{"id":13444,"date":"2013-06-04T13:19:21","date_gmt":"2013-06-04T19:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?p=13444"},"modified":"2014-12-29T15:31:34","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T22:31:34","slug":"how-much-influence-does-this-christian-basher-have-at-the-pentagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/06\/how-much-influence-does-this-christian-basher-have-at-the-pentagon\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Influence Does this Christian Basher Have at the Pentagon?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Remember Michael, aka Mikey, Weinstein?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a name that falls trippingly off the tongue, but I\u2019m beginning to think it is worth remembering. Michael Weinstein recently penned a diatribe against Christians that hails back to the hate-speeches of every genocidal maniac spawned in the 20th Century.<\/p>\n

He is a self-proclaimed \u201cguardian\u201d of Constitutional freedoms in the military. His backers include<\/a> the usual list of suspects, such as \u00a0branches of the ACLU, the former Oklahoma Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and various atheist organizations.<\/p>\n

According<\/a> to \u201cMikey,\u201d Christians are (and I quote), monsters, bloody monsters, well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters, carpetbaggers, senseless and cowardly, bandits who coagulate their stenchful subtances in organizations such as the Family Research Council \u2026 and who disingenuously bellow mournfully like the world class cowards they are, fundamentalist Christian monsters of human degradation, marginalizaton, humiliation and tyranny, <\/em>who have a putrid theology\u2026 of their rapacious reign of theocratic terror.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I could go on, but I\u2019ll bet you get the point. \u201cMikey\u201d Weinstein is a world class Christian basher and bigot who foments hatred toward a whole group of people and then blames them for his personal moral and emotional viciousness.<\/p>\n

Sound familiar? It you\u2019ve read the history of the dehumanizing language that precedes<\/a> every mass slaughter of whole groups of people, it should. It\u2019s especially repugnant that Mr Weinstein chose to quote Elie Wiesel at the end of the rant I\u2019m referencing.<\/p>\n

After Huffington Post published this hate-article, an internet rumor sprang up that Mr Weinstein held an official position with the Pentagon under the Obama Administration. I found<\/a> no evidence of this. However, I did find a sort of denial about it from the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

I decided to leave the question with that.<\/p>\n

The reason I\u2019m taking the subject up today is another Huffington Post article<\/a> titled The Pentagon Most Certainly is Listening to Mikey Weinstein<\/em>. <\/strong>A reader sent me a link to this article, and when I read it, I decided that it is something you need to know about.<\/p>\n

The author, Chris Rodda, is the Senior Research Director at Mr Weinstein\u2019s organization,\u00a0the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. She is also the author of Liars for Jesus.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ms Rodda admires her boss.<\/strong> The article she writes seems to be in a race with itself as to whether it will attack Christians or express over-the-top praise for Mr Weinstein. She makes him sound like the kind of guy who can change the course of mighty rivers with his bare hands and jump the Pentagon in a single leap.<\/p>\n

I say this to caution you: This article is almost certainly at least partly hyperbole and self-promotion by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. It claims that an individual representing 22 airmen who, the article also claims, were all Christians of various denominations, contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation because they were offended by a poster or painting (I\u2019m not sure which it was) hanging on the wall of the Air Force base where they work.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what part of this to believe. It comes from an organization whose founder and leader has published hate speech labeling Christians, and by derivation me, my family and just about everyone I love, as \u201crapacious, bloody monsters.\u201d Just call me small-minded, but that tends to color my opinion of the organization\u2019s integrity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The real question here is not whether or not I admire Mr Weinstein\u2019s assessment of my faith (I do not) but how much he influences things at the Pentagon. <\/strong>The part of the article which is pertinent to that question relays how Mr Weinstein reacted to the appalling threat to the Constitution posed by this painting. The pertinent part of it say<\/a>s\u00a0(emphasis mine):<\/p>\n

\n

Mikey immediately called the Pentagon because, you know, he can do that <\/strong>(to the obvious consternation of the folks at\u00a0breitbart.com<\/a>,\u00a0certain members of Congress<\/a>, and other modern-day Christian crusaders).<\/p>\n

Mikey gave the Air Force an hour to take action.<\/p>\n

By the time Mikey talked to the Wing Commander at the base a few minutes later, the Wing Commander had already been contacted by the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

Fifty-six minutes after his call to the Pentagon, the image of the crusader, with its odious melding of the crusader flag with the American flag, had been removed from the dining hall.<\/p>\n

Nobody is sure exactly how long this utterly inappropriate and blatantly unconstitutional image has been hanging in the dining hall, and whoever should be held responsible for deciding to place it there may very well no longer even be at the base. But the current Wing Commander, although not responsible for the hanging of this now removed dining facility artwork, is responsible for everything that happens on his base now, and to his credit has decided to take action beyond just the removal of this single offensive display.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The question: Is this claim of Mr Weinstein\u2019s personal influence with the Pentagon brag, or is it fact?<\/p>\n

Since we are dealing with people who specialize in braggadocio and scalding hot rhetoric, it\u2019s difficult to know for sure. I am assuming that the basic facts of the article are true; that there was a painting which hung at an Air Force base, that there was some sort of complaint and that maybe the complainers may have gone to Sunday school or something and are claiming to be Christians, and that Mr Weinstein complained and the painting was taken down.<\/p>\n

As I said, I am\u00a0assuming\u00a0<\/em>these things are true. I do not believe that this painting was ever a \u201cthreat to the Constitution.\u201d Artistic vision, perhaps. But not the Constitution. I also do not believe that you can trust what these people say.<\/p>\n

I believe Mr Weinstein is a Christian-bashing bigot. The language I read in his article is inflammatory, hate-filled and ugly. If he told me it was raining outside, I would get up, go to the window, and look for myself.<\/p>\n

This leads back around to the question: Does this Christian-bashing bigot and his inflammatory, hate-filled rhetoric have some sort of gravitas at and with the people who run our military?<\/strong> That is a sobering question.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember Michael, aka Mikey, Weinstein? It\u2019s not a name that falls trippingly off the tongue, but I\u2019m beginning to think it is worth remembering. Michael Weinstein recently penned a diatribe against Christians that hails back to the hate-speeches of every genocidal maniac spawned in the 20th Century. He is a self-proclaimed \u201cguardian\u201d of Constitutional freedoms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1144,3018,39,40,43,726,549,41,1304,1],"tags":[2617,3624,3111,7846,791,3965,3615,3524,356,357,747,3966,3967],"class_list":["post-13444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america","category-calling-evil-good","category-calling-good-evil","category-christian-persecution-2","category-christianity-2","category-faith","category-following-christ","category-freedom-of-speech-2","category-politics","category-religious-freedom-2","category-uncategorized","tag-christian-bashing","tag-christian-bashing-in-the-military","tag-christian-bashing-media","tag-first-amendment","tag-hate-speech-against-christians","tag-michael-weinstein","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-pentagon","tag-religious-freedom","tag-religious-liberty","tag-separation-of-church-and-state","tag-united-states-air-force","tag-united-states-military"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Much Influence Does this Christian Basher Have at the Pentagon?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Remember Michael, aka Mikey, Weinstein? 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