Relaxed Politics

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation was established by Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein.

I heard an interview this morning with Mikey Weinstein – He was engaging, forthright, passionate, and “militant” about protecting freedom of religion within the military and also outside the military whether in the United States or internationally.

I was completely impressed! I have long held that the take-over of the United States government by Fundamentalist Christians is very wrong and in many respects evil. I don’t like being labeled *not Christian enough* nor do I like it when others are also vilified. The hate toward non-Christians is truly evil. I had heard, and sometimes read (not often, funny how the MSM didn’t really cover this *evangelizing of the U.S. Military* much) about the attempts by officers to convert our soldiers. I did read about the Bible distribution in the Middle East where our soldiers are deployed, but even that story went away after only a brief exposure. The work that Mikey Weinstein is doing and the price he and his family is paying will surprise and shock you. He is really doing more than anyone to protect our Constitutional Freedom of Religion.

Mikey has a very good Foundation website, that gives a history which I will post portions of here, a page of the Foundation members, a page that links to current articles and interviews, plus other stuff. Please take the time to read about Mikey, his family, the problem in the military.

A History

Religious Freedom and the Military: A Short History

The concept and practice of religious freedom in the United States Armed Forces date back to the earliest days of this nation. The United States Constitution outlines the basic concept of religious freedom as understood by Americans in the Bill of Rights. More specifically, the First Amendment to the Constitution specifies that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. Or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

All branches of the United States military are afforded the same rights to religious freedom as are American civilians. However, members of the Armed Forces willingly surrender on a temporary basis certain free exercise rights when it impinges on military discipline and the successful completion of a military objective. This guarantee of religious freedom is codified for the Armed Forces in Title 10, United States Code (USC), sections 3073, 3547, 5142, and 8067. Free exercise of religious freedom for military personnel is further detailed in Department of Defense Directive (DODD) 1300.17, “Accommodation of Religious Practices Within the Military Services,” which describes the commander’s responsibility to provide for religious accommodation.

Religious freedom takes on an additional importance in the current international environment, where religious motivations are an increasing rationale for waging conflict. At a time when the United States is encouraging greater religious freedom in Muslim nations, it is imperative upon America to show by example that religious pluralism is a viable and preferred option. Any sign of hypocrisy in Unites States policy, official or otherwise, toward the free exercise of religion within the military makes it more difficult to convince others to follow our nation’s chosen path.

MRFF’s role is to ensure that our government does indeed adhere to the spirit as well as the letter of the Constitution; that it leads by example. The next chapter in the never-ending struggle to expand religious freedom in the military is being written, and MRFF is playing a critical part in the effort. A watchdog’s role requires constant vigilance.

In this article, entitled Religious intolerance at Wright Patt? Mikey Weinstein’s ‘militant’ foundation and his family think so., a specific case is discussed, but there is also a very good personal history of Mikey Weinstein.

Each year, more than one and a half million visitors stream through the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn.

Walking between the cavernous early flight and World War II hangars, tourists, veterans and school groups must pass through a replica of the main gate of Auschwitz and into Prejudice and Memory: A Mobile Holocaust Exhibit.

The exhibit, curated by local survivor Renate Frydman on behalf of the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center, has been on permanent display at the Air Force museum since 1999.

It is the museum’s way of illustrating why the United States goes to war: to defeat the tyranny that destroys human freedom.

But according to Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation — and his son and daughter-in-law Casey and Amanda Weinstein of Fairborn — Wright-Patterson Air Force base is a “hotbed” of “unconstitutional religious intolerance.”

On March 5, Weinstein’s foundation filed a comprehensive lawsuit against the Department of Defense. The lawsuit, filed with co-plaintiff U.S. Army Specialist Jeremy Hall, an atheist, alleges that while stationed in Iraq, Hall was the victim of retaliation and reprisal because of his views.

The foundation, which Weinstein himself describes as “militant” and “in your face,” aims to ensure that military personnel don’t use their official positions to endorse particular religious views on subordinates while on duty. This practice, Weinstein says, particularly by fundamentalist evangelical Christians in the U.S. military, is pervasive.

“It has nothing to do with their religious faith, it has to do with their trying to impose their religious faith using the draconian structure of the military command influence,” Weinstein says while visiting his son and daughter-in-law at their Fairborn home.

According to Weinstein, the 96 percent who are Christians seek help from the foundation because the message they receive from their military command is, “they’re not Christian enough.”

He established the foundation in 2004 as a result of the proselytizing and antisemitism his sons, Casey and Curtis, experienced as cadets at the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs. Weinstein is also a graduate of the academy.

The foundation’s October 2004 suit against the Air Force Academy was ultimately thrown out because of a technicality.

On Feb. 9, 2006, the Air Force issued new guidelines on religious tolerance and practices for the Air Force and the academy.

“They’re just pretty words that mean nothing,” Weinstein said of the guidelines at the time.

Mikey Weinstein says the military has tried to prevent people from contacting his foundation.

Casey Weinstein adds that most are too scared to contact the foundation. He says that most proselytizing comes from officers. “The officers are the ones with the power. Even if an enlisted person has these beliefs, they don’t always have the power to force it on others. Officers do.”

McGowan points out that the Air Force cannot act until “Airmen or civilian employees come forward with specific factual allegations.”

These complaints, she writes, can be lodged at the Equal Opportunity Office, the Inspector General’s Office, the wing chapel or directly with a commander. “Officials at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base promptly investigate and take appropriate action in response to each complaint.”

“How can you use your chain of command when it’s completely and totally corroded?” Mikey Weinstein says.

On July 8, the U.S. Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss the foundation and Hall’s lawsuit on the grounds that Hall didn’t take his complaints to the chain of command and that Hall and the foundation lack standing to sue the Department of Defense.

Mikey Weinstein believes this case will ultimately go to the Supreme Court. “Right now, we lose 5-4 on our best day at the Supreme Court,” he says. “Besides our fight, the two greatest threats that are facing this country is the fact that John Paul Stevens is 88 and Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 75 and ailing. And oh my God. This country was not designed to have representative democracy supplanted by theocracy.”

Please read the whole article. It will amaze you, but not in a good way.

Mikey Weinstein has been in the news a lot lately – radio, teevee, print, internet.

Lawyer Sues to End Dallas Group’s ‘Threat’ Prayers

From the Foundation’s website, there are links to various newsletters, interviews in the various mediums, including written pieces of all kinds.

Wiki

on Gawker

on godsownparty.com/blog which subtitles itself “Rebiblican Political Watch”

In looking at photos of President Obama during his unscheduled visit to Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, the area of Iraq and Afghanistan service men and women, I noticed that there were different symbols on the marble stones. So I looked it up. Here is the page that lists and shows the allowed emblems on stone monuments in Arlington National Cemetery. I remember that lawsuits resulted in the addition of the Wiccan and also the Atheist emblems. I think this information is good to know, but is also related to the work of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. This is what the Foundation is fighting for, after all.

posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 2:30 pm under Defense, Politics, Relaxed Politics, US Politics.