Petagon To Court Martial Christian Evangelicals?

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Under a mandate from the Obama administration, the Pentagon is rolling out new policies regarding religious tolerance in the military. The stated purpose of these policies is to eliminate bigotry in the military by bringing together people with opposing views to develop understanding.

Unfortunately, the Pentagon’s choice for spearheading this effort is Mikey Weinstein. In a recent article in the Huffington Post, Wensein wrote:

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me tell you of monsters and monstrous wrongs. And let me tell you what these bloody monsters thrive on…

I founded the… Military Religious Freedom Foundation to do one thing: fight those monsters who would tear down the Constitutionally mandated wall separating church and state in the technologically most lethal entity ever created by humankind, the U.S. military… Today, we face incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation’s armed forces…

These days, when anyone attempts to bravely stand up against virulent religious oppression, these monstrosities cry out alligator tears in overflowing torrents and scream that it is, in fact, THEY who are the dispossessed, bereft and oppressed. C’mon, really, you pitiable unconstitutional carpetbaggers? … Please, I beseech you! Let us call these ignoble actions what they are: the senseless and cowardly squallings of human monsters… Queasy with the bright and promising lights of the cultural realities of the present day, those evil, fundamentalist Christian creatures and their spiritual heirs have taken refuge behind flimsy, well-worn, gauze-like euphemistic facades such as “family values” and “religious liberty.”

How the man who compares all Christians to ‘60s-era racists and exhibits general hostility toward Christianity in the military was chosen to promote religious tolerance is a bit of a mystery. Weinstein has compared the ministry of Christian chaplains something akin to “spiritual rape,” yet this is the man chosen by Washington to promote tolerance.

Weinstein endorses the ultra-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that publishes a list of “hate groups.” Right alongside truly hate-filled groups like the KKK the SPLC labels all Tea Party groups as “hate groups” for promoting limited government.

Weinstein also supports Lt. Col. Jack Rich, the Army officer who wrote to subordinate officers that soldiers who hold traditional Christian beliefs agreeing with organizations on SPLC’s “hate group” list are incompatible with “Army values” and should be carefully watched and excluded from military service.

According to Weinstein, “We should as a nation effusively applaud Lt. Col. Rich.” He adds that the nation should “venture further” than Rich’s recommendations, saying, “We MUST vigorously support the continuing efforts to expose pathologically anti-gay, Islamaphobic, and rabidly intolerant agitators for what they are: die-hard enemies of the United States Constitution. Monsters, one and all. To do anything less would be to roll out a red carpet to those who would usher in a blood-drenched, draconian era of persecutions, nationalistic militarism, and superstitious theocracy.”

Weinstein has also been quoted as saying, “This is a national security threat. What is happening [aside from sexual assault] is spiritual rape. And what the Pentagon needs is to understand is that it is sedition and treason. It should be punished.”

In other words, it should be the official policy of the United States to decree what a human being’s spiritual needs are, and punish for violations a military officer who is an ordained clergyman who attempts to share his own personal faith with another service member when discussing religious matters. Since the ultimate penalty for treason is death, one has to believe that Weinstein things the quickest road to religious tolerance is to completely silence, by whatever means necessary, anyone who shares their faith in the military.