giving the MRFF a fundraising prop for free.

Writing at FoxNews.com, Mike Berry of First Liberty Institute decried Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s attempts to overturn the tables of POW/MIA remembrance memorials around the country:

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, founder and president of the deceptively-named Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), demanded an Akron, Ohio VA clinic remove the Bible from its POW/MIA remembrance table. This isn’t the first time the MRFF has targeted a symbol of faith for our nation’s POWs and MIAs. In 2014, it attacked remembrance tables in the Air Force and Navy.

It goes without saying that Weinstein has an issue with the Bible. Besides his Read more

Mikey Weinstein Demands Air Force Remove Chaplain Video. Because Jesus.

mikeywilliamsLast month, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein claimed he had made an “important achievement” in “rebuilding the shattered wall separating church and state!” because, according to him, the Commanding Officer of the Air Force Recruiting Service promised to remove a chaplain recruiting video Weinstein found “inappropriate.” According to Weinstein, MajGen Garrett Harencak

responded within a few hours that all Chaplain [sic] videos are being removed pursuant to an overhaul of ‘AirForce.com’ and that he would see to it that the removal of this particular video is accelerated.

A month later, not only is the video still up at AirForce.com — but, in unusually blunt words, the Air Force is actually defending it [emphasis added]:

Air Force Headquarters at the Pentagon told Military.com it does not see a problem with [the video]…

“Chaplains being available to airmen for spiritual support, and sharing these experiences in their official capacity, does not violate the establishment clause or Air Force regulations.”

There are three important issues here:  Read more

Mikey Weinstein Fears a God-Friendly US Military

In a somewhat meandering article entitled “Watchdog: Conservative President May Mean More God-Friendly Military,” Bryant Jordan of Military.com quoted Michael “Mikey” Weinstein as concerned that a Republican victory in November could lead to a US government “more friendly to Christianity:”

Weinstein said the contest to succeed President Barack Obama is giving fuel to his critics. “With Obama being gone, [some commanders] expect an administration to be more friendly to Christianity…”

To paraphrase Seinfeld… as if there’s something wrong with that? Why would a religious freedom advocate take issue with, in his intimation, progress in religious freedom?

It turns out Weinstein thinks subversion is already underway:  Read more

Mikey Weinstein Attacks Religious Liberty Advocate

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein frequently shows off his “hate mail,” using the threats and invective shown against him as an attempt to legitimize his cause. His presentation of himself as a victim — which he uses to garner sympathy and donations — rings hollow, however, given the “hate mail” Weinstein participates in himself.

Weinstein published an attack on the religious liberty of US Air Force Academy cadets in the local Colorado Springs Gazette, calling their conduct a violation of regulations, the law, and the US Constitution. Weinstein’s personal invective associated these cadets with what he called a

virulent strain of fundamentalist Christian supremacy, triumphalism, and exceptionalism

In a reasoned defense of military religious freedom, Liberty Institute attorney Mike Berry — himself a Reserve Marine JAG — published his own column in the Gazette as a response, saying the MRFF and Weinstein were “wrong on the history and the law.”  That was as “personal” as the well-presented column got.

In a response to Berry’s column quoted at the Daily Caller, Mikey Weinstein  Read more

Former JAGs: MRFF Wrong Historically, Legally

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein relies heavily on his credentials as a “former Air Force JAG.” Presumably, people outside the military ascribe to a JAG a particular expertise on military regulations and the law, and Weinstein seeks to benefit from that connotation.

When Weinstein recently demanded that the US Air Force Academy prohibit cadets from praying, it was notable that not one but two former JAGs spoke up in defense of the military religious freedom Weinstein’s “Military Religious Freedom Foundation” sought to ban.

The Alliance Defending Freedom’s Daniel Briggs wrote a letter (PDF) that became the “opposing viewpoint” that required USAFA to be “prudent and deliberate” in its review of Weinstein’s complaint. Briggs said [emphasis added]

Cadet-led prayer does not violate any purported ‘separation of church and state.’ Courts have long recognized that this term is a misrepresented and tiresome platitude found nowhere Read more

Jason Torpy, Mikey Weinstein on Chaplain Modder Victory

After a Navy commander’s attempt to discharge Chaplain Wes Modder was rebuffed by a Navy admiral, the Washington Times interviewed him on the follow-up. It also sought comment from two critics of religious freedom in the military: perpetually-offended atheist Jason Torpy, and frequent critic of military Christians, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein.

For his part, Torpy thought Modder should have gotten the boot, and he thinks the Navy’s reaction is “unclear”:

The Navy’s decision, he said, “leaves unclear whether it is acceptable for senior officers to use the Bible to justify belittling gay and women sailors.”

On the contrary, the “acceptability” of Torpy’s statement had nothing Read more

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