Military Religious Freedom Foundation

THE CRUSADERS

2007-05-03T11:23:00.001-07:00

By Robert C. Koehler
Tribune Media Services

Sixteen words may be all that stand right now between the apparatus of government and the Founding Fathers’ worst nightmare. And those words are starting to give.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .”

When George Bush, in the wake of 9/11, puffed himself into Richard the Lionheart and declared he would lead the country in a “crusade” against terrorism — you know, crusade, as in slaughter of Muslim infidels — turns out . . . oh, how awkward (if you’re on White House spin duty) . . . he may have been speaking literally.

What’s certain, in any case, is that a lot of people in high and low places within the Bush administration — and in particular, the military — heard him literally, and regard the war on terror as a religious war:

“The enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan. He lives in Fallujah. And we’re going to destroy him,” a lieutenant colonel, according to a BBC reporter, said to his troops on the eve of the destruction of that undefended city in post-election 2004.

“I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol,” Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Jerry Boykin notoriously boasted a few years back, speaking of a Muslim warlord in Somalia. And by the way, George Bush is “in the White House because God put him there.”

And, of course, just the other day, Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, who conducted the first official investigation into Pat Tillman’s death, opined that Tillman’s family is only pestering the Army for the, ahem, truth about how he died because their loved one, a non-believer with no heavenly reward to reap, is now “worm dirt.”

Until I read the newly published “With God on Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military” (St. Martin’s Press), Michael Weinstein’s disturbing account of anti-Semitism at the U.S. Air Force Academy, I shrugged off each of these remarks, and so much more, as isolated, almost comically intolerant noises out of True Believer Land. Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do . . .

Now my blood runs cold. Weinstein, a 1977 graduate of the Academy and former assistant general counsel in the Reagan administration, and a lifelong Republican, has devoted the last several years of his life to battling what he has come to regard as a fundamentalist takeover of the Academy, turning it, in effect, into a taxpayer-supported Evangelical institution. He charges that the separation of church and state is rapidly vanishing at the school, which routinely promotes sectarian religious events, tolerates the proselytizing of uniquely vulnerable new recruits and, basically, conflates evangelical interests and the national interest.

If you think this is just a fight over some abstract principle, with ramifications only for atheist, Jewish, Buddhist and other cadets who may be “offended” by fundamentalist God talk, I urge you to check out Weinstein’s book or website (militaryreligiousfreedom.org). He documents a chilling phenomenon: The whole U.S. military, up and down the chain of command, is coming to be dominated by members of a small, characteristically intolerant sliver of Christianity who truly regard themselves as Christian soldiers, on a God-appointed mission to harvest souls and battle evil.

Weinstein, whose family tradition of national service is pretty impressive, does not do battle lightly with those who now run his alma mater. One of his sons is a recent graduate of the Air Force Academy and the other is still a cadet there. His eldest son’s wife, a Christian, was his son’s classmate at the Academy, and Weinstein’s brother-in-law, also a Christian, is a grad as well. And his father graduated from Annapolis.

The fact that both sons endured anti-Semitic harassment initially spurred him to take action. But this goes deeper than disrespect for other faiths. The attitude he has encountered in his attempt to hold the institution, and the rest of the military, accountable smacks of a coup: “The Christian Taliban is running the Department of Defense,” he told me. “It inundates everything.”

Can you imagine a contingent of religious zealots, with their contempt for secular values (and such manifestations of secular order as the U.S. Constitution) — and with their zest for holy war — in control of the most potent fighting force and weaponry in human history? Is this possible?

Well, said Weinstein, consider the 523rd Fighter Squadron, based at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., which calls itself The Crusaders, and whose emblem consists of a sword, four crosses and a medieval knight’s helmet. Check ‘em out at globalsecurity.org, which reports that the payload on the F-16s they fly consists of “a wide variety of conventional, precision guided and nuclear weapons.”

And listen once again to Commander-in-Chief Bush, speaking in 2003 to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: “God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East.”

If this is a religious war — a “clash of civilizations,” waged by competing agents of God’s will — victory may be indistinguishable from Armageddon. God help the human race.

- - -
Robert Koehler, an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist, is an editor at Tribune Media Services and nationally syndicated writer. You can respond to this column at bkoehler@tribune.com or visit his Web site at commonwonders.com.
© 2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

EVANGELICAL INDOCTRINATION AT A YOUNG AGE!

2007-04-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

Article on Tillman inquiry references family's lack of Christian belief as a problem

2007-04-27T17:08:00.001-07:00

According to the Army officer who directed the first official inquiry, the Army might have more of a clue about the shooter's identity than it has let on. Asked whether ballistics work was done to identify who fired the fatal shots, Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich told ESPN.com, "I think, yeah, they did. And I think they know [who fired]. But I never found out."

Mansfield and other Rangers who attended the post-incident meeting said — both in interviews with ESPN.com and in documents from the Army investigations — they were advised by debriefers that night that the unit as a whole bore the responsibility for Tillman's death and they should avoid placing blame on any one person.

In his interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich also said he was not driven to identify Tillman's killer.

"You know what? I don't think it really matters," Kauzlarich said. "And the reason I say that — you got to look at the overall situation here that these guys were fighting in. And somebody hit him. So would you hold that guy [who] hit him responsible for hitting him, when everybody was shooting in that direction, given the situation? We'll see how the [Defense Department Inspector General's] investigation comes out. But I had no issue on not finding a specific person responsible for doing it."

Kauzlarich said he is confident the current probe will not result in criminal charges against the shooter or shooters. He said investigators would not still be examining the incident at all if it were not for Tillman's NFL celebrity — he walked away from a multimillion-dollar contract with the Arizona Cardinals when he enlisted — and the pressure brought to bear by Tillman's family on a number of Washington politicos.

"His parents continue to ask for it to be looked at," Kauzlarich said. "And that is really their prerogative. And if they have the right backing, the right powerful people in our government to continue to let it happen, then that is the case.

"But there [have] been numerous unfortunate cases of fratricide, and the parents have basically said, 'OK, it was an unfortunate accident.' And they let it go. So this is — I don't know, these people have a hard time letting it go. It may be because of their religious beliefs."

In a transcript of his interview with Brig. Gen. Gary Jones during a November 2004 investigation, Kauzlarich said he'd learned Kevin Tillman, Pat's brother and fellow Army Ranger who was a part of the battle the night Pat Tillman died, objected to the presence of a chaplain and the saying of prayers during a repatriation ceremony in Germany before his brother's body was returned to the United States.

Kauzlarich, now a battalion commanding officer at Fort Riley in Kansas, further suggested the Tillman family's unhappiness with the findings of past investigations might be because of the absence of a Christian faith in their lives.

In an interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich said: "When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more — that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough."

Asked by ESPN.com whether the Tillmans' religious beliefs are a factor in the ongoing investigation, Kauzlarich said, "I think so. There is not a whole lot of trust in the system or faith in the system [by the Tillmans]. So that is my personal opinion, knowing what I know."

Asked what might finally placate the family, Kauzlarich said, "You know what? I don't think anything will make them happy, quite honestly. I don't know. Maybe they want to see somebody's head on a platter. But will that really make them happy? No, because they can't bring their son back."

Because I love America: Reagan's Assistant General Counsel, Mikey Weinstein Speaks Out. with God on our side

2007-04-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

By Mikey Weinstein

When I began asking questions about what I saw going on at Colorado Springs in 2004 I never expected that the inquiry would lead me to the horrifying conclusion that our country had been taken over by people who have used our own freedoms to enslave us. But that is what happened. When I began I, like most people, was focused on the personal. I believed that what was happening at the United States Air Force Academy, the harassment of cadets and staff with unwanted evangelism, was limited in scope. As the months passed, however, I found myself forced to constantly reassess my basic assumptions. The logic of events was stark and undeniable. Promises of an open inquiry were ignored; decent and courageous people like former Air Force Chaplin MeLinda Morton were intentionally muzzled to ensure the truth would not be heard and the wrongs righted.

As a Republican and an Academy graduate I find myself in head on conflict with my own oath to protect the Constitution. As a Jew I confronted a situation through ears that still hear the cries of my people walking silently into the brick buildings that would reduce them to ash. I cannot stand still and let that happen to my country.

You know about the law suit we filed; that suit took on the issue directly, based on the1st Amendment Right of members of the military to choose their own spiritual paths, unhampered by those placed in positions of authority and on the basis of the Establishment Clause and Clause Three of Article Six, which prohibit the existence of a national religion. That is what has happened. America now has a national religion whose tenets extend to a foreign policy that sees war in the Middle East as the fulfillment of its core mission . The power block responsible for the take over are now, effectively, in charge of the mightiest weapon the world has ever known, the United States Military.

My law suit was one element in the larger battle to take back America. That might seem excessive or alarmist; I only wish that was the case.

I undertook this campaign to oppose those who were violating the principle of separation of Church and State head on and to make the public aware. I now understand that to undo the damage done Americans must come together to organize the dispersed elements opposing these forces that have gone so far in converting America into a theocracy that substitutes one parochial world view of the Bible as law, displacing the democratic foundation of our nationhood.

Every American should be awake to the real and present threat that the take over of America's military poses to our national security and to each of us personally. America is poised today on the brink of a disaster of global proportions. This situation has been moving towards its own logical conclusion while nearly all of us overlooked the clear and present danger signs posed by the coalition of unlikely forces who have come together in a voracious grab for power. Even those of us who have understood some parts of the larger problem have failed to see the connections. That is the past. Today we need to take action.

Those who have carried out this stealth operation, an imperious fascistic contagion growing for the last 30 years, have an agenda. That agenda demanded their patience. They have been. We must not be patient as we fight back. We must act now.

In late 2005 I founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org. As I studied what was happening I began to hear from our own noble and honorable sailors, soldiers, marines and airmen from all religious traditions at military bases in the US and all over the world. They all told the same horrifying story; my concerns grew.

Here is what we face.

First, the corporate interests: These for profit businesses have worked to ensure their streams of income, focusing on augmenting their own profits and avoiding liability for the damage they well understood they inflicted on America and to people around the world. To accomplish those ends they developed a collation of think tanks and not-for-profits that justified their actions, using ideas cauterized to make their actions seem plausible.

They knew they needed to change the institutions and expectations of Americans to ensure they would keep control. To that end they employed political operatives to build up the facade of respectability those ideas needed. Think of the Heritage Foundation and the words of such as Ann Coulter, John Fund, and Robert Novak. That facade is what we today know as the NeoConservatives or “NeoCons.” You can think of it as the public relations firm presently employed by those rapacious corporations which work through our government.

The third element, funded in large part by the corporate interests but acting from their own agenda, are those who are now coming out of the shadows. As their power grows their need to remain unseen diminishes. Paul Krugman and others identify these as the Theocons. It was the action of the Theocratic agenda that awakened me to what is happening. These elements are the broad strokes that bring into the light the behind the scenes action that is destroying our nation and the hope for peace and prosperity that has always been so present for Americans.

It is not simple until you understand who and why it has happened. The corporations wanted power and money; the NeoCons were willing to make it happen for power and money. The Theocons, a tool made up of elements from a formerly marginalized and unrespected segment of the Christian community, were able to realize their dreams of power and money by becoming the tool that made the whole possible.

Today the man with his finger on the button, those who will receive the order to strike; many of those who will then be expected to put their lives on the line to carry out American policy; have been molded by the influences of these elements. A power conversion has taken place that has nothing to do with freedom or religion. Many thinkers and writers saw the potential for such a threat over the last several generations. But it is our generation and those who follow who now have no choice but to take action.

Corporate interests and the patient and long range plan of Christian Reconstructionists have made this possible with the cooperation and coordination provided by the NeoCons If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I would think it was bad science fiction. But when I wake up the nightmare continues. The threats to my family, the rising tide of violence aimed at me and those I love, and those whose courage has drawn them to stand with me affirm the truth of what we confront.

It began in the early 70s with the thought by a small group of Republicans that control of the GOP could be guaranteed by taking advantage of the newly disenfranchised Southern Democrats through elements in the Evangelical churches there. You will recognize the names of those whose plans have been drawn so large today. Karl Rove, Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson, Jerry Fallwell, James Dobson, D. James Kennedy, John Hagee and Jack Abramoff were among them.

Largely credulous and uneducated the evangelical elements that became their raw material contained strains of thinking from individuals like R. J Rushrooney and Gary North. Margaret Mead once said that only a small determined group ever changes things. Ms. Mead was thinking of positive change; she could not have imagined the vision and motives that moved a small group of Baptists to take over the Southern Baptist Convention by stealth to achieve first a power base and to move on from there to apply the same methods to civil government and our military. But that is what happened.

Today the platform of the Republican Party in Texas reflects their goals. These are consistent and explicit, including the substitution of the Bible for the rule of law in America. In their world capital punishment for sodomy, adultery, for unruly children, and the end of free speech are desirable goals mandated by God. Lying to achieve the ends they believe are appointed by an unimaginable vision of God are entirely acceptable.

Paul Krugman said in his article of last week, For God's Sake, “In 1981, Gary North, a leader of the Christian Reconstructionist movement - the openly theocratic wing of the Christian right - suggested that the movement could achieve power by stealth. "Christians must begin to organize politically within the present party structure," he wrote, "and they must begin to infiltrate the existing institutional order." “

Krugman does not cite the documentation of this, though it exists in a letter written by Dr. Steven Hortzel dated March 13, 1990 . The letter exhorts the recipients on how to take over their local Republican precinct. The back of the letter lays out the Platform which includes ending minority status for homosexuals, an end to the right to abortion, the sovereignty of the family instead of having that status rest with individuals, as intended by the rights theory on which America is founded. And most frightening, in their view the Church will control what is and is not a crime. The same letter sports the direction to, “Vote twice on election day.” So much for respect for our law and the institutions of America.

Today the Platform of the Republican Party of Texas reflects that agenda. The goal of the Texas Republican Party is to "dispel the myth of the separation of church and state."

Organizing and planning far in advance with funding provided by corporations through those we now know as NeoCons, they laid out the stealth plan that has been followed until the present day. You can hear this admitted in clips of a tape assembled recently by Dr. Bruce Prescott. The voices of J. R, Rushrooney, now deceased, and Gary North, his son-in-law, say it all.

No rogue elements were responsible for what took place at the Air Force Academy. Funding provided by those major corporations who put us in Iraq to augment their profits and ensure control of oil funded the NeoCons who wrote the orders taking us to the Middle East against all truth; through the same funding source grew the 'religious' institutions that have taken control of our military. To them the separation of Church and State, the first amendment of the Bill of Rights, is a myth like Bigfoot and Paul Bunyan to be dispelled, by their own words.

We can expect violence. The head cleric of St. David's Episcopal Church of Topeka, Kansas came out to support me; five hours later his church was burned to the ground. A synagogue where I spoke was desecrated. My home has been targeted by feces and beer bottles; our tires slashed; dead animals have twice been placed on our front porch. The death threats come in ceaselessly. It is not convenient and safe to confront and defy those in power; I know that but I refuse to back down. They may try to harm me but I will not go quietly; I will be a Jew from the Warsaw Ghetto, not Berlin. I will be an American from Lexington and Concord, not an American from Halliburton and Blackwater.

With all the bad news it is heartening to note that some people are standing up and fighting back. Every day we are joined by more Americans who hear, understand, and come prepared to take action.

Dr. Bruce Prescott moved to Norman, Oklahoma three years ago and started an organization called, “Main Stream Baptists,” that is challenging the primacy of Christian Reconstructionists in the Baptist faith in the same town that supplied those who carried out the take over of the Southern Baptist Convention. When Bush hosts 'religious leaders,' it is those people who receive the invitations.

Next January between 20,000 and 30,000 Baptists from all races will gather. They will be representing hundreds of thousands of Baptists who affirm the original belief that brought Baptists to America, the freedom to worship as they pleased. Together they will forge a New Baptist Covenant making them the largest Baptist group in the United States. The group includes former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton; the announcement took place in Atlanta, Georgia in January of 2007.

Others, secular and religious, for instance the Methodists who stood up to oppose the Bush Library at SMU stand with us.

I cannot emphasize strongly enough that this is not a partisan battle. I am a Republican who had the honor of serving as Assistant General Counsel in the Reagan White House and as General Counsel to two time presidential candidate H. Ross Perot. I am a Jew proud to stand with Christians, Muslims, agnostics and atheists, and others who, like those I just mentioned, are committed to the vision of an America for which generations have laid down their lives. Stand with me on this and you stand with men and women who dreamed a freedom that the real Jesus would have recognized. At the end of the day, it's simply all about just one thing; our beautiful United States Constitution. Each of us free; each of us equal, living lives where we confront not the dead words of the past but the living truth that is tomorrow

That is America and it is worth dying for. As a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, the father of two graduates as well as one current Academy cadet, the brother-in-law of yet another graduate, and the son of a graduate of the U. S Naval Academy I believe in the vision that is America with every fiber of my being.

RESPONSE TO RADIO INTERVIEW LISTENER

2007-04-24T09:56:00.000-07:00

Sir,

Mikey Weinstein forwarded to me your 22 Apr email to him. Mikey doesn't need me to defend him, but I feel compelled to correct some obvious misconceptions you have about what his Military Religious Freedom Foundation mission is all about. First of all, Mikey is a Jew, not a Christian, and he is very up front about that. Secondly, his issues are not about Christians v. Jews or salvation or eschatology or interpretations or misinterpretations of either the Old or New Testaments of the Bible, or theology in general. Nor does he want to take chaplains out of the US military as Madeline Murray O'Hare once did. The problem -- and it is very real -- is that some high ranking officers and other military personnel in leadership positions in the chain of command are engaged in subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle efforts to proselytize lower ranking military people, whom they command or supervise, into following certain religious beliefs.

That, Sir, is strictly against military standards of conduct, Constitutional dictates, and U.S. statues and court decisions intended to further enforce and interpret the First Amendment. Now, I don't know what, if any, military experience you have -- good, bad, or indifferent. But let's suppose you work for some firm or company with a hierarchy -- civilian terminology for chain of command. Your boss, supervisor, manager, etc. says to you one day, "John, we've having a Bible study at 4:30 this afternoon in the conference room and I'd really like to see you there. Think you can make it?" After reading your email to Mikey, I'm guessing you might well agree that Bible study in the workplace would be a great idea. And, in truth, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with it -- until it has all the implications of a "command performance." Perhaps you get the picture. Your fellow workers, who might not be particularly dedicated church goers or even who are opposed to any aspect of religion, organized or otherwise, could justifiably scream bloody murder to the EEO authorities if they felt pressured or coerced into participating in any sort of religious activities in the workplace.

Well, one doesn't go running down to the EEO when one is in the military. Plus, most of the ranking officers and others in the chain of command aren't so dumb as to "order" those they command or supervise to go Bible class or other such religious activity. They know that is not a lawful order. Ah, but, military bosses -- not many, but some -- are control freaks, and if they happen to be overly passionate about being filled with the Holy Spirit and want their troops to be that way also, it creates the problem that Mikey is wrestling with now.

It boils down to the very thing about which you mistakenly upbraided Mikey -- being tolerant. You wrote,"If you were tolerant, you would allow for beliefs different than your own...." Tolerance is precisely what Mikey is seeking.from zealots and others of that ilk who take advantage of rank and position in the military to unlawfully proselytize vulnerable, impressionable young men and women over whom they literally have a significant measure of life and death power. And I hope you are not a zealot, Sir. The problem with zealots is that they have only answers -- no questions. Beware of zealots. Oh, and by the way, I spent 25 years in the US Army and I never, repeat, never encountered the nonsense that Mikey is so valiantly attempting to deal with now. Plus, I consider myself a fairly dedicated Christian with the usual and unavoidable baggage of sin that all of we humans have -- the inevitable "feet of clay."

Mikey and I believe in the same God and we believe that religion has a place in the military establishment -- witness the military chaplaincy and on-base chapels or worship facilities. We are, however, adamantly opposed to aggressive proselytizing of military personnel, sanctioned and aided and abetted by the chain of command on military bases or facilities (e.g., the Pentagon). Simply put, the troops are quite free to go off base to the church or religious group of their choice, but separation of church and state policy protects all of us, including those in the uniformed services sworn to "protect and defend" this country in places where they are in a duty status.

Don R. Fisher
Lt. Col., USA (Ret)

Religious Discrimination at the VA

2007-04-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Your book was the most powerful book I had read in some time. It energized me to keep up the fight here. I will not stop until the VA system changes and people of all faiths, or no faith, are afforded the same rights as Christians. I am leaning on Senator Harkin and the aide that heads up his office in Dubuque is incensed at how I've been treated. I have also contacted Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. If what nothing else my engagement in this fight lends some meaning (in my own eyes at least) to the bias and discrimination I've experienced at the VA. Your story - and I can't even imagine how difficult it was for you to tell it, particularly chapters 18, 19, ect. - renews my own courage and I imagine I am just one of many thousands.

The work you are doing, the sacrifices you are making will continue to make a difference. If not for people like you fighting the good fight our nation would be even further on its way toward devolving into America's own Christian Taliban. I think it important for you to know it is not just because I feel a kinship with your cause as a fellow Jew, it is even more my kinship with your absolute dedication to the Constitution - all of us who have served our Country have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States; unlike so many these days, you take that oath seriously and have never abandoned it. I can't thank you enough for that. It gives me hope and it gives me the courage and strength to fight on with my own fight.

I ended up having to go to the (VA) hospital by ambulance early
yesterday evening. When I called the advice nurse and gave her my
symptoms she told me to hang up immediately and call 911. I did.

I spent about 24 hours in the hospital and once again they couldn't
seem to produce any kosher food - I went without food the whole time.
I also expressed directed that no chaplain visit me; however a
Christian chaplain came to see me anyway, he said, "just to see if you
want us to get you a Rabbi" then handed me the chaplains office tract
with its Christian message. I also noticed, while waiting to be
discharged this afternoon, that the patient lounge on the hospital
ward was filled with Christian tracts, magazines and Bibles. I don't
see that there's any end in sight in regards to their total disregard
for faiths other than Christianity.

Finally, it looks like I'm not going to be physically up to the trip
to Colorado Springs next week; for that I am sincerely sorry. You
can't imagine how much I wish I could be there to support you against
those conniving assholes.

BTW, I managed to take with me to the hospital Barry Lynn's book,
Piety & Politics - I am already about half way through it - another
great read.

Wishing you strength & success,

Akiva David

PAMPLET HANDED OUT AT VA

click on image to enlarge

THE JET SET

2007-04-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings! Today I am really excited to be heading out to
California to speak about our cause at my alma mater, The University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law at the invitation of my close friend, fellow Air Force Academy Graduate, and former President Bush-appointed assistant interior secretary for fish, wildlife, and parks, Craig Manson. After the speech, I'll be heading back out to NewYork for a major fundraiser, then it's on to Colorado with Ambassador Joe Wilson to bring our message to the Rockies!

While on the plane this morning (and after finally being forced to shut off my cell phone and PDA!) I sat and thought about how grateful I am that our organization has
become a viable outlet for those being persecuted in our military to seek assistance. In the past few days alone, I have received several very serious calls for help from members of our Armed Forces who have exhausted all means of resolving their issues, and who are coming to us for help. Rest assured, we are on the case, and we will continue advocating for the thousands more who are either afraid to speak up, or unaware of our foundation.

On that note, we are making huge strides in awareness thanks to the tireless work of the newest member of our team, famed book publicist Ilene Proctor. We have over 60 radio and TV interviews setup, along with major speeches and book signing events. See our newly updated 'Upcoming Events' section for more information on those.

That's all for now. We begin phase 1 of our new website rollout today, so watch for some exciting changes!

-Mikey

Blood Pressure Management HANDOUT from the Peterson AFB, CO

2007-04-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

IT'S ABOUT TO GET EVEN BUSIER AROUND HERE...

2007-04-05T15:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings! It's been awhile since I've posted so I thought I would bring you up to date on what I've been up to.
I've just finished several whirlwind trips through New York, Los Angeles, and Denver, where I gave speeches,
signed books, met with supporters, participated in debates, and attended the premier of the movie that my family and I are featured prominently in, Constantine's Sword. "Oscar-nominated Director Oren Jacoby's documentary screen adaptation of the New York Times bestseller by James Carroll which chronicles the 2,000 year bloody history between the church and the Jews"

We've been working hard responding to the countless e-mails we receive requesting our support, while keeping
pressure on the Pentagon to complete their investigation into The Christian Embassy and several high ranking
military officers' illegal and unconstitutional dealings that we recently exposed.

My schedule is about to get even busier in April, with exciting events from coast to coast along with a full slate of
TV and radio interviews. See the 'Media Center' and 'Upcoming Events' sections of the site to see what we have
on our plate this month, and to see the details of my upcoming media blitz!

On another note, we are taking a fresh look at our website and are going to be making some exciting updates to
it over the coming weeks. Stay tuned for some great new features!

- Mikey

NEWSWEEK: Gates Cleans House at the Pentagon

2007-01-10T12:31:00.000-08:00

Gates Cleans House at the Pentagon

New Pentagon chief is expected to oust the U.S. general involved in the Somalia strikes.

WEB EXCLUSIVE

By Michael Hirsh and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek

Jan. 9, 2007 - Airstrikes this week on alleged Al Qaeda figures in Somalia may prove to be one of the last counterterrorism operations associated with a controversial Pentagon general who has overseen the deployment of secret U.S. Special Ops teams against suspected terror plotters, defense experts close to the Pentagon and intelligence community tell NEWSWEEK.

Lt. Gen. William Boykin and his boss, soon-to-depart Defense Undersecretary for Intelligence Steve Cambone, have guided or taken part in the planning of such covert operations against Al Qaeda-linked groups in several countries since 9/11. There is no indication that new Defense Secretary Robert Gates disagrees with the Somalia operation this week. But Boykin has long been a divisive figure. A devout evangelical Christian, he achieved notoriety in October 2003 when he was videotaped telling a church audience that the god of a Muslim warlord was "an idol" and that "my God was a real God." Boykin and Cambone have also generated controversy by allegedly seeking to wrest control of intelligence-gathering from the CIA. Gates has said he is especially determined to improve cooperation between the Department of Defense and the CIA. In written testimony during his confirmation process last fall, Gates said he was "unhappy about the dominance of the Defense Department in the intelligence arena"—a key element of Cambone's and Boykin's approach.

While Cambone's departure has been announced, Boykin's has not. A Defense Department spokesman would not confirm Wednesday that Boykin was planning to retire, but he declined to deny it either. "There have been no announcements about his retirement," said the spokesman, Maj. David Smith. A U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity owing to the sensitivity of the subject, said that Boykin currently was still on the job. But word around the Pentagon was that Gates would ask Boykin to go, this official said. Consultants who work with the intelligence and Special Operations community said it was all but certain that Boykin was following Cambone out the door. "If you're getting rid of Cambone, you almost certainly have to get rid of Boykin," says Philip Giraldi, a former CIA counterterrorism official who stays in touch with the community. "They're hand in glove. Gates feels it all went out of control, that they're doing too many things in too many places."

Boykin still has supporters inside the defense and intelligence community who say they will be sorry to see him go. Considered a near-legendary figure in the Special Operations community, Boykin was badly wounded in the "Black Hawk Down" attack in 1993 in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, where he commanded Delta Force. And his strategy of quietly destroying jihadist cells outside Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11 has had its successes. Among them: the capture of Algerian terrorist Abderrazak al-Para in 2004, the assassination of a jihadist leader in Yemen by a Hellfire missile strike in 2004 and the routing of the Abu Sayyaf terror group from Basilan Island in the Philippines. "It was Gen. Boykin who had the best chance of becoming the Patton of the war on terror," says John Arquilla of the Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, Calif. "He really wanted to put the W back in GWOT"—referring to the White House acronym for the global war on terror.

But the killing of innocents in some of these attacks has been costly to America's reputation as well. The attacks in Somalia by U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunships temporarily based in neighboring Kenya began Sunday. They were launched by the Joint Task Force based in Djibouti, with help from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the CIA and the National Security Agency, as well as Ethiopian forces. The targets: a handful of Al Qaeda operatives suspected in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as other alleged Al Qaeda associates in Somalia, U.S. officials said. The jihadis were believed to be on the run since U.S.-backed Ethiopian forces overran Mogadishu a week ago. According to an official U.S. State Department cable described to NEWSWEEK, the Al Qaeda suspects were "co-located" with forces of the fleeing Islamic Courts Union in remote southern Somalia.

Pentagon spokesman Joe Carpenter said the targets were "principal Al Qaeda leadership in the region. We're not discussing their identities or the individuals that were targeted." However, intelligence officials said U.S. forces were hoping that at least one of the three of the figures involved in the planning of the 1998 embassy attacks was among the dozens reported killed by the strikes. Two senior intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the details of the operation were classified, said it was not confirmed whether any of the Al Qaeda figures was dead.

Critics of the covert program say that Gates and Cambone's replacement, Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper, are concerned that too much collateral damage may work against U.S. interests. Giraldi says the U.S. Special Ops teams operate too often without accountability, not even notifying the local U.S. Embassy of their presence. In one case in East Africa a clandestine team was arrested by the host government and had to be bailed out by the ambassador, Giraldi says. Adds Arquilla, an advocate of dropping small teams into countries rather than launching airstrikes:

"There's a growing realization in the Pentagon that the more collateral damage is done, the worse is our position in the 'battle of the story'—in other words, every time we kill innocents our story is much less compelling and the clash of civilizations story is much more compelling."

Boykin has largely operated in the shadows—his only official title is deputy undersecretary of intelligence—and Pentagon spokesmen say neither he nor Cambone is officially involved in operations, only policy. But last spring, Sen. John Warner, then the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, came out publicly against a bid to name Boykin head of Special Operations Command.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16549316/site/newsweek/

Washington Post: Questionable Mission

2007-01-08T06:13:00.000-08:00

Questionable Mission - A Christian Embassy campaign at the Pentagon tests constitutional boundaries.

Saturday, January 6, 2007; A16

"THERE ARE over 25,000 Department of Defense leaders working in the rings and corridors of the Pentagon. Through Bible study, discipleship, prayer breakfasts, and outreach events, Christian Embassy is mustering these men and women into an intentional relationship with Jesus Christ," a narrator explains toward the start of a promotional video for Christian Embassy, an offshoot of Campus Crusade for Christ that focuses on diplomats, government leaders and military officers. As a uniformed Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack J. Catton Jr. explains, "I found a wonderful opportunity as a director on the joint staff, as I meet the people that come into my directorate, and I tell them right up front who Jack Catton is . . . and my first priority is my faith in God, then my family and then country. I share my faith because it describes who I am."

Free exercise of religion doesn't stop at the entrance to the Pentagon or other government buildings; it's a right of those who occupy the upper rungs of government service as well as those in lower ranks. But when those in senior positions are moved to share their religious views with colleagues and subordinates, the tension between the twin constitutional guarantees -- the mandate of free exercise of and the prohibition against government establishment of religion -- comes into play. That tension is heightened in the military, with its emphasis on rank and command. It's important that both uniformed and civilian military leaders, whatever their religious views, take care that others who don't share their beliefs don't feel coerced or excluded as a result.

The Christian Embassy video suggests that such sensitivity has not always been present. With its extensive, inside-the-Pentagon footage and interviews with senior officials and high-ranking officers in uniform, the video conveys a sense that the group's mission has been endorsed by the Pentagon; it carries no disclaimer. Robert Varney, the group's executive director, says the Pentagon chaplain's office gave permission for the filming and that it's no surprise that military officers, interviewed at work in the Pentagon, were in uniform. But following a complaint by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, the video has been removed from Christian Embassy's Web site and the Pentagon is reviewing the matter. As it does so, it would be wise to consider not only whether the video and the Christian Embassy's other activities comply with the letter of Pentagon rules but also with the spirit of the Constitution its personnel are sworn to protect.

Jeff Sharlet - Ten Things I Learned from the Pentagon's Prayer Team

2007-01-04T13:21:00.000-08:00

Ten Things I Learned from the Pentagon's Prayer Team

By Jeff Sharlet, The Revealer. Posted January 4, 2007.

The "Christian Embassy" quietly proselytizes inside the Pentagon, but their mission surpasses this simple ministry.

Little while ago I received a phone call from Mikey Weinstein, the prime mover behind the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, created in the wake of 2005's revelations of widespread evangelical proselytizing at the Air Force Academy. Weinstein told me that he'd spent Thanksgiving morning reading my December, 2006 Harper's feature, "Through a Glass Darkly" (online in January), which included a brief discussion of the now infamous Christian Embassy video [watch here] featuring high-ranking military officers testifying testifying in uniform on behalf of the behind-the-scenes fundamentalist organization, an apparent violation of military regulations. Weinstein has since launched a secular crusade of his own in response to the video, with the backing of a group of generals determined to maintain separation of church and state in the military.

The first public notice of the video came at the end of a longer discussion on the surprising importance of confederate General Stonewall Jackson to American fundamentalist historiography:

To put it in political terms, the contradictory legend of Stonewall Jackson - rebellion and reverence, rage and order - results in the synthesis of self-destructive patriotism embraced by contemporary fundamentalism. The most striking example is a short video on faith and diplomacy made in the aftermath of September 11,2001, by Christian Embassy, a behind-the-scenes ministry for government and military elites. It almost seems to endorse deliberate negligence of duty, Dan Cooper, an undersecretary of veterans' affairs, announces that his weekly prayer sessions are "more important than doing the job." Major General Jack Catton says that he sees his position as an adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a "wonderful opportunity" to evangelize men and women setting defense policy. "My first priority is my faith," he says. "I think it's a huge impact…. You have many men and women who are seeking God's counsel and wisdom as they advise the Chairman [of the Joint Chiefs] and the Secretary of Defense." Brigadier General Bob Caslen puts it in sensual terms: "We're the aroma of Jesus Christ." There's a joyous disregard for democracy in these sentiments, for its demands and its compromises, that in its darkest manifestation becomes the overlooked piety at the heart of the old logic of Vietnam, lately applied to Iraq: In order to save the village, we must destroy it.
Weinstein, a former Air Force lawyer and Reagan White House counsel, saw not just some disturbing theology, but a potential violation of military regulations regarding separation of church and state. Moreover, with his son -- a recent graduate of the Air Force Academy -- headed for Iraq, Weinstein saw the video as almost made-to-order Al Qaeda propaganda. After all, how hard would it be to persuade a potential Al Qaeda recruit that the U.S. is fighting a Christian crusade when U.S. generals and Department of Defense officials say so in so many words? Weinstein's organization is pushing the Pentagon for a full investigation.

In the meantime, I promised Weinstein I'd review my notes from an interview I conducted with Christian Embassy's chief of staff, Sam McCullough, on November 2, 2005, in the process of researching a profile of Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, the Christian Right's favorite candidate for '08, for Rolling Stone. McCullough and I met in his corner office at 2000 14th Street in Arlington, Virginia, a sterile cul de sac of computer-cut brick and glass down a hill from the Arlington courthouse. Christian Embassy occupies a low suite of offices on the 3rd floor, decorated so generically that it looks like it must be a front -- there are two ferns and some colonial lamps and a tacky painting of the Grand Tetons. McCullough is an ordained minister, but he prefers not to use the title of "reverend" because he believes he can more effectively spread the Gospel if he can "blend in as a layman." He's a tall man with broad shoulders that are slightly sloped. There's a golf hat that says "The Hill" on top of his lamp, his sole concession to frivolity.

By McCullough's own description, he is not an optimistic man. Dour, even, though not mean-spirited. Skeptical by nature, his business is belief; he reconciles his temperament to his work through a style of half-smiles and long silences. A graduate of Columbia Bible College, he is a bit of an exception on staff; many of the counselors (of which there were 22 at the time) are graduates of Campus Crusade's theological training program. He has been working with Christian Embassy for 27 years, since shortly after Christian Embassy, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, moved to Arlington in 1978, a location chosen for its proximity to the ministry's targets. "Pentagon's two minutes in that direction," says McCullough, "the diplomatic community is over here, you can be on the Hill in ten minutes."

Christian Embassy originated in a 1974 collaboration between Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade, and then-Arizona Congressman John Conlan. They wanted to persuade evangelicals that it was not only permissible to participate in politics, it was necessary to save the nation from "moral decay" and imminent collapse. Bright is best known for Campus Crusade's pollyanna-ish appeals to Christian college students, but his politics were anything but sunny: Typical of his rhetoric throughout his career were his declarations at a 1962 Arizona Governor's Prayer Breakfast that the United States had between two and ten years before a complete communist take-over, and that the only hope was a complete rejection of secularism, according to the wisdom of II Chronicles, chapter six. That's the part where King Solomon decrees that all government business will be conducted in the temple.

If Bright dreamed of a governmental embrace of the Hebrew Bible's theocracy, Conlan wasn't quite as broadminded. When, in 1976, he ran in a primary for a Senate seat against equally conservative Congressman Sam Steiger, his campaign recruited clergymen to instruct their congregations to choose Conlan over Steiger -- who was Jewish -- because the state needed "a man with a clear testimony for Jesus Christ representing Arizona and America." (Conlan lost.)
Bright and Conlan, however, thought that tactic good enough to take nationwide, sending mailings to 120,000 clergymen to promote a political action manual by Bright. In 1978, Bright pulled his ideas together into the new organization of Christian Embassy. Even Billy Graham, long an ally of Bright's, thought it was too conservative and refused to endorse it. But Sam McCullough, who now directs Christian Embassy's ministry to congressmen, diplomats, and military officers, guessed correctly that Christian Embassy was the start of a new era of political evangelicalism in Washington. He signed on then, and he's been with Christian Embassy ever since.

Following are ten key points from McCullough's description of Christian Embassy, which McCullough said functions "very much" like the Fellowship, or the Family, the self-described "invisible" network of prayer cells for elites in government, military, and business described in my 2003 Harper's article, "Jesus Plus Nothing." The Fellowship produces the annual National Prayer Breakfast (although it tries to keep its involvement quiet); Christian Embassy has no analogous public face.

Christian Embassy is political.

Unlike the conservative Family Research Council, which McCullough describes as an explicitly political lobby with which Christian Embassy sometimes coordinates, Christian Embassy focuses on "networking, individual counseling, that kind of thing." McCullough told me that Christian Embassy is apolitical; on the other hand, he also said its ministry has a political impact: "It's more to help the individual grow as a person in their relationship with God, and then their politics is going to be an outcome."

Christian Embassy believes religion should guide politics.

Christian Embassy believes that politicians, diplomats, and officers should not consider their personal faith separate from their politics and their official duties. McCullough offers as a role model President Bush: "…in terms of the way [Bush] talks, the way he believes, he doesn't really say 'Oh I'm going to do religious things now and do other things later.'"

Christian Embassy sees the top brass as its mission field

McCullough on Christian Embassy's Pentagon presence: "At the Pentagon, we have a flag officers groups. Your stars, basically, 1-4 stars. We also have a disciple group at the pentagon. And there's a general Bible study that meets Wednesday morning where 70-120 come. Most of our groups that we organize and work with are at the officer level. Flags, a good percentage. We have about 40 that come or are involved with that."

Christian Embassy is closely involved with political and military officials.

Those who work with Christian Embassy will typically meet in small groups, under the supervision of a counselor like McCullough, for an hour every week. Counselors typically select a scripture verse for discussion and attempt to draw out its "practical" implications, often through application to current events. Participants can and do call on Christian Embassy counselors for additional advice outside of their cell meetings. These counseling sessions typically take place in the officer's or politician's office. The most committed participants may travel overseas on behalf of Christian Embassy or arrange their official government travel to leave time for evangelizing work. This work may sometimes be "covert," such as a evangelizing in countries where it's against the law.

Christian Embassy takes political positions.

Participants may call on Christian Embassy for advice on specific issues. "'What does the Bible say about this?'" is a common question, according to McCullough. He says Christian Embassy will not give explicit policy advice, but as a counselor, he would tell a member of Congress or a military official that a particular position -- pro-choice politics, or pacifism, for instance -- is "contrary to scripture."

Christian Embassy believes the Iraq War may be biblically sanctioned.

On the question of the war in Iraq, McCullough counsels: "We have war all throughout the Bible. Man's history is war. So what's the right thing? Not necessarily [the] war in the Bible. But what are you looking for? Is peace possible?" McCullough answered his own question by laughing.
Christian Embassy is a lobby in all but name.
McCullough says Christian Embassy is not a lobbying organization, but describes his work thusly: "I often will go visit a member of Congress and say, 'Hey, there's this going on, could you be involved in that?' … Or I will recommend to some of these groups that are issue oriented as to who might be interested in helping them. I am aware of where people are. So we do try to connect the dots. Network people." He agrees that Christian Embassy participants use the Christian Embassy network to political advantage, but considers this a positive outcome since it gives ambitious political, diplomatic, and military figures an incentive to get more involved with Christian Embassy's evangelical theology.

Christian Embassy is conservative and mostly Republican.

McCullough says Christian Embassy is bi-partisan, but in addition to President Bush and the Republicans featured in the video, he offered as examples of public figures very involved with Christian Embassy's work three very conservative Republican senators, Sam Brownback of Kansas, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, and John Thune of South Dakota; and four Republican representatives, conservatives Robert Alderholt of Alabama and John R. Carter of Texas and moderates Vern Ehlers of Wisconsin and Tim Johnson of Illinois. McCullough could think of only one Democrat, Representative Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, a blue dog Christian conservative with high ratings from the Christian Coalition and Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum. He said that McIntyre was living at the time in the Fellowship's special Capitol Hill dorm for congressmen. The video features appearances by former Congressman Tom DeLay of Texas and Representative J.D. Hayworth of Arizona, two more religious conservatives.

Christian Embassy is influential.

McCullough says there are "about 80 members of Congress that are in our rotation." More than half are "mature," by which he means fully in sync with Christian Embassy's theology. Immature Christians are matched with mature Christians to mentor them in Christian Embassy's beliefs. Christian Embassy is stronger in the House than in the Senate; their goal is to develop a relationship with politicians and officers at the beginning of their Washington careers--as they did with Brownback--that will allow them access as some of those politicians and officers grow in influence.

Christian Embassy thinks separation of church and state has gone too far.

Christian Embassy's theology, like that of Campus Crusade, might best be characterized as "ecumenical fundamentalism." They're not interested in denominational divides. Rather, they're invested in a critique of culture that sees the United States as in a state of "decay" as a result of inadequate Bible study. They believe the Bible was once part of public life and that it must be restored to its central role in order to achieve "revival." According to McCullough, separation of church and state has gone too far.

Christian Embassy's ambition is international.

An elegant booklet that accompanied the DVD McCullough gave me is filled not just with the testimonies of generals and congressmen, but also with those of foreign diplomats declaring Washington a sort of holy city. "The most important thing since coming to Washington from my communist-dominated society is that I that I have discovered God," writes a "European ambassador," thanking Christian Embassy. Fijian Ambassador Pita Nacuva, reports the booklet, following his "years of spiritual training in Washington, D.C." with Christian Embassy, reconfigured his country's public schools' "on the model of Jesus Christ" using an American Christian curriculum designed for developing nations, currently exported to around 40 countries.

Tagged as: pentagon, church and state, christian right, christian embassy, military
Jeff Sharlet is a contributing editor to Harper's and the author of History of Elite Christian Fundamentalism forthcoming from HarperCollins.

We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East'. --- Harold Pinter 2005 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

Chris Hedges: America’s Holy Warriors

2007-01-02T12:37:00.000-08:00

Chris Hedges: America’s Holy Warriors

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061231_chris_hedges_americas_holy_warriors/

Posted on Dec 31, 2006

By Chris Hedges

Editor’s note: The former New York Times Mideast Bureau chief warns that the radical Christian right is coming dangerously close to its goal of co-opting the country’s military and law enforcement.

The drive by the Christian right to take control of military chaplaincies, which now sees radical Christians holding roughly 50 percent of chaplaincy appointments in the armed services and service academies, is part of a much larger effort to politicize the military and law enforcement. This effort signals the final and perhaps most deadly stage in the long campaign by the radical Christian right to dismantle America’s open society and build a theocratic state. A successful politicization of the military would signal the end of our democracy.

During the past two years I traveled across the country to research and write the book “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.” I repeatedly listened to radical preachers attack as corrupt and godless most American institutions, from federal agencies that provide housing and social welfare to public schools and the media. But there were two institutions that never came under attack—the military and law enforcement. While these preachers had no interest in communicating with local leaders of other faiths, or those in the community who did not subscribe to their call for a radical Christian state, they assiduously courted and flattered the military and police.

They held special services and appreciation days for all four branches of the armed services and for various law enforcement agencies. They encouraged their young men and women to enlist or to join the police or state troopers. They sought out sympathetic military and police officials to attend church events where these officials were lauded and feted for their Christian probity and patriotism. They painted the war in Iraq not as an occupation but as an apocalyptic battle by Christians against Islam, a religion they regularly branded as “satanic.” All this befits a movement whose final aesthetic is violence.

It also befits a movement that, in the end, would need the military and police forces to seize power in American society. One of the arguments used to assuage our fears that the mass movement being built by the Christian right is fascist at its core is that it has not yet created a Praetorian Guard, referring to the paramilitary force that defied legal constraints, made violence part of the political discourse and eventually plunged ancient Rome into tyranny and despotism. A paramilitary force that operates outside the law, one that sows fear among potential opponents and is capable of physically silencing those branded by their leaders as traitors, is a vital instrument in the hands of despotic movements. Communist and fascist movements during the last century each built paramilitary forces that operated beyond the reach of the law.

And yet we may be further down this road than we care to admit. Erik Prince, the secretive, mega-millionaire, right-wing Christian founder of Blackwater, the private security firm that has built a formidable mercenary force in Iraq, champions his company as a patriotic extension of the U.S. military. His employees, in an act as cynical as it is deceitful, take an oath of loyalty to the Constitution. These mercenary units in Iraq, including Blackwater, contain some 20,000 fighters. They unleash indiscriminate and wanton violence against unarmed Iraqis, have no accountability and are beyond the reach of legitimate authority. The appearance of these paramilitary fighters, heavily armed and wearing their trademark black uniforms, patrolling the streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, gave us a grim taste of the future. It was a stark reminder that the tyranny we impose on others we will one day impose on ourselves.
“Contracting out security to groups like Blackwater undermines our constitutional democracy,” said Michael Ratner, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Their actions may not be subject to constitutional limitations that apply to both federal and state officials and employees—including First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights to be free from illegal searches and seizures. Unlike police officers they are not trained in protecting constitutional rights and unlike police officers or the military they have no system of accountability whether within their organization or outside it. These kind of paramilitary groups bring to mind Nazi Party brownshirts, functioning as an extrajudicial enforcement mechanism that can and does operate outside the law. The use of these paramilitary groups is an extremely dangerous threat to our rights."

The politicization of the military, the fostering of the belief that violence must be used to further a peculiar ideology rather than defend a democracy, was on display recently when Air Force and Army generals and colonels, filmed in uniform at the Pentagon, appeared in a promotional video distributed by the Christian Embassy, a radical Washington-based organization dedicated to building a “Christian America.” The video, first written about by Jeff Sharlet in the December issue of Harper’s Magazine and filmed shortly after 9/11, has led the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to raise a legal protest against the Christian Embassy’s proselytizing within the Department of Defense. The video was hastily pulled from the Christian Embassy website and was removed from YouTube a few days ago under threats of copyright enforcement.

Dan Cooper, an undersecretary of veterans affairs, says in the video that his weekly prayer sessions are “more important than doing the job.” Maj. Gen. Jack Catton says that his being an adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff is a “wonderful opportunity” to evangelize men and women setting defense policy. “My first priority is my faith,” he says. “I think it’s a huge impact.... You have many men and women who are seeking God’s counsel and wisdom as they advise the chairman [of the Joint Chiefs] and the secretary of defense.”

Col. Ralph Benson, a Pentagon chaplain, says in the video: “Christian Embassy is a blessing to the Washington area, a blessing to our capital; it’s a blessing to our country. They are interceding on behalf of people all over the United States, talking to ambassadors, talking to people in the Congress, in the Senate, talking to people in the Pentagon, and being able to share the message of Jesus Christ in a very, very important time in our world is winning a worldwide war on terrorism. What more do we need than Christian people leading us and guiding us, so, they’re needed in this hour.”

The group has burrowed deep inside the Pentagon. It hosts weekly Bible sessions with senior officers, by its own count some 40 generals, and weekly prayer breakfasts each Wednesday from 7 to 7:50 a.m. in the executive dining room as well as numerous outreach events to, in the words of the organization, “share and sharpen one another in their quest to bridge the gap between faith and work.”

If the United States falls into a period of instability caused by another catastrophic terrorist attack, an economic meltdown or a series of environmental disasters, these paramilitary forces, protected and assisted by fellow ideologues in the police and military, could swiftly abolish what is left of our eroding democracy. War, with the huge profits it hands to businesses and right-wing interests that often help bankroll the Christian right, could become a permanent condition. And the thugs with automatic weapons, black uniforms and wraparound sunglasses who appeared on street corners in Baghdad and New Orleans could appear on streets across the U.S. Such a presence could paralyze us with fear, leaving us unable to question or protest the closed system and secrecy of an emergent totalitarian state and unable to voice dissent.

“The Bush administration has already come close to painting our current wars as wars against Islam—many in the Christian right apparently have this belief,” Ratner said. “If these wars, bad enough as imperial wars, are fought as religious wars, we are facing a very dark age that could go on for a hundred years and that will be very bloody.”

An Open Letter to Rush Limbaugh

2006-12-22T07:36:00.000-08:00

An Open Letter to Rush Limbaugh:
In Defense of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation

Satan’s Lawyer. Un-American. Anti-religion. Pacifist. Anti-Christ. Liberal. The Field General of the Godless Armies of Satan. The Most Dangerous Man in America.

I’ve been called many names since I began my battle to uphold the religious freedoms of the noble men and women in our armed forces. I’m impressed with the creativity of my adversaries and frankly flattered that so much time has been invested in coining these denigrating titles.

It’s rare that I take time to call attention to these criticisms, sticks and stones may break my bones but, you know the rest; however, Rush, you who kindly called both me and Military Religious Freedom Foundation members liberal pacifists, also asked an important question of me on your radio program last week.

“Who in the world are you, Mikey, to say that our military has to ban religious activity in the Pentagon because it might offend the enemy?”

Well, Rush, exactly who do I have to be and who are you to openly trample on our Constitutional rights?

This has never been a political spectrum left or right issue; it is an issue of what is Constitutionally right or wrong. It is neither my goal nor the goal of my Foundation to “ban religious activity in the Pentagon,” and we certainly do not strive to appease the fundamentalist enemies we are currently fighting.

I am a great believer in the United States Constitution as laid out for us by our Founding Fathers. I am a staunch advocate for both freedom of speech and religious freedom. However, the military, due to its necessarily draconian command structure, is an inherently coercive, adversarial, and ritualistic organization – one that presents situations in which both of these cherished freedoms can easily be abused in the supervisor-subordinate relationship. Given your personal lack of service in our nation’s armed forces, I can partially understand why you might not grasp these basic facts.

Military leadership is required to uphold and abide by military regulations and Constitutional guarantees. Senior officials must strive to serve as exemplars to their subordinates.

Military and civilian personnel are undoubtedly entitled to their own religious beliefs. It is, however, clearly against military regulations and Constitutional guarantees to promote these beliefs during mandatory military meetings and events, while in uniform and on duty. My son and daughter-in-law (both of whom are United States Air Force Academy graduates) found this out when their request to appear in uniform in a documentary film about religion in the military was denied, in writing, by the Pentagon, for fear of government endorsement of their views.

We are not asking for the cessation of bible studies, prayer groups, sermonizing or religious functions before or after military duties have been completed. We are only asking that these religious events not be made mandatory or be thrust by those in the chain-of-command, in the face of subordinates who actively choose not to engage in them. Of equal importance, we are asking military members to not use their official government positions as a platform to preach about their particular biblical worldview.

As a United States Air Force Academy graduate, with a long family history of military combat service, I consider myself a true patriot and a loyal supporter of this country and her values. I have never sought to placate our enemies and did not choose to engage in this fight with that objective in mind. Rather, I took up this cause after hearing innumerable examples of specific Constitutional infractions and of blatant religious bias, from U.S. armed forces and civilian personnel stationed at the 702 U.S. military installations in 132 countries throughout the world.

I firmly believe that the encroachment of religious fundamentalism on our armed forces destroys their ability to successfully serve the American people. Servicemen and women, cadets, midshipmen and civilian personnel are crying out that constant coercive evangelizing and the pressure to adhere to a religion that is not their own, negatively impacts their ability to study, serve and stand together as a cohesive fighting unit in the war we are currently waging.

How can we successfully battle religious fundamentalists overseas who seek the destruction of American ideals, if we carry our own brand of fundamentalism into that war?

It is your support, Rush, for the deliberate erosion of our Constitution that truly emboldens our enemies overseas.

I'll fight with every fiber of my being for you to have the right to spew your skewed notion of our Constitution. But I also won't rest until all of our men and women in uniform have the religious freedom our nation guarantees.

Mikey Weinstein
MRFF President and Founder

MRFF on the Daily Kos

2006-12-12T09:09:00.000-08:00

At the Pentagon: Aroma of Jesus Christ.
by Kagro X

Mon Dec 11, 2006 at 08:06:58 AM PST

What do you get when you combine the wingnutty goodness of the erosion of the separation of church and state with the tempting taste of the military-industrial complex?

Hey, you got your religion in my military!

No, you got your military in my religion!

WaPo's Alan Cooperman:

A military watchdog group is asking the Defense Department to investigate whether seven Army and Air Force officers violated regulations by appearing in uniform in a promotional video for an evangelical Christian organization.

In the video, much of which was filmed inside the Pentagon, four generals and three colonels praise the Christian Embassy, a group that evangelizes among military leaders, politicians and diplomats in Washington. Some of the officers describe their efforts to spread their faith within the military.

Yikes! But is it wrong?

Well, as we know from six years under this "administration," it depends whose side you're on. The watchdog requesting the inquiry sent a letter that:

cites Defense Department regulations barring personnel from appearing in uniform in "speeches, interviews, picket lines, marches, rallies or any public demonstration . . . which may imply Service sanction of the cause for which the demonstration or activity is conducted."
All the officers are identified in the video by their Defense Department positions, "yet the video failed to include any disclaimers indicating that the views expressed were not those of the Department of Defense," the letter says.

http://www.dailykos.com/main/2

Inquiry Sought Over Evangelical Video - Washington Post

2006-12-11T11:13:00.000-08:00

Defense Department Asked to Examine Officers' Acts Supporting Christian Group

By Alan CoopermanWashington Post Staff Writer

Monday, December 11, 2006; A03

A military watchdog group is asking the Defense Department to investigate whether seven Army and Air Force officers violated regulations by appearing in uniform in a promotional video for an evangelical Christian organization.

In the video, much of which was filmed inside the Pentagon, four generals and three colonels praise the Christian Embassy, a group that evangelizes among military leaders, politicians and diplomats in Washington. Some of the officers describe their efforts to spread their faith within the military.

"I found a wonderful opportunity as a director on the joint staff, as I meet the people that come into my directorate," Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack J. Catton Jr. says in the video. "And I tell them right up front who Jack Catton is, and I start with the fact that I'm an old-fashioned American, and my first priority is my faith in God, then my family and then country. I share my faith because it describes who I am."

Pete Geren, a former acting secretary of the Air Force who oversaw the service's response in 2005 to accusations that evangelical Christians were pressuring cadets at the Air Force Academy, also appears in the video. The Christian Embassy "has been a rock that I can rely on, been an organization that helped me in my walk with Christ, and I'm just thankful for the service they give," he says.

The 10-minute video is on the group's Web site, Christianembassy.com. The organization was founded nearly 30 years ago by the late Bill Bright, who also founded Campus Crusade for Christ. The Christian Embassy Web site says the group holds prayer breakfasts each Wednesday in the Pentagon's executive dining room and organizes small groups to help military leaders "bridge the gap between faith and work."

Army Brig. Gen. Bob Casen refers in the video to the Christian Embassy's special efforts to reach admirals and generals through Flag Fellowship groups. Whenever he sees another fellowship member, he says, "I immediately feel like I am being held accountable, because we are the aroma of Jesus Christ."

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group led by retired Air Force lawyer Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein, is requesting an investigation in a letter to the Defense Department's inspector general.

Weinstein, a White House lawyer in the Reagan administration, cites Defense Department regulations barring personnel from appearing in uniform in "speeches, interviews, picket lines, marches, rallies or any public demonstration . . . which may imply Service sanction of the cause for which the demonstration or activity is conducted."

All the officers are identified in the video by their Defense Department positions, "yet the video failed to include any disclaimers indicating that the views expressed were not those of the Department of Defense," the letter says.

It asks whether the officers received permission to promote the Christian Embassy and whether any other religious or secular organizations have been allowed to use Pentagon facilities and uniformed personnel in promotional videos.

Catton said yesterday that he does not remember whether he sought approval to appear in the video, which he said was made in 2005. "If someone asked me today to do it, I for sure would ask permission," said the general, who sparked controversy this year by raising money from fellow officers for a congressional candidate.

Christian Embassy officials in Washington did not return phone messages left at their homes and offices over the weekend.

Air Force Lt. Col. Todd Vician, a Pentagon spokesman, said yesterday that "it is impossible for me or the department to comment on a letter we haven't received yet." Once the letter is in hand, he added, "I'm confident that the inspector general will take the appropriate action."
In 2003, Army Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin drew criticism for appearing in uniform before church groups and saying, in remarks captured on video, that President Bush was "appointed by God," that the United States is "a Christian nation" and that Muslims worship "an idol." The inspector general's office determined that Boykin had not violated any rules, and he remained in a top intelligence post.

This year, Navy chaplain Gordon J. Klingenschmitt was court-martialed for appearing in uniform at a political protest in front of the White House, though he maintained that all he did was lead a prayer.

Weinstein noted that his son and daughter-in-law, who are serving as first lieutenants in the Air Force, received written permission in July to appear in a documentary based on the book "Constantine's Sword," a history of Christian anti-Semitism.

"They may appear on camera for this documentary, but as they will be speaking for themselves, as private citizens, not for the Air Force, they cannot appear in uniform," says the order, a copy of which Weinstein provided to The Washington Post.

Coincidences among Topeka crimes concern religious leaders

2006-11-17T11:52:00.000-08:00

Activist: Military full of evangelizing fundamentalists

2006-11-14T08:36:00.000-08:00

Activist: Military full of evangelizing fundamentalists

By John Hanna - Associated Press Writer
Saturday, November 11, 2006

Topeka - Mikey Weinstein’s favorite nickname among the ones bestowed on him by his opponents is "field general of the godless armies of Satan." There’s also "Satan’s lawyer" and "Satan’s pet."

His fight, he says, is against a "virulent" strain of radically conservative Christianity, espoused by evangelizing, Apocalypse-minded fundamentalists and so narrow in its world view that even some evangelicals aren’t seen as saved. He contends military officers who hold such views routinely use command positions to push them on the soldiers under them.

On the eve of Veterans Day, Weinstein was in Topeka for events at a local synagogue and Washburn University. He said in an interview that problems of religious intolerance in the military have grown serious and that almost all the people who contact him now about it are Christians.

"It’s very much as much a national security threat as al-Qaida is," Weinstein said. "The people that have all the weapons and are supposed to support and defend our constitutional rights view us as Americans, those who are the saved Americans and those who are the lost Americans."
Weinstein, an Albuquerque, N.M., lawyer, founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation less than a year ago. Both he and his youngest son, Curtis, say they encountered anti-Semitism as Jewish cadets at the Air Force Academy, and he has written a book, "With God on Our Side," about the issue.

Last month, a federal judge in Colorado dismissed a lawsuit by Mikey Weinstein and four other Air Force Academy graduates, who argued that particular religious views were being pushed on cadets. Weinstein said future litigation is possible.

"We are way past the tipping point in what I refer to as the technologically most lethal organization ever created by humankind, which is the U.S. military," he said. "The wall that was intended to separate church and state in this country, in the armed forces is nothing but smoke and debris right now."

Last year, an Air Force task force concluded there was no overt religious discrimination at the school but that some cadets and staff were insensitive.

Ted Minnery, a vice president at the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colo., said Weinstein’s statements about what’s going on in the military aren’t accurate. He also said it’s "cruel" not to allow people who face death to "grapple with ultimate truth."

"What Mikey wants to do is wipe the military clean of any religious influence," he said. "This is America, and Americans are religious people, and the military reflects the country."
Weinstein said he’s not opposed to any religion, even the "virulent" fundamentalist Christianity he worries about. He said he simply wants to make sure that personnel aren’t being pressured to adopt certain beliefs by their superiors.

"If you’re junior to someone and a superior is proselytizing you or evangelizing you, which happens all the time, ‘Get out of my face, sir or ma’am’ is not an option for you," he said.
Furthermore, he said, it’s not Jews like himself or followers of non-Christian faiths who are complaining the most.

"I track it. Ninety-six percent of the people coming to me are Christians," he said. "Generally, a fourth will be Roman Catholic. The rest will all be Baptists, Assemblies of God, Lutheran, Presbyterian."

He said military officers often are afraid to have him share their stories even anonymously, fearing their careers will be damaged. And, he said, there’s an added dimension of fear, with commanders deciding who goes into combat.

"How do you think it feels to be told that, ‘We’re going to go take that hill; we’re going to go search this house or this road for IEDs. Now, Baker and Smith, you over here, if you get blown to bits, you’re going to be spending eternity in hell, burning eternally in hell’?" he asked.

Statement on Court Ruling

2006-10-30T11:41:00.000-08:00

MILITARY RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FOUNDATION DISAPPOINTED BY COURT RULING, VOWS TO REFILE LAWSUIT

ALBUQUERQUE – Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation today vowed to refile a lawsuit seeking to protect our nation’s armed forces from unconstitutional violations of their religious freedom.

A federal judge today in New Mexico dismissed on a technicality the lawsuit filed against the United States Air Force. Mikey Weinstein released the following statement in response to the decision:

“While we respect Judge Parker’s ruling, we are deeply disappointed that our efforts have been delayed to protect the rights of the brave and honorable men and women serving in our nation’s armed forces. We will refile our lawsuit as quickly as possible. Our fight is far from over. Religious bias and the outrageous violations of the separation of church and state continue to spread rampantly throughout our military.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation remains steadfastly committed to upholding our constitutional rights and to ensure that our government and military officials do the same. We will do everything in our power to halt the encroachment of fundamentalist religious ideology on our nation’s armed forces.”

###

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

CO Springs Gazette: Academy allegations discussed

2006-10-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

Academy allegations discussed

John Regni: Academy superintendent met with grad.

By JAKE SCHALLER THE GAZETTE

Mikey Weinstein, an Air Force Academy graduate who has sued the Air Force for religious intolerance, met with academy superintendent Lt. Gen. John F. Regni on Thursday afternoon to discuss the academy baseball team, which has been riddled with turnover during the past three years.

The Gazette reported Sunday that former players said baseball coach Mike Hutcheon had pushed his religious views or favored players with similar beliefs. Hutcheon denied the allegations and academy officials supported him. More on this topic
Earlier coverage:

Weinstein said the meeting with Regni was “positive and valuable.” Regni was unavailable to comment. Academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker said Regni described the meeting as “cordial” and “good.”

Weinstein, who was in town to promote his book, “With God on Our Side,” requested the meeting after reading the article in The Gazette.

Weinstein said he and Regni established a direct line of communication that did not previously exist. He added that Regni said he wanted to talk to individuals who report incidents to Weinstein and “wants to get to the bottom of” any alleged religious intolerance.

“I was prepared for a contentious, unpleasant, awkward meeting, and it was the antithesis of that,” Weinstein said. “There was an air of mutual respect in the meeting. They listened to everything I had to say, and I think they took it to heart. . . . Now we’ll have to see if they can walk the walk.”

Regni was joined in the meeting by an Air Force attorney, Col. Mike Rodgers, and Don Bird, who is a chemistry professor and faculty representative to the athletic department. Bird conducted the athletic department’s investigation of allegations, which were sent to the superintendent’s office in an anonymous letter, against Hutcheon.

Whitaker said that Regni told Weinstein that “our baseball program today is run within all the constitutional rules, all the Air Force rules regarding religion and religious respect, and Mr. Weinstein agreed with all that.”

Weinstein confirmed that. Weinstein, whose son is a cadet, said he spoke to one of his son’s friends who is a member of the baseball team. Based on that, Weinstein said as far as he knows the baseball team has been “in constitutional compliance, at least since April.” But he said he wanted to talk about “the things that happened in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

“I understand (Regni) wants to focus on things that are happening now, but to me, the past is prologue,” Weinstein said.

Weinstein said he thought Bird’s investigation was inadequate. Weinstein said Bird spoke passionately about his investigation and said that Bird did not attempt to cover up anything.

Weinstein said he felt the academy would investigate similar allegations more thoroughly in the future.

Weinstein said he and his lawyers still are considering filing a motion to amend the lawsuit to add some accounts from The Gazette’s article.

Meanwhile, another baseball player, senior Billy Adams, has been cut. According to Air Force sports information director Troy Garnhart, Hutcheon said he cut Adams two weeks ago at the end of fall practices. Adams, however, was still on the roster Thursday morning, but gone by Thursday evening. Garnhart said Hutcheon told him the decision was made because Adams was a senior who would play little. Garnhart said Hutcheon is trying to find a way to keep Adams involved in the program because he admired Adams’ commitment to the team.

In Sunday’s Gazette story, Adams - while still a team member - was asked about the departure of so many players and he said the team had finally “gotten rid of the cancer.” He also said in the interview that, “If there was a dividing line in the locker room, it was who’s going to shut up and play ball and accept what coach says or who’s going to run their mouth because we’re losing and bringing negativity.”

Garnhart said Adams declined comment Thursday.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0365 or jake.schaller@gazette.com

Allard Question Academy Brass About Allegations

2006-10-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

Allard questions academy brass about allegations

By JAKE SCHALLER THE GAZETTE

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., called Air Force superintendent Lieutenant General John F. Regni on Monday to ask about a report that baseball coach Mike Hutcheon might have pushed his religious views on players, said Steve Wymer, Allard’s deputy press secretary. Allard’s call was in response to a story in the Sunday edition of The Gazette.

The article quoted unnamed players who said Hutcheon pushed his religious views on players or favored players with similar outlooks. The Gazette reported that 31 varsity players from the 2004, 2005 and 2006 seasons either quit the team or were pushed out by Hutcheon and detailed a near mutiny in 2005.

Allard was assured by Regni, according to Wymer, that the academy had looked into the allegations and would continue to monitor the situation. Regni told Allard, Wymer said, that the situation was “of concern and that they have been and would be looking into it.” Wymer said Allard would follow up with Regni later. Hutcheon has denied that religion is a factor in how he treats players, and the academy’s leadership has expressed support for him.

Asked to comment on the story in Sunday’s Gazette, Air Force Academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker said: “We’re disappointed that the paper chose this route to make a major story based on what we looked into and considered to be meritless, anonymous allegations. “

We received pretty much the same anonymous letters and comments, and we looked into them and found them to be baseless, without substance. “We hired coach Hutcheon to come in here and clean up a program and add discipline and rigor. It was out of control. That’s what he’s doing and we whole-heartedly support him.”

Political activist Mikey Weinstein, meantime, said he was “outraged” by what he read in the story. An Air Force graduate who has a pending lawsuit against the academy for religious intolerance, Weinstein said Monday he has been thinking about filing a motion to amend the lawsuit and “add these accounts (in the article) and use this evidence and determine who we may or may not want to call as witnesses.”

Weinstein said he was most upset by what he said was an inadequate investigation into the allegations by the academy.

“When I see how the academy, quote, investigated it, it must have taken all of about 45 minutes,” Weinstein said. “They’re trying to say, ‘Move along, move along. Nothing to see here.’”

Associated Press: Religious Freedom Issue to Move to Capitol Hill

2006-10-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

Religious freedom issue to move to Capitol Hill

October 3, 2006

By Anne Plummer Flaherty

Christian conservatives in Congress are expected to renew their fight to allow military chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus at public events, contending that existing practices infringe upon basic religious freedoms.

They lost a battle last week to push through legislation that would have allowed military chaplains to publicly lead groups in sectarian prayers. The language was championed by conservatives who say service policies are so restrictive that chaplains cannot invoke Jesus’ name when praying in public, including over a dead soldier on the battlefield.

Military chaplains often lead groups in prayer outside private religious services, but omit references to any particular religion. Opponents have said allowing specific religious references during public military prayers could be divisive.

Debate on the legislation came just weeks before the Nov. 7 congressional elections and was seen by critics as a desperate effort by conservatives to cater to religious voters, who in recent elections periodically have swayed election outcomes. Critics also say the language could cripple U.S. efforts to win the “hearts and minds” of Muslims in the Middle East by depicting the American military as evangelizing Christians.

Republican Rep. Walter Jones and other conservatives who supported the legislation say their proposal is not intended to allow evangelizing within the military.

“This is about a First Amendment right” to free speech, Jones said in an interview Monday.

Jones and Rep. Todd Akin, also a Republican, said pushing legislation next year to lift religious restrictions on chaplains would be a focus for them if re-elected.

“The Navy and Air Force regulations that we are striking prevented chaplains from praying according to their faith and conscience, whether they were Muslim, Christian, Jewish or of any other faith,” said Akin.

House conservatives led by Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, tried last week to attach language to a defense policy bill that would have allowed chaplains to pray “according to the dictates of the chaplain’s own conscience.” Their efforts were blocked by Republican John Warner, Hunter’s counterpart in the Senate, who said he wanted more time to debate such a measure.

Warner and Hunter, who negotiated the final defense bill, agreed to drop the provision but added another one asking the Navy and Air Force to rescind their policies aimed at increasing religious sensitivity.

The agreement was seen by Jones and other conservatives as a small step in their favor that did not go far enough to clarify what chaplains can and cannot say at public events.

Mikey Weinstein, a graduate of the Air Force Academy who sued the Air Force for acts he said illegally imposed Christianity on its students, called the agreement “red meat” thrown to religious conservatives just before the elections and a forecast of what was to come.

“We know the religious right will come back twice as hard in January,” said Weinstein, who started the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Democrats largely have opposed the measure and could try tightening restrictions to prohibit “proselytizing” of service members should they gain control of Congress next year.

“The battle ahead will be to work with the military on a new set of guidelines that reflect America’s mainstream values and ensure good order and discipline on our military bases,” said Democratic Rep. Steve Israel.

NY Times & Washington Post Editorials on Defense Authorization

2006-09-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

The New York Times

Keep Christ Out of the Christmas Tree

Taxpayers may find it hard to believe that the must-pass $500 billion defense budget could be held hostage to a mischievous amendment empowering evangelical chaplains to speak in the name of Jesus at nonreligious military gatherings. But that is the case in Congress, where hard-right Republicans have held up passage of the defense bill in an attempt to license zealot chaplains to violate policies of religious tolerance at secular ceremonies.

Despite the firm opposition of the Pentagon and ecumenical chaplain groups, House Republicans have been defending this egregious pro-evangelical thumb on the scale in negotiations with the Senate.

We expect the Senate, mindful of the nation’s multidenominational legions fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, to reject the fine-print travesty. At its heart is religious intolerance - not respect of chaplains’ consciences - and a naked attempt to elevate evangelical beliefs to primacy in the ranks. These very abuses caused a scandal at the Air Force Academy two years ago after cadets complained that ranking officers tolerated evangelical chaplains’ proselytizing and discriminating on campus.

Proponents hope to exploit the urgency of passing the defense bill - part of the annual attempt to make a "Christmas tree" of the measure by weighting it with nonessential favors for political patrons. Another controversial amendment aims at allowing war veterans to introduce hunting to a pristine part of the Channel Islands National Park off the coast of California. A spokesman for Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California, said the proposal would "preserve the herds" and provide veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan with "the experience of a lifetime." Surely the Senate will oppose such a wacky exploitation of veterans as just another sop to the gun lobby.

Defense conferees who were truly conscientious would act to control predatory insurance salesmen at the gates of military bases. And they would force the Pentagon to end its awarding of unearned "bonus" payments to favored defense contractors. Government investigators found the Air Force’s F-22A Raptor plane 20 months late and 42 percent over budget, yet contractors reaped $849 million in bonuses.

Voters should wonder what in the name of (fill in deity) is going on in Congress.

____________________________________

The Washington Post

Unneeded and Divisive

Let us pray that Congress stops meddling with military chaplains.

Page A24

"UNNECESSARY and likely counterproductive." That's what a major interest group had to say Tuesday about a provision that has snarled completion of the defense authorization bill. The provision -- contained in the House version but not in the Senate-passed measure -- would permit military chaplains to offer explicitly sectarian prayers at public events. But that negative assessment, and the call on congressional negotiators to drop the amendment, didn't come, as you might assume, from the usual separation-of-church-and-state types. Rather, it was contained in a letter to lawmakers from the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals. "At this time, our country needs no legislation in this area," the Rev. Haggard wrote. He is right.

The House provision has been pushed by some evangelical ministers who contend that new Air Force and Navy guidelines violate the rights of chaplains whose faith requires them to pray in the name of Jesus Christ when they offer public prayers. It would guarantee chaplains "the prerogative to pray according to the dictates of the chaplain's own conscience, except as must be limited by military necessity, with any such limitation being imposed in the least restrictive manner feasible."

We respect the chaplains' convictions about the demands of their faith. But we are also concerned about having such sectarian prayers at events that military personnel of other faiths, or no faith at all, are compelled to attend. No one disputes that chaplains are free to pray as they wish, and as their religion demands, at private, voluntary services. The argument is about what rules should govern religious speech at public, nonreligious events. In fact, as the Defense Department explained in stating its opposition, the military's "present insistence on inclusive prayer at interfaith gatherings" is more conducive to "unit cohesion."

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) went to the Senate floor Tuesday evening to make clear his opposition to including the amendment in the defense bill. Instead, Mr. Warner said that lawmakers should hold hearings at the start of the next Congress and that in the interim the military should suspend enforcement of the new guidelines.

Mr. Warner deserves credit for his efforts to get the amendment out of the authorization bill. But the better resolution of this complicated and divisive issue would be for Congress to stay out of it and leave the matter in the hands of the military services. In the long run, the best resolution would be not to drain prayer at public ceremonies of specific religious content but to discourage prayer at such events as inherently and unnecessarily divisive.

Air Force, Navy, Army Times: Christianity in Combat

2006-08-31T11:32:00.000-07:00

Christianity in combat
Religious symbols have no place on troops’ uniforms

By Mikey Weinstein

For many of us, hearing the term "crusader" conjures up memories of grade-school history classes filled with long lectures about hordes of armored Christian soldiers hacking their way across Europe and the Middle East to recapture Jerusalem.

The crusaders were holy warriors fighting in the name of the Roman Catholic Church and Jesus. Their mission was no secret; they were embroiled in a sectarian religious war to militarily enforce adherence to their biblical worldview.

Their leaders pushed, coerced and pressured them to fight on religious grounds. Their battlegrounds were awash in blood.

As Americans, this should be something we never fear, as our founding fathers knew the critical importance of keeping religion and government separate. Most would find it unfathomable to think of modern-day crusaders existing within our armed forces - of our men and women wearing uniforms decorated with religious symbols.

However, as I recently discovered, crusaders do exist - and they’re serving in the 523rd Fighter Squadron of our Air Force. The airmen of 523rd Fighter Squadron, based at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., not only have invoked the term "Crusaders" to describe their unit, they use blatantly sectarian religious symbolism on the patches they affix to their uniforms and the official logo of their unit.

As we continue to engage in a war on terrorism against religious fundamentalists, we must take a moment to consider the sick irony of allowing Air Force combat personnel to dress in clothes displaying religious emblems. Our men and women are fighting ruthless terrorist organizations that exploit religion as a means to cause mass devastation and death. It is the job of our military to end this fundamentalism, remove the terrorists and bring safety, democracy and freedom to these areas - not to spread Christianity or represent America as a Christian nation.

Our military personnel are not crusaders. They are honorable and noble defenders of our constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms. The "Crusaders" patch prominently features a large cross - an unmistakable emblem of Christianity - as well as other accouterments of the historically dressed crusaders: a broadsword and armored helmet.

There is no hidden meaning here, no effort to disguise the reference to Christian religion. This Air Force F-16 combat squadron has taken the horrifying step of disregarding the Constitution, which, as servicemen and women, they should proudly uphold under the oath they all took to do so.

Christian, Jew, Muslim, agnostic and atheist alike should agree: There is no place for this display of religiosity within our armed forces. The uniforms of our military personnel should not be showcases for religious imagery, particularly when that imagery directly boasts of one of the most devastating examples of human bloodshed in recorded history.

Take a look at the Air Force handbook - you can find it online at www.af.mil. I assure you that nowhere in the Air Force mission statement does it say anything about fighting a crusade for religious freedom. What it does say is this: "The mission of the U.S. Air Force is to deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States and its global interests - to fly and fight in the air, space and cyberspace."

Even the ubiquitous and time-honored "Little Blue Book" of Air Force core values established in 1947 - and to which guiding principles on religion were specifically added in 1997 to stop "ethical corrosion" - clearly states: "Military professionals must remember that religious choice is a matter of individual conscience. Professionals, and especially commanders, must not take it upon themselves to change or coercively influence the religious views of subordinates."

The men and women who choose to serve in our military should be able to do so without the fear of being pressured to lead a religious crusade, without fear of being coercively evangelized and without fear of having to wear the symbol of another’s faith.

Today’s U.S. military is the most technologically lethal organization ever created. We, as Americans, should never fear that religion will overtake this mighty military force.
There is no denying that religion is pouring into our government institutions - including our armed forces - at a rapid pace. It is our responsibility to stand up and raise our voices against these continued egregious violations of our Constitution.

Our Constitution guarantees us the right to pray freely and also prevents our government from imposing religion upon us. We must express our outrage to military and government leadership, and we must fight to protect the rights, including the right to worship - or not - our God, in whatever manner we choose.

The writer, an Air Force Academy graduate and former White House counsel under President Reagan, is president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Wife of Academy's Critic Not Backing Down from Anyone

2006-08-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

Wife of academy’s critic not backing down from anyone

By PAM ZUBECK THE GAZETTE

Bonnie Weinstein is a hand talker, swishing the air like a karate expert to make a point. Maybe it’s the best way to get a word in edgewise with her motormouth husband, Mikey Weinstein.

You remember him — the guy who’s appeared on every major network and in newspapers and held court at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to advance his cause of stripping any hint of religious favoritism from the military.

It began when Weinstein, an Air Force Academy grad who is Jewish, learned his two sons were humiliated by religious slurs at the academy in 2004. So far, his wife has taken “high cover,”

like a fighter jet ready to “come down and do some strafing missions” if needed, she said. She hasn’t had to yet, but she’s fully prepared for it. She shares her husband’s view that the war is under way over the U.S. Constitution’s separation of church and state clause.

In her first one-on-one interview without her husband, Bonnie Weinstein told The Gazette in her mom’s Colorado Springs living room that she’s Mikey Weinstein’s co-pilot in every sense of the word. Bonnie Weinstein, who has worked hard to remain fit and ambulatory after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, is like her husband when it comes to mincing words. She doesn’t. “We’re asking for equality and religious tolerance, nothing more,” she said.

Like her husband, she was a military brat, moving to Colorado Springs with her family when she was a teen. Walking the halls of Mitchell High School, she recalls gossiping with friends about meeting cadets at academy mixers. She graduated from Mitchell in 1975 and attended the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs while waiting for Mikey Weinstein to finish at the academy.
She didn’t like Colorado Springs — too cold.

“I was all about getting my life started with Mikey,” she said, which she did on June 3, 1977, at the Academy Chapel two days after he became a second lieutenant. Raised a Protestant, she converted to Judaism a year later. While he studied law, she earned an interior design degree at California State University, Sacramento, and had two sons, Casey, a 2004 academy grad, and Curtis, an academy junior.

After Mikey Weinstein’s time as a White House lawyer in the 1980s, the couple settled in Albuquerque, where he’s become wealthy as a lawyer and from the information technology business. He also works for Ross Perot. Bonnie Weinstein spent the summer of 1998 in a wheelchair after becoming paralyzed with MS and struggled to walk again. She volunteers, works in the interior design business, gardens and cares for their two German shepherds at the couple’s spacious home, which has become a target for detractors.

Since filing the lawsuit, beer bottles have smashed their driveway, nasty phone calls have disrupted the night and a dead rabbit was left on their doorstep. That doesn’t intimidate Bonnie Weinstein. Neither do generals.

During a meeting in 2004 with then-Commandant of Cadets Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida, who said Jesus led him to the academy, she squirmed. “I was going to throw it back to him and say, ‘I thought it was the powers of the Pentagon that made those decisions,’” but her husband patted her knee to keep her quiet.

When the lawsuit was filed in October 2005, Bonnie Weinstein figured the case would last 10 days. Who could argue that people have the right not to be proselytized, she thought. The lawsuit’s still pending, and the kitchen is heating up. Her husband’s soon-to-be-released book, whose proceeds will go to his Military Religious Freedom Foundation, will launch a new series of media appearances and, perhaps, smashed beer bottles.

But it’s not in Bonnie Weinstein’s nature to back down. “I’m doing this with Mikey because it needs to be done,” she said. “The deeper we get into it, the more serious we realize it is.”

Update

2006-08-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

This is a much-owed posting, as one did not immediately follow our first board meeting. The meeting was an excellent opportunity for us to sit down and discuss MRFF's future. We have done good work so far. We know that we have made a name for ourselves and for our cause. This is only the start.

We all want the organization to keep growing, expanding, educating.

All of us are hard at work. Please keep your eyes and ears open as we continue to evolve.

-Mikey

MRFF Board Meeting Tomorrow

2006-07-21T09:50:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow MRFF board members will meet in Chicago to discuss our progress so far and make plans for the future. We've been hard at work educating the public about MRFF's mission but know there's much more to be done.

Since the publication of the Washington Post article last Sunday, we have been flooded with messages from supporters. We received numerous tales of Constitutional violations within our nation's armed forces - all a reminder of why continue our work. These letters are fuel for our fire. Thank you to those who have shared stories.

An update will follow after the weekend.

-Mikey

Albuquerque Journal Column

2006-07-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

Ex-Soldier Keeps Fighting for Freedom

By Jim Belshaw

I hadn't talked to Mikey Weinstein in a while. Then Sunday, there he was in the Washington Post, the centerpiece of a 2,600-word story.

He talked about "laying down a withering field of fire and leaving sucking chest wounds." He reflected on Christian megachurches that had given him a label: "Field General of the Armies of Satan."

Never a dull day in Mikey's life.

It has been two years since he started doing battle with the Air Force Academy and now the Air Force itself.It began when one of his sons, the second to attend the academy, just as Mikey had done, told his father that he was tired of being accused of having "killed Jesus Christ."

Mikey Weinstein is Jewish, a former Air Force officer, an attorney in the Reagan White House, a corporate attorney with Ross Perot and a member of a family with a long history at military academies.

He said it's painful to be at war with such institutions.

He has formed a non-profit- the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, its board laden with generals and admirals and combat veterans.

"I designed this foundation for two things- litigation and agitation," he said.

He has sued in federal court in Albuquerque for a permanent injunction barring the Air Force from allowing superiors to proselytize or evangelize lower-ranking service members while on duty.

He says such behavior is pervasive in the Air Force.

"You know, people say there are bad apples in the crate," he said when we spoke on Monday. "But that's not the problem. The problem is the crate is bad."

He succeeded in bringing about new guidelines at the academy, but then found the new rules no better than the old.

He ratcheted up the fight, making formidable enemies along the way- The National Association of Evangelicals, the Alliance

Defense Fund, Focus on the Family.

He said he's had feces and beer bottles thrown at his Albuquerque home; he said tires have been slashed and "I can't go nine days without getting some kind of threat."

But there will be no toning it down, no easing off.

"For the first year I was in this thing, I quote-unquote dialed it back," he said.

No more.

He is routinely depicted as anti-Christian, a charge he categorically rejects.

"I'd be happy to go to (National Association of Evangelicals leader) Ted Haggard's church and tell the 15,000 people in that church what I'm all about," he said. "I'll be the first one to grab an American flag and lead an army against anyone who tries to prevent you from having your religious belief. But not when the government says what that religious belief should be."

His wife, Bonnie, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and recently with a painful jaw disorder, says there will be no stepping back from the fight.

"The problem was that at no point was there a stopping point, unless you just drop it and run," she said. "But it's not the quality of person I am, nor is it the quality of person my husband is. Stopping wasn't anything we could consider."

He's written a book, filed the lawsuit, travels to fundraisers around the country. In Washington, he found allies in Joseph Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame, the former CIA agent outed by columnist Robert Novak.

The day we spoke, he said he'd just had a lunch with an old friend, a devout Christian and conservative Republican."He's always understood," he said. "He's always gotten it. He knows the people who try to paint me as a Christian basher are completely wrong."

The fight goes on. There will be no dialing it back.

A Quick Thank You

2006-07-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

Many you have already seen the wonderful piece in the Style section of this past Sunday's Washington Post - "Marching as to War" - that profiles my battle against illegal proselytizing in the military and the work of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

I received many warm words of encouragement and I appreciate all of your support.

If you haven't read it yet - take a look: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/15/AR2006071501032.html

Mikey

MRFF Newsletter

2006-07-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation now has a bi-weekly newsletter to keep you posted on the work we're doing. We're currently putting together the next edition - to be released at the end of next week.

We expect that the first newsletter, which went out last Thursday, will be posted on the website shortly.

If you haven't already received the newsletter and would like to be added to the mailing list, please send an email with your request to info@militaryreligiousfreedom.org. If you have received the newsletter, please forward it to those who may be interested in supporting MRFF's work.

I'm pleased and excited to have a new way to keep you updated.

Mikey

Upcoming Events

2006-07-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

The MRFF board members and I have been busy at work preparing for our first board meeting - next Saturday, July 22 - graciously hosted by McGuireWoods, LLC in Chicago. It will truly be a meeting of the minds - a necessary gathering to discuss the important work we have been doing and the important work will continue to do in the future.

I am also busy preparing for our first Chicago fundraising event on Thursday, July 20. Each of these events is a chance to come face-to-face with those who so loyally support MRFF's cause.

Thank you all for your consistent support and words of inspiration.

Continue to check the website and the blog for additional details.

- Mikey

MRFF Applauds Navy's Ruling in Klingerschmitt Case

2006-07-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

MRFF APPLAUDS NAVY’S RULING IN KLINGENSCHMITT CASE
Navy Review Finds Chaplain’s Complaint “Without Merit”

ALBUQUERQUE – The Washington Times reported this morning that the Navy had reached a decision in the case of Chaplain Lt. Gordon J. Klingenschmitt, an Air Force Academy Graduate, who had filed a complaint charging that “his commanding officer censored and harassed him by discouraging the use of certain Bible quotations.” A Navy review concluded the Chaplain’s complaint was “without merit.”

Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) founder and president, Mikey Weinstein, released the following statement praising the Navy’s decision:

“The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is extremely pleased with the Navy’s ruling against Chaplain Klingenschmitt’s complaint. We have stood firm in our belief that the Chaplain violated the Constitutional rights of Naval personnel by preaching, at an ecumenical memorial service in 2004, the Gospels – including the Gospel of John, which says that only those who believe in Jesus will have eternal life.

This is the first time that the leadership of a branch of our nation’s armed forces has spoken out against discriminatory prayer at mandatory military formations. The Navy’s decision flies in the face of the Air Force’s continuous violations of the Constitution including their dismissal of charges of coercive proselytizing against former U.S. Air Force Academy Commandant of Cadets, Brigadier General Johnny Weida ,and their revised guidelines on religion that allow for chaplains to publicly pray in Jesus’ name at mandatory military formations and for the evangelizing of subordinate personnel by the senior members of their chains of command.

The Navy’s judgment reveals the travesty of the official findings in the June 2005 Report of Air Force Headquarters Review Group Concerning the Climate at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Page 11 of the report discusses the case of Chaplain Major Warren ‘Chappy’ Watties, who during a ‘voluntary ecumenical’ Protestant worship service, ordered the Cadets in attendance to proselytize those who did not attend. The Chaplain also ordered the Cadets to deliver the message to those who refused to be evangelized that their penalty would be to burn eternally in the fires of Hell. The U.S. Air Force concluded that Chaplain Watties, who was at the time the reigning U.S. Air Force Chaplain of the Year, had done nothing wrong.

This ruling, in which the Navy has taken the position that ‘commanders can influence what chaplains say at public events, such as the memorial event, as opposed to a divine worship service’ should set an example for the other segments of our nation’s military which continue to blatantly violate the United States Constitution.

The Navy’s declaration is a small victory for those of us who continue to work so diligently to defend our Constitution.”

###

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Washington Jewish Week Article

2006-06-29T07:17:00.000-07:00

'We can't afford to fight each other'Rabbi reflects on year helping Air Force grapple with religious issues

by Eric Fingerhut Staff Writer

Following several incidents of religious intolerance at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff spent part of the past year helping to create religious guidelines for the service. But he believes it was his additional work creating a "values-based vision" for Air Force personnel that may be the key in preventing such problems from recurring.

As special assistant for values and vision to the secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force, the District resident said he was building a framework of respect and responsibility that goes beyond simply telling airmen and airwomen to be "good people."

The "values-based vision" teaches that once an airman or airwoman takes an oath to the Constitution, the "shared organizational values" of the Air Force take precedence over one's personal values because "the nation depends on us" and "lives are at stake."

For example, "we're not only respecting each other's religion because it's a good thing to do," the rabbi says, but because it is the best way to "accomplish the mission" and achieve "unit cohesion."

"We can't afford to fight each other" when "we're shoulder to shoulder fighting the real enemies," he said.

Those who have been watching the Air Force's attempts to grapple with the religion issue praised Resnicoff's course.

"I think he had his finger on an important principle," said Richard Foltin, the American Jewish Committee legislative director and counsel. "These issues can't be dealt with in a vacuum," but put "in the context of a broader vision of the nation and the armed forces."

Americans United for Separation of Church and State had released a report last year outlining a number of incidents at the academy that it believed violated the First Amendment.

While the organization's assistant communications director, Rob Boston, called a "values-based vision" a "very positive approach" and a sincere effort to address the problem, he said his group worried that positive steps by Air Force officials might be "stymied by the religious right and their influence in Congress."

Resnicoff does not believe that outside pressure will bear on the situation. "So far, based on my personal experience, I have never seen one instance where [the Air Force] made a decision based on pressure instead of what's right," he said, noting that the Air Force has been lobbied strongly by those on both sides of the issue.

Resnicoff, who grew up in the Washington area and graduated from Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, spent 25 years as a Navy chaplain. Based on that experience, Air Force officials asked him to look into the charges of religious insensitivity when they first arose in December 2004.

After a few days of investigation, he told Air Force leaders that the religious problems were "fixable," but that they should be looking at the problem more broadly.

He pointed out that when the Air Force previously had problems with sexual assault and the treatment of women, it implemented a number of new programs to respond to that issue. Reacting to each new challenge as it comes, he told them, creates something like a "patchwork quilt," because "the fix for the first problem doesn't help that [new] problem."

What the Air Force needed, he believed, was to "connect the dots" and create a "values-based vision" that would be able to tackle every kind of problem. It would link the core values of the force ‹ integrity, service before self and excellence to the oath new airmen and women make when beginning their service.

The Air Force seemed to like the idea, hiring Resnicoff to lead the effort six months later. The job has meant visiting with Air Force personnel worldwide on one day, he had a breakfast meeting in Turkey, lunch in Italy and then spent the evening in Germany.

Part of his goal was to "try to take abstract concepts and express them." The core value of integrity, Resnicoff said, should mean that one has "just as much responsibility to disobey an illegal order as to obey a moral and legal one."

Loyalty doesn't necessarily just mean "keeping your mouth shut," he said, but should be seen as a concept in the vein of "friends don't let friends drive drunk."

While his one-year appointment ended last week, Resnicoff said he believes the Air Force will continue his mission ‹ the values "portfolio" has been added to the jobs of top officials on both the civilian and military sides of the service.

Air Force officials praised Resnicoff's work in statements provided to WJW, but an Air Force official was not made available for an interview before press time.

Resnicoff, 59, spent much of the first few months of his year with the Air Force formulating the controversial religious guidelines.

He saw a number of the problems in Colorado Springs resulting more from lack of knowledge than malice.

For instance, while it is standard practice for a Christian cadet to get time off on Sunday to go to church, Jews wanting to attend Shabbat services on Friday evening "would have to ask permission."

While in some rare cases they were told they couldn't go, he said that much more frequently "they'd decide not to ask" because they "didn't want the hassle."

Now, Resnicoff said, "it's a level playing field," with commanders told that airmen and women are permitted to attend religious services on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Jewish holidays also will now be placed on the official calendar ‹ they were not previously marked.

The Air Force's interim religious guidelines were released to generally positive reviews by Jewish organizations last August, but some of those same groups viewed a revised and shortened version of the document issued in February as a step backward.

In an interview last week, Resnicoff reiterated that the changes were designed to make the document more "readable" and ensure it fit on one page.

The rabbi said the guidelines were all about the "not easy question" of balancing the First Amendment's prohibition against the establishment of a religion which many believe means that religion should never be mentioned in the military and the amendment's protection of one's free exercise of religion.

For some Christians, Resnicoff noted, sharing one's faith with others is an essential part of their religion.

The guidelines, as well as the training that Air Force personnel will receive, do not prohibit such free exercise, but advises against religious conversations between superiors and subordinates, said Resnicoff. (Voluntary conversations are permissible, he said, noting one would not want to prevent, for example, a Jewish junior officer asking a Jewish senior officer about what it is like to be Jewish in the Air Force.)

While Air Force personnel will be encouraged to work out problems on their own, the rabbi said that a "system is in place" for airmen and airwomen to file a complaint with the equal opportunity office, a chaplain or a more senior officer to "ensure there is no hostile work environment."

Another problem involved chaplains reciting sectarian prayers at public events. Resnicoff said the guildelines say that "we will not tell a chaplain how to pray," but that if a chaplain is uncomfortable with, for instance, not mentioning Jesus in his public prayer, that person is "just not going to give that prayer." He said such decisions will be made by the chief chaplain at the base.

Facing pressure from evangelicals, the House passed a measure last month that would mandate that chaplains should be able to pray "according to their own conscience." Resnicoff noted that the legislation has not been passed by the Senate, and said he personally hoped that Congress would allow military leaders to work out the problems on their own.

The guidelines did not satisfy Air Force Academy graduate and activist Mikey Weinstein, who recently started the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to monitor issues related to the separation of church and state in the military. He called Resnicoff an "unmitigated disaster" and the religious guidelines useless.

"He stood by while Rome was burning," said Weinstein, who argues that "we're in a war" against those who want to create a "theocracy in the American military."

Resnicoff said Weinstein "helped to raise some important issues" with the Air Force, but also represents just "one side of the issue," the nonestablishment side, whereas the Air Force was trying to "struggle with both sides."

Anti-Defamation League Abraham Foxman said seeing how that balance plays out now that the guidelines are being implemented is the key issue.

He acknowledges that the Jewish community "needs to be sensitive" to those who make witnessing a central part of their faith, but also said that perhaps a chaplain intent on proselytizing others shouldn't enlist in the military.

The ADL has been in discussions with the Air Force about using the group's diversity programs to train its personnel.

Both the Jewish community and the Air Force were lucky to have Resnicoff to work on the guidelines, Foxman said, noting that the rabbi's experience in both worlds the Jewish community and the military meant he could explain to each how the other side operates.

Flying Low on Air Force Guidelines - NY Jewish Week

2006-06-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

Flying Low On Air Force Guidelines
Jewish groups are working to ensure new rules maximize religious freedom, but not everyone is happy about it.

James D. Besser/Washington - Washington Correspondent

Jewish leaders remain divided and uncertain over new Air Force policies on religious freedom and the chaplaincy. But for now, at least, mainstream leaders have decided to play along with the Pentagon and hope for the best.

Last week the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Congress and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism wrote a joint letter to a top Air Force official with recommendations for implementing the recently issued Guidelines on the Free Exercise of Religion in the Military.

Those guidelines were revised after an earlier, more detailed draft generated outrage and threats from conservative Republicans in the House, who argued that its provisions would prevent Christian chaplains from praying according to their sectarian beliefs.

Privately, several Jewish leaders said the revised guidelines, which focus more on protecting the religious rights of chaplains and less on prohibiting officers from using their power to evangelize subordinates, were a step backward in a military establishment rife with religious coercion.

But publicly, most insist they are ready to work with the Air Force to ensure that the new guidelines are implemented in ways that maximize religious freedom.

“Our perspective is that the Air Force has been trying all along to deal with a complex issue in good faith,” said Richard Foltin, legislative director for the AJCommittee.

The latest guidelines are “in some ways not as clear on certain sensitive issues as the original guidelines, but nevertheless we thought they were an advance from the situation we had a year ago,” he said. “They do make it clear that there are lines that cannot be crossed regarding religious speech involving a superior officer.”

And he said the new guidelines represent an “appropriate compromise in terms of recognizing the free exercise rights of chaplains, and the role of chaplains in a pluralistic ministry.”

In the joint letter, the Jewish groups recommended that the Air Force use training materials on religious pluralism developed by Jewish groups, and that training programs “urge senior officers to refrain from discussing their religious beliefs with junior officers or enlisted men because of a concern that the discussion of religion will be perceived as inherently coercive by the junior servicemen.”

They also urged the Pentagon to “provide for a grievance and complaint procedure” that service personnel can use without fear of retribution.And the Jewish leaders urged the Air Force to “maintain limits on the ability of military chaplains to invoke particularistic prayers at mandatory service personnel assemblies”—something that was scrapped from the earlier draft guidelines.

But Mikey Weinstein, the Air Force Academy graduate who is suing the Air Force to stop religious coercion in the military, called that decision “appeasement” and said the most recent and final guidelines are “pathetic.”

“I’ve had it with Jewish groups,” he said, carving out an exception only for Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman, who he said has been “somewhat supportive” of his legal efforts.The administration, he said, has “turned the Marine Corps, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force into a faith-based initiative.”

Weinstein called the newest guidelines a “massive step back” for the military, undoing not just the earlier draft guidelines but longstanding procedures to ensure military chaplains can serve both their co-religionists and military personnel representing a broader religious spectrum.

“It basically states that it’s OK for members of the military to proselytize or evangelize junior members, as long as it’s done with sensitivity and non-coerciveness,” he said.

But such non-coercive proselytization is impossible in a military environment defined by the “Draconian specter of command influence that you don’t find if you work at a Starbucks or Walgreens,” he said.The ADL’s Abraham Foxman disagreed, saying that for now, at least, “let’s deal with implementation. And six months from now, if our efforts don’t meet with sensitivity and openness, then we may have to revert to political pressure.”

A Note From a Friend

2006-05-31T07:33:00.000-07:00

To my good friends.

I know that you have been spending your day thinking of others and remembering their contributions to American freedom. Because that's the kind of men you are.

But I hope that you will take a moment out of your remembrance of others to also remember your own selfless acts and often painful sacrifices in keeping America's military free of religious bigotry and oppression.

Your efforts are no different in my eyes than the fighter pilot who flies his mission straight and true with the single-minded purpose of acquiring the target and accomplishing the mission or the support person whose skill and technical prowess keeps him flying.

As important as the fighter pilot is, could we have survived without those whose bright legal minds kept the wolves from our doors and stymied many an attempt to turn those pilots into avenging angels of God?

The thankless task of keeping our military, and hence our entire country, free for all races, colors creeds and religions and non-beliefs has somehow fallen on the lawyer and the fighter pilot and more recently on a combat rescue helicopter pilot who thought he'd seen all the horrors there were to see until one day he met Pat Robertson.

Without question our actions may not bring the rewards and accolades received by those who toe the line but our collective consciences, integrity and pride remain intact and inviolable because we have a higher calling, one that requires us to minister to the common man; for after all, he remains the crux of civilization.

My hat's off to you but even more so to your long suffering families who have supported you as my wife does me in our often lonely endeavors.

What would even one normal day away from our travails mean to them?

It is the mission, gentlemen, the mission that drives us. And I am bound by my very soul to complete that mission with the guidance of great thinkers such as yourselves, confident in the knowledge that we will bring this honorable quest to fruition.

Your Friend and Soldier

Air Force Times - 1997

2006-05-22T07:03:00.000-07:00

GOING TO THE CHAPEL / NON-CHRISTIAN RECRUITS COMPLAIN OF BIAS AND INSENSITIVITY

MARCH 3, 1997

By Bryant Jordan, Times staff writer

SAN ANTONIO -- It was Friday, Aug. 30, and Amy Talit was in her second day of basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio when her training instructor began handing out dormitory duties. The instructor, Staff Sgt. David Isabelle, needed chapel guides -- airmen whose job it would be to know when various religious services were being held and to direct the recruits to them.

"Who's Protestant?'' Talit, 19, recalls him asking. Hands went up. "Who's Catholic?" Another show of hands.

He picked the chapel guides, then began to assign airmen to cleaning duties.

Talit, 19, raised a hand to get the instructor's attention. "Sir, Airman Talit reports as ordered, sir,'' she said. "Sir, I'm Jewish.''

In that brief exchange, Talit stumbled onto an unwritten and unofficial reality at Lackland. It can be an uncomfortable place for non-Christians.

Non-Christians, and particularly Jews, have been waging a decades-long battle to institutionalize religious tolerance at Lackland. Those most involved say they frequently make progress, only to see backsliding when commanders change or when their pressure is reduced.

The problem, they say, is a mixture of a handful of cases of overt anti-Semitism or other religious discrimination combined with a more prevalent and intractable problem of simple insensitivity.

For commanders, it seems to be a struggle to balance respect for individual religious beliefs with the basic-training goals of conformity, team building and putting duty before self-interest.
What is clear is that often in the earliest days of basic training, the only airmen for whom arrangements are made for religious services are Protestants and Roman Catholics. Sometimes, even Catholics end up at Protestant services.

The problem is known at the command's highest levels.

After Air Force Times began inquiring about trainees' attendance at chapel services, officials began making changes to ensure that airmen do not end up at services that are not their own against their will. Gen. Billy Boles, head of the Air Education and Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base near San Antonio, said the chapel briefings that recruits previously received did not take place until after their first weekend at Lackland -- after they had already been exposed to services.

From now on, he said, the trainees will be given that briefing no later than Friday morning, allowing those with Friday evening or Saturday observances the opportunity to attend them. Boles said the directive spelling that out is being drafted at the wing level.

"I view anything to do with inhibiting religious freedom in that same category sexual harassment," Boles said. "A person's religious belief, or lack thereof, is their personal belief. ... The kind of issues brought up with regard to young men and women of the Jewish faith and attendance at eir service at Lackland is something we need to be accommodating."

Boles said he has asked Brig. Gen. Robert J. Courter Jr., the commander of the 37th Training Wing at Lackland, to come up with an instruction aimed at solving the problem. He said training instructors must be made aware of what is expected. Part of the problem, he said, is that about 30 percent of instructors change each year, so training will have to be continual.
For members of non-Christian faiths, at least in the early days -- though at times throughout basic -- the first Sunday at Lackland becomes a choice between attending the Christian service or pulling cleanup duties at the dorm.

"I told him Jews have service on Friday, and he said there was no service that I could go to that night,'' Talit recalled. Instead, Isabelle told the group the non-Christians would all go to the Protestant service on Sunday morning, then be briefed on Monday about other religious services.

But Talit's problems did not end with her one appearance at Protestant chapel service. Her insistence on being allowed to observe the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, placed her at the center of a weeks-long conflict between the base's Jewish lay leader and those responsible for Talit's training.

Other complaints

Talit's experience was not unusual. According to interviews with other Jewish airmen in or recently out of basic training, airmen are given to understand that their first Sunday at Lackland will include a Christian service, usually Protestant. The contention is backed up by former chaplains at Lackland and the base's Jewish lay leader, retired Chief Master Sgt. Steve Nemerow.

Nemerow, who retired in December, said the problem existed when he arrived at Lackland seven years ago. Since then, he said, he and others have routinely had to fight the same fight over and over with each new basic flight: getting training instructors to release their charges for non-Christian services and periodically convincing commanders of the airmen's right to attend them.

"We have complained until we're blue in the face. They give us lip service,'' said Nemerow. He said the problem is not solely a Jewish problem. Seventh-day Adventists, Buddhists, Muslims and Eastern Orthodox Christians have all been directed to the Protestant services at Lackland. What made Talit's case particularly offensive to Nemerow, though, is that he thinks training officials made life hard for Talit because she insisted on attending the High Holy Day services, a charge that Air Force officials deny and that was deemed unfounded by Air Force investigators.
Maj. Daniel Badger, commander of the 331st Training Squadron, said most of Nemerow's accounts of Jewish airmen being kept from their services or being forced to attend Protestant services are stories the former chief picked up secondhand. When checked out, Badger said, the stories turn out to be untrue.

Col. Toreaser Steele, commander of the 737th Training Group at Lackland, said during a Jan. 16 interview also attended by three base chaplains and Talit's last training instructor that she does not think anyone in her command would deliberately keep airmen from attending their own religious services. The chaplains, including Rabbi (Capt.) Anthony Deutsch, said airmen can sometimes end up at a chapel service not their own, but that does not mean they are being forced to go.

The instructors are trying to set up and maintain a training atmosphere, Deutsch said, and that means emphasizing the group, the flight. In that environment, most trainees are not going to want to stand out.

Nemerow said non-Christians attend the Protestant chapel service for the same reason they go do so many other things in basic training -- because that is where everyone else is going and they do not want to stand apart from the crowd. And in basic training, according to Nemerow, an instructor's suggestion or recommendation carries the weight of an order as far as trainees are concerned.

In interviews with Air Force Times, several airmen still in training said they were directed to the Protestant service during zero week, the common name for the first week of basic. Airman Avraham Edri, now in technical training at Lackland, said he was told that for his first week he "had no choice.'' Others, including a Seventh-day Adventist who worships on Saturdays, said chapel guides told them that they would be briefed about services but that for the first week they are advised to attend the Protestant service.

Nemerow said one Jewish airman not only found himself at a Protestant service, but also was urged to take Communion -- a Christian ritual commemorating the death of Jesus, who is not recognized as either a prophet or the messiah in Judaism.

'An old problem'

Retired Rabbi (Maj.) Irvin Ehrlich, the Jewish chaplain at Lackland from 1985 to 1989, said the problem existed when he was at Lackland and predates his arrival.
"It's an old problem. At best, it's the result of technical instructors wanting to keep their flights together in those first days, coupled with a reluctance of new airmen to stand out in any way,'' said Ehrlich, who now leads a Jewish congregation in Colorado Springs, Colo. But even if unintentional, "you've got an intimidation factor at work.

When Rabbi (Maj.) Brett Oxman drew an assignment to Lackland in September 1992, "all Jewish personnel were routinely being coerced into attending Protestant worship services,'' Oxman said Jan. 13 in a written response to an Air Force Times query. Oxman said the coercion was carried out under the guise of it "being their duty to function as a group with their flight."
Usually this was restricted to the airmen's first one or two Sundays of basic, said Oxman, who is now stationed at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall in England. But he said pressure was often put on the airmen to attend Protestant services throughout their training. Almost no week went by that either he or Nemerow did not have to intervene with an instructor on behalf of a Jewish airman forced to choose between attending Protestant service or staying behind cleaning up the dormitory.

Though basic trainees are the most vulnerable to being directed away from their religious services, the problem also has cropped up at technical training at Lackland. Airman 1st Class Genny Brown, who is Jewish, said she did not complain when she was required to attend Protestant services during zero week in April 1995. But when she ended up at technical training at Lackland a few months later, she did protest when her training instructor told her she would not be able to attend Friday evening services because they would conflict with physical training exercises.

"When I told her that I wanted to go to wish chapel services, she didn't like that," Brown said in a Feb. 19 telephone interview from Hurlburt Field in Florida, where she is assigned.
Brown went to Nemerow for help. Brown was then able to attend her services, but the problem did not immediately go away. When the High Holy Days arrived, she was again told she could not take time from training to attend services. And once more Nemerow intervened, asking the instructor if she thought a cleaning detail or physical training was more important than Brown's religious observations.

"After I spoke up about going to services, I found I was getting letters of reprimand. I got five letters. Three out of five were for not eating meals," Brown said. Skipping meals is something she had done often before, she said, but the letters began only after her complaints. The other two letters were for being minutes late to a formation or gathering. While many others arrived after her, she said, she was the only one to be given letters.

An investigation by the inspector general determined the letters were not reprisals.

At one point during his time at Lackland, the basic training commander announced that Jewish airmen would not be allowed to attend the Jewish High Holy Day services unless they coincided with the Christian Sunday services. Because Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are multiday holidays, that decree would essentially eliminate the Jewish airmen's chances of observing their sacred days.

Oxman said he proceeded with the services anyway while Nemerow went from squadron to squadron forcing the release of Jewish trainees. He said one instructor refused to let an airman go and offered instead to "secure the latrine so his airman could pray uninterrupted.''

The situation was intolerable, Oxman said, and with the support of his immediate supervisor -- Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Robert Hadley, the basic training head chaplain and a Christian -- he pushed hard to end it. At a meeting with the commander, Col. Wolfgang Gesch -- now assigned to Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi -- Hadley said he made his point about the significance of the High Holy Days by suggesting he would cancel Christmas services for the Christian airmen.
"I was making a comparison on the significance of Christmas and the Jewish High Holidays,'' said Hadley, now chaplain for the 354th Fighter Wing at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. "That made it clear to sch›, very clear. And we got good results with that clarity, I think.''

Gesch, in a telephone interview Feb. 3, said he did not recall the announcement Oxman and Nemerow cite but thinks it was an issue only one year while he was at Lackland. He said he was concerned that Jewish airmen would miss some early days of training by attending the long services. After Nemerow and others talked to him, however, he said he agreed to leave it to the individual airmen to decide whether they wanted to go.]

"Our message was clear,'' Oxman said. "Religious rights for all trainees would be respected equally. I occasionally found Catholic trainees who had been marched into Protestant worship services as well. When this did occur, I took the same actions on their behalf that I was doing for the Jewish personnel.''

By the time he left Lackland in July 1995, Oxman said, the situation had been resolved and Jewish airmen were attending Jewish services for their entire time at Lackland. But it has not stayed that way, as new commanders and training instructors succeeded others. Or, as Hadley, drawing from the Bible, put it: "There arose a new Pharaoh over Egypt who knew not Joseph.'' Bottom line? The earlier unwritten policy was resurrected and back in place when Talit arrived in August.

Steele, the basic-training commander, did not say there is a problem now but said she is committed more than ever to ensuring that all airmen know about and have access to the religious services of their choice. She has met with training officials and made it clear that airmen are to be permitted to get to their services. She has also met with Jewish trainees to hear firsthand whether they are getting to their services.

But, according to Nemerow, not everyone in the chain of command is getting Steele's message. He said that on Friday, Jan. 31, an instructor loudly reminded a Jewish trainee that he had to get over to the Jewish chapel service. As the trainee was heading out, the instructor told the other trainees that the airman "was an example of someone who puts his religion above his flight."

The Hill, Op-Ed: The Fight for Freedom at Home

2006-05-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

From today's edition of The Hill (www.thehill.com)

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Comment/OpEd/051606_mikey.html

The fight for freedom at home

By Mikey Weinstein

My battle against the Air Force began two years ago when I learned that my sons, the eldest an Air Force Academy graduate and the other a cadet at the Academy, were subjected to taunts and derision because of their Jewish faith and that each had faced proselytizing both from their peers and superiors. My daughter-in-law, a graduate of the Air Force Academy and a practicing non-evangelical Christian, also found herself subjected to evangelizing.

The matter was personal, but it was very clear that it was not just my sons and daughter-in-law whose constitutional rights were being violated. Air Force personnel - non-evangelical Christians, those of minority faiths and those who chose not to worship at all - were experiencing illegal proselytizing and evangelizing.

After reaching out to Air Force leadership and numerous members of Congress without success, my battle manifested itself into a federal lawsuit, and most recently the creation of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. It’s no longer just the Air Force I’ve focused my attention on - it’s the entirety of our nation’s armed forces.

As hard as my supporters and I have been pushing for change, the Air Force and other branches of the military have been pushing back. They have willingly succumbed to the pressure of the religious right by issuing guidelines on religion that allow military chaplains to pray in Jesus’ name at all mandatory military formations, fail to protect military personnel and blatantly violate the Constitution.

Now they’ve gone one step further - military officers are using their government e-mail accounts to help their likeminded brethren win elected office. Maj. Gen. Jack J. Catton Jr., a two-star general at Langley Air Force Base, sent an e-mail last week from his Air Force account, asking other military men to support a recently retired general, Bentley Rayburn, for Congress. "We are certainly in need of Christian men with integrity and military experience in Congress," Catton wrote.

What we are in need of is military leaders and elected officials who will uphold the Constitution. This is not an issue of who is on the left or right of the political spectrum; rather, it is a constitutional right-or-wrong issue.

Just last week, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee added language to a Pentagon spending bill that allows military chaplains to pray completely without regard for the religious beliefs of military personnel, including at mandatory military formations. In an effort to undo the damage this provision would cause, Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) introduced an amendment that would have required military chaplains to demonstrate "sensitivity, respect and tolerance" for the beliefs of those to whom they minister.

The amendment was voted down, 31-26.

Since when is Congress against sensitivity, respect and tolerance for all Americans?
Our nation’s Founding Fathers drew a line for us when they wrote the Constitution. On one side stood religion, on the other side the secular state. Members of Congress, and all those who serve in government institutions, such as our nation’s armed forces, hold the great responsibility of ensuring this line is not blurred.

Perhaps our elected officials have forgotten that their ultimate goal is to uphold the Constitution, and perhaps military leaders need to be reminded that, while they are entitled to their religious beliefs, once they don a military uniform their first and foremost obligation is to serve their country, not their church.

It has been disappointing to watch men and women elected to serve our country fight against freedom of religion, the cornerstone of our Bill of Rights, and even more disheartening to see those who defend our nation forced to defend themselves against illegal proselytizing by their superiors.

The battle is far from over. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation and its diverse board of accomplished Americans with expertise in military relations, law, communications, political science and religion remain committed to ensuring that the constitutional guarantee of the separation of church and state is enforced throughout all branches of the military.

We will continue to push our government and our military leadership to instill the right values in our men and women in uniform. These soldiers are taking brave steps to ensure freedom around the world. We must take brave steps to maintain that freedom at home.

Weinstein, a former Reagan White House counsel, is the president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation ( www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org ).

Washington Post: Air Force to Examine Fundraising E-Mail Sent by a General

2006-05-06T04:44:00.000-07:00

Air Force to Examine Fundraising E-Mail Sent by a General

Message Praised Candidate's Christianity

By Alan Cooperman

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, May 6, 2006; A03

The Air Force is investigating whether a two-star general violated military regulations by urging fellow Air Force Academy graduates to make campaign contributions to a Republican candidate for Congress in Colorado, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

Maj. Gen. Jack J. Catton Jr., who is on active duty at Langley Air Force Base, sent the fundraising appeal on Thursday from his official e-mail account to more than 200 fellow members of the academy's class of 1976, many of whom are also on active duty.

"We are certainly in need of Christian men with integrity and military experience in Congress," Catton wrote.

Defense Department rules prohibit active-duty officers from using their position to solicit campaign contributions or seek votes for a particular candidate. An Air Force spokesman said yesterday that "appropriate officials are inquiring into the facts surrounding these e-mails."

Catton's e-mail was provided to The Washington Post by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit group founded last year by Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein, White House counsel in the Reagan administration.

"This is not just a small thing," said Weinstein, who is suing the Air Force to halt what he contends is pervasive proselytizing in the armed forces. "It's evidence of a continuing attack on separation of church and state by evangelicals in the military."

Catton urged his classmates to support Bentley Rayburn, a recently retired Air Force general seeking the Republican nomination for a House seat being vacated this year by Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.). Hefley's district around Colorado Springs includes the Air Force Academy, several military bases and the headquarters of Focus on the Family, James Dobson's Christian broadcasting organization.

Both Catton's e-mail and an accompanying note from Rayburn portrayed him as a candidate who would represent the military and conservative Christians.

"The lack of any Air Force presence within the Congress was particularly telling over the last few years," Rayburn wrote, referring to controversy over

proselytizing at the Air Force Academy and new Air Force regulations on religious expression. "For those of us who are Christians, there is that whole other side of the coin that recognizes that we need more Christian influence in Congress."

Rayburn, a 1975 graduate of the Air Force Academy, said yesterday that Catton's only mistake was sending the message out from his official e-mail account.

Catton said in a telephone interview that he realized after he sent the e-mail Thursday evening that it was "inappropriate" and attempted to recall it Friday morning.

"I'm traveling and I was going through e-mails last night, on the airplane, and very excited about one of my academy brothers running for Congress, and forwarded the e-mail to my classmates to share the excitement," he said.

"And when I got up this morning I had an e-mail from one of my classmates who said, 'Jack, do you realize you were on your work computer?' I went, 'Holy smokes!' And so I immediately sent out a recall of that e-mail, because I shouldn't have sent it out on my work computer, because it's inappropriate."

Pentagon lawyers declined to comment while the circumstances are under investigation. A former Air Force lawyer, retired Brig. Gen. James W. Swanson, said the use of an official e-mail address "is probably an aggravator, but it isn't the essence of the offense."

"Clearly this country wants and needs an apolitical military," he said. "It sounds like an excess of enthusiasm, but I'd be surprised if there is not some sort of disciplinary or administrative action in this case."

Washington Post: Chaplains Group Opposes Prayer Order

2006-03-30T05:50:00.000-08:00

ttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/29/AR200603
2902207.html

Chaplains Group Opposes Prayer Order

Guarantee on Using Jesus's Name Not Needed, It Says

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 30, 2006; A04

An association that represents more than 70 percent of the chaplains in the U.S. military, including many evangelical Christians, is opposing a demand by conservatives in Congress for a presidential order guaranteeing the right of chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus.

The rising calls for an executive order are based on "confusion and misinformation," because Christian chaplains routinely pray in the name of Jesus, in public, thousands of times a week in military chapels around the world, said the Rev. Herman Keizer Jr., chairman of the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces.

"This has been portrayed as though chaplains are not allowed to pray in Jesus's name, without any distinction between what they do all the time in worship services and what they do occasionally, in ceremonial settings where attendance is mandatory," Keizer said.

Known by the initials NCMAF, Keizer's group is a private, 40-year-old association of more than 60 Christian, Jewish and Muslim denominations. It says it represents 5,430 of the 7,620 chaplains in the armed forces. The calls for an executive order to protect the right to pray in Jesus's name have originated in large part from a rival association, the International Conference of Evangelical Chaplain Endorsers. Formed two years ago, it says it represents about 800 chaplains, exclusively from evangelical Christian churches.

The Rev. Billy Baugham, executive director of ICECE, said he was surprised by NCMAF's stand.

"It will just lead more evangelicals to leave them and join us," he said.

Prodded by complaints from ICECE, 74 members of Congress signed a letter to President Bush last fall saying that "it has come to our attention that in all branches of the military it is becoming increasingly difficult for Christian chaplains to use the name of Jesus when praying."

In December, Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.) and three other congressmen unveiled a supporting petition that has since swelled to more than 200,000 signatures. Calls for congressional hearings and an executive order have become a staple on religious radio and television broadcasts,
generating protests of White House inaction by conservative Christians, who are usually strong supporters of Bush.

In a letter this month to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Keizer said NCMAF believes that an executive order is unnecessary because the military is "now effectively addressing the current religious concerns."

Keizer, a minister in the Christian Reformed Church of North America, a conservative Protestant denomination, retired in 2002 after 34 years as an Army chaplain. He said the armed services are gradually rolling out guidelines that set a path between "those who don't want any religion practiced in the military, and those who want religion practiced without
any limits in the military." An executive order "would just precipitate more litigation," he said.

In a Feb. 21 instruction to commanders, the secretary of the Navy distinguished between prayers given by chaplains at "divine worship services" -- on which there are no restrictions -- and those delivered at "command functions" that people of many faiths are encouraged or required to attend.

"Absent extraordinary circumstances," any religious elements in a command ceremony "should be nonsectarian," it said. Air Force guidelines issued a few weeks earlier made essentially the same distinction, calling for "non-denominational, inclusive prayer" or a moment of silence at military ceremonies.

Keizer said NCMAF sees nothing wrong with a commander asking a chaplain to offer nonsectarian prayers at such events, as long as the chaplain can decline to participate, with no repercussions.

But Baugham said evangelical chaplains must represent the church that endorses them for military duty, and "they are not authorized to give nonsectarian prayers." He also said he does not believe that chaplains are truly free to pray as they wish in worship services.

"There are chaplains who get their knuckles rapped pretty hard, and we have documentation of this, for praying in Jesus's name in chapels," he said.

Washington Post: The Air Force's Retreat

2006-03-27T05:23:00.000-08:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/26/AR2006032600904.html

The Air Force's Retreat

Monday, March 27, 2006; A14

THE AIR FORCE got it right when it issued a carefully calibrated set of guidelines on religious expression last August. The proposed new rules protected the ability of service members to practice their religion and emphasized the importance of tolerating and accommodating religious beliefs. But -- taking note of the unique setting of the military, where issues of rank and discipline come into play -- the guidelines also guarded against behavior that could make cadets at the Air Force Academy or service members feel compelled to engage in religious activities or disadvantaged if they declined.

Unfortunately, facing a barrage of complaints from evangelical Christian groups and pressure from members of Congress, the Air Force backed down. It has issued a revised set of rules that pose the potential for inappropriate religious pressure on cadets and service members. This pushes the balance in the wrong direction, especially in light of disturbing reports from the Air Force Academy about religious intolerance and inappropriate proselytizing.

One troubling issue in the revised guidelines concerns the ability of superior officers to proselytize or otherwise promote their faith. The original guidelines emphasized that "individuals need to be sensitive to the potential that personal expressions may appear to be official expressions," adding, "the more senior the individual, the more likely that personal expressions may be perceived to be official statements."

The new guidelines move away from this common-sense approach and emphasize superior officers' rights over the dangers of coercion. For example, the guidelines say, "Nothing in this guidance should be understood to limit the substance of voluntary discussions of religion . . . where it is reasonably clear that the discussions are personal, not official, and they can be reasonably free of the potential for, or appearance of, coercion." But reasonably clear to whom? What looks uncoercive to an officer can look awfully official to a cadet.

The original guidelines said that prayer should not be a routine part of official military life, "such as staff meetings, office meetings, classes or officially sanctioned activities such as sports events or practice sessions."

However, they said, "Consistent with long-standing military tradition, a brief non-sectarian prayer may be included in non-routine military ceremonies or events of special importance."

The new guidelines are softer on this issue as well, saying that public prayer "should not usually be a part of routine official business." Although they do not go as far as evangelical groups had wanted in explicitly permitting chaplains to pray "in Jesus's name," they state that chaplains "will not be required to participate in religious activities, including public prayer, inconsistent with their faiths" -- a statement that opens the door to sectarian prayer. It's unfortunate that the Air Force, having struck the balance so well last year, was bullied into this unwise retreat.

You've Got to Be Carefully Taught

2006-03-24T06:08:00.000-08:00

"Why here," Chaplain Morton? "Why do you think the Air Force Academy has become such a contentious arena of conservative Christian fervor?" It is a good question, and one I have fielded time and time again as I have spoken with interested individuals across the country. Certainly, an entire constellation of events and contemporary dynamics create the Academy's current crisis. However, one causal theme rises to the fore. The matter is not complicated or difficult to observe. It is however, true to the nature of the Air Force Academy, and essential to the zealous advancement of the religious right. Surprisingly, this keystone issue is summed quite well in a poignant lyric of Oscar Hammerstein II:

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.
(Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rogers, "You've Got to be Carefully
Taught" from South Pacific, 1949.)

This is why the Air Force Academy is an instrumental focus of conservative Christian ideology; because, after all, "you've got to be carefully taught." And teaching, of the "drumming" type, is just what the Academy does best. The Academy is a place where, quite intentionally, the intricate regimen of military life itself, "teaches" Cadets who and what Air Force leaders are to be.

But, all is not well with the Academy's demanding form of leadership development. You see, myth is a crucial ingredient in this particular type of experiential inculcation; and myth is sorely lacking at the Academy. At fifty years old, the Air Force Academy and the Air Force itself is awash in the narcissistic insecurity of institutional adolescence. Bereft of a significant corporate history, the Air Force and the Air Force Academy are desperately seeking an easily articulated and emotionally resonant institutional foundation. In an increasingly diverse and ethically difficult military arena, the Air Force desires to find a unifying moment, a paradigmatic justification, a myth, around which it can construct and normalize effective military leadership. Therefore, in an era of aggressive conservative social construction, the Air Force Academy becomes one of those "perfect storms" of ideological opportunity.

The Academy is physically surrounded by some of the most well-financed, active, and influential institutions of conservative Christian evangelical power. This conservative Christian evangelical community, persistently and aggressively instrumentalizes the social and hierarchical structures of the Academy. Large evangelical mega-churches and nimble conservative para-church organizations purposefully target Cadets. The on-campus and off-campus activities of these organizations are appealing to Cadets because these religious marketers provide opportunities for social interaction and offer a welcome break from the tedium of campus-bound Cadet life. Cadets who become members of these churches or para-church organizations often remain members throughout their military career. The extensive mail campaigns and electronic databases of conservative Christian organizations, maintain uninterrupted contact with associated USAFA grads. These same electronic resources link graduating members and associates with conservative Christian "sponsors" and fundamentalist churches at follow-on assignments.

The Academy's revolving door of returning graduates and retired military officers populate the USAFA faculty and staff with individuals thoroughly committed to pre-packaged and sloganized conservative Christian religious themes. Through sermons and small group interaction, these same faculty and staff are encouraged to engage in on-campus proselytizing activities and urged to use the close-knit structure of military organizations to advance conservative Christian agendas.

One Colorado Springs mega-church conducted a special class focused on USAFA instructors; this class taught teachers how to use the introductory session of any USAFA course as an opportunity to proselytize students. The motivational emphasis of the class was the "Christian obligation" to "obey the Great Commission." This "Christian obligation" was presented as clearly trumping any Air Force Regulation or Constitutional norm.

In addition, conservative Christian organizations urgently and repeatedly advise graduates, faculty and staff, that these military members should "strengthen" the moral fiber of the Air Force and Air Force Academy, by diligently promulgating the moral dictates of conservative Christian ideology. The lines of official governmental power and "Christian obligation" are completely blurred in these emotive cries to "redeem the moral character of future Air Force officers." These ideological tactics create within the Academy, an institutional desire for narrowly construed morality, nostalgically based unity and patriarchal strength. Little wonder then, that this same conservative Christian structure is able to provide a ready-made mythic foundation which seamlessly resolves the Academy's now clearly articulated desires for moral stability.

So, what is the problem? The Academy needs a myth and the conservative Christians provide one. Why is that a big deal? Perhaps because, predictably so, the devil is in the details.

You see, the real needs of the Air Force Academy are quite different from those constructed and preached by conservative Christians. The pragmatic goals and cultural diversity of the Air Force are not coextensive with the morally rigid and nostalgically based socio-political agenda of fundamentalist Christianity. In reality, dynamic critical thinking, social flexibility, and a progressive appreciation of cultural pluralism are the skills essential to good and even great military leadership.

Air Force officers must shake off the dead weight of patriarchy, understand teamwork, and possess an ability to lead diverse individuals to work well toward a common goal. The technical complexities of current and future Air Force weaponry are eclipsed only by the dynamic social and intellectual skills necessary to lead the diverse teams of people that are required to maintain, transport, position and deploy these weapons.

Individual initiative and creativity are always important to military leadership; self-absorbed petulance and rigid dogmatism are not. Current and future Air Force leaders must develop a keen sense of the enterprising value of otherness.

Surprisingly, these skills can be readily acquired by diligent and dedicated Cadets from all sorts of non-religious and religious backgrounds. A commitment to duty and service may be obtained from a wide variety of personal resources, some metaphysically sophisticated and some as banal as sweaty determination.

The Air Force Academy does not need an "official" religion. Moral degradation and character collapse will not sweep the Terrazzo if conservative Christian marketers are returned to their corporations of regressive intrigue.

Indeed, Christian fundamentalism's stifling patriarchy, social fearfulness and sexual hatred must be "carefully taught," however, the Constitution and common sense dictate that the United States Air Force Academy ought not be the chosen forum for such sectarian instruction.

MeLinda Morton
19 Mar 2005

mrffblog@tetzel.com

Standing for Religious Freedom

2006-03-08T17:58:00.000-08:00

The United States Air Force’s recently released revised guidelines for religious expression convinces me that creation of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation
(www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org) comes none too soon. The battle for religious freedom for members of the United States Armed Forces has been joined. We do not intend to back down or in any way lose this important struggle.

My guess is that if you’re reading this blog you found your way to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation out of concern for our cause. Why not let others know about how the military too often rides roughshod over one of our most cherished American freedoms – from of religion. We need all the help we can muster.

Evangelical Christians are like everybody else; by and large they’re good people and good Americans. But let’s face it: there are some who believe their faith should be the American standard. Unfortunately, some are in positions of authority in the military and in politics.

The MRFF disagrees with their intentions. Keep checking in with this Website to stay abreast of developments as we fight for the rights of non-evangelical Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and those who follow no religion.

n Mikey Weinstein

n mikey@militaryreligiousfreedom.org