Tag Archives: military religious freedom foundation

Mikey Weinstein Pummeled After Prayer Breakfast Complaint

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein filed a complaint with the Inspector General at Maxwell Air Force Base because the 42d Air Base wing commander, Col Erik Shafa, sent out an invitation to the National Prayer Breakfast. As reported by the Air Force Times:

Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, filed a third-party complaint…claiming the invite constituted a clear violation of Air Force Instruction 1-1, Section 2.12, Balance of Free Exercise of Religion and Establishment Clause.

Fortunately, Mikey Weinstein has been almost universally panned for the outlandish accusation.

As noted before, Weinstein assumes US troops are either cowards or sycophants — he thinks they either lack the intestinal fortitude to decline such an invitation, or they will attend solely to ingratiate themselves with their leadership.

Put another way, Tony Carr at John Q. Public wrote (in a cleverly titled “Why Weinstein is Right About Prayer Breakfast Invitation“) [emphasis added]:  Read more

Troops Put Faith Above Country — and Mikey Weinstein Doesn’t Care

For all Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s vociferous pontifications on the principles of religious liberty, faith, and the US government, he’s never targeted other religions as he has Christianity. Weinstein and his acolytes are fond of accusing Christians in the military of being “dominionists” who put their faith above national allegiance.  Weinstein is even quoted on his own website making the hypernationalistic assertion that

There is only one religious symbol: the American flag.
There is only one religious scripture: the American Constitution.
Finally, there is only one religious faith: American patriotism.

Putting aside the similarities between Weinstein’s shockingly tone-deaf quote and 1930s Germany, it is worth noting Weinstein and his MRFF have never had quite the same Read more

Breaking: Mikey Weinstein FOIA Lawsuit Dismissed with Prejudice

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein settled his FOIA lawsuit with the US Air Force Academy last week (making it the first lawsuit against the military/government he’s filed that wasn’t summarily tossed out). Weinstein had filed the lawsuit after he alleged USAFA was unresponsive to his Freedom of Information Act request.

One of USAFA’s complaints about Weinstein’s FOIA was that it was overly broad, and the settlement appears to specifically address that concern by having Weinstein cite the specific location of record searches and the subjects of the records sought.

(For the uninitiated, that information should have been in the initial FOIA request Weinstein Read more

Mikey Weinstein Attacks African American Church Charity Drive at Air Force Base

The National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) at Wright-Patterson AFB allowed a charity to install collection boxes to receive donated gloves to benefit the local community.

The collection boxes had posters on them with Bible verses.

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein was not amused, calling the “ostensible” glove collection a

  • “constitutional violation” of
  • “illicit activity” that was
  • “egregiously wretched” which
  • “savaged the good order, morale, discipline, health and safety, military readiness, mission accomplishment and unit cohesion” of NASIC.

When NASIC said they would require standard signage for Read more

“Log-in and Worship”: Military Chapel goes Online

The US Navy posted a fascinating story about Commander Fleet Activities Chinhae, the only US Naval installation on Asia’s mainland, as its chapel program began live-streaming services to help serve Sailors, Marines, and their families posted to Korea:

“I think it is great,” said Johnna Johnson, ombudsman for Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Korea. “Chinhae is one-hour away from Busan, and it is challenging for families to drive there, so this is a fantastic service. Nothing beats the fellowship of being there in person, but this is an amazing next best thing.”

In an era in which streaming church services is Read more

Mikey Weinstein Exhausts Vast Vocabulary

If this site relied on clickbait, the headline would continue “…and then he said THIS.”

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein is widely mocked for his writing style, even within his own group. His rampant use of ellipses and his odd use of font size/color often give Weinstein’s messages a hint of teenage angst. In addition, Weinstein’s diatribes contain so many adjectives — sometimes added to a draft document started by someone else — that his own staff has pejoratively called them “Mikey’s Mad Libs.”

Weinstein has never been short of words — he was even called “Motor Mouth” as a cadet at the Air Force Academy. Sometimes it seems as though he must write with a thesaurus at his side so he can fill in the white space of his rants.

Recently, however, his words failed him.

It seems an email exchange started with Weinstein directly emailing a critic a copy of his newsletter, with Weinstein adding a preface (in 61 pt bold red font) saying  Read more

Chris Rodda Attacks Military Chaplains for Being Chaplains

In her writing, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s research assistant Chris Rodda has often struggled with both the truth and the ability to convey a clear, coherent, and supported argument — all while under pressure from her sort-of boss to make it sensational enough that people will read it.

Late in December, she tried to overcome those shortcomings in a piece at the Huffington Post.

She failed.

Her 2,500-word article — short, by Rodda standards — really needs go no further than the headline:

Gay-Bashing Chaplain Endorsers Admit That The Military Chaplaincy Is Disproportionately Anti-LGBT

It would have been more honestly titled  Read more

Mikey Weinstein FOIA Lawsuit to be Heard Today

Today Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the US Air Force Academy is scheduled for a settlement hearing.

Of all the legal actions he’s filed in recent years, it is the one he has the most likelihood of seeing some success in and, to a degree, that success would be warranted.

Weinstein has asserted that years ago he filed a FOIA that has largely gone unanswered from an unresponsive FOIA office at USAFA. He is generally correct when he asserts the regulations regarding FOIA requests, including, for example, the fact FOIAs are supposed to be answered within 20 days.

In a somewhat unusual twist, Weinstein has Read more

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