Mikey Weinstein talks with a colleague by telephone in his Albuquerque, N.M., home. Weinstein will speak Sept. 21 at a Tulsa Interfaith Alliance awards reception. JAKE SCHOELLKOPF / Associated Press file
Mikey Weinstein, a controversial figure who has been called a champion for religious freedom by some and a notorious anti-Christian zealot by others, will speak Sept. 21 at a Tulsa Interfaith Alliance awards reception.
Weinstein, who is Jewish, founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to combat what he sees as unconstitutional Christian proselytizing in the military.
He says his children experienced anti-Semitism and proselytizing at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
He is a lifelong Republican who served as a White House lawyer in the Reagan administration, and he comes from a three-generation military family.
He, his father, two sons and a daughter-in-law all attended U.S. military academies.
Contacted by phone this week at his Albuquerque, N.M., home, he said his fight is not against Christianity, or even evangelical Christianity, but a small subset of evangelical Christianity that he calls fundamentalists, dominionists, or the Christian Taliban.
Evangelicals follow Christ's "great commission" to spread the gospel, but in a time, place and manner dictated by social norms and law, he said.
"Fundamentalists say, 'To hell with that; we cannot be restricted,' " he said.
Weinstein labeled Tulsa's congressman part of the "Christian Taliban" for his position on a proposal expanding religious expression in the military.
U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., "is on the wrong side of this issue," he said.
"I thought the best thing to do was to come into his backyard, his district."
Weinstein said Bridenstine, who is a former Navy pilot with combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been the poster child for an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.
The so-called Fleming Amendment, which was passed by the House, would require the armed forces to accommodate "the beliefs, actions and speech" of service members except in cases of military necessity.
Current law requires the armed forces to accommodate beliefs but not actions and speech.
The amendment's effect, Weinstein said, would be to "allow every bigoted slimeball within the American armed forces - the homophobes, Islamophobes, anti-Semites, misogynists, anti-constitutionalists, fundamentalist/dominionist Christians - to be given absolute free rein to slither out of their stinking closets of putrid prejudice and spout their twisted, Christian-jihad poison.
"There would be one - and only one - genuine condition to this carte blanche feeding frenzy of 'faith-based' racism, bigotry and prejudice ... that justifications for this hate-mongering exist on alleged theological or religious grounds of the one doing the abusing," he said.
Bridenstine did not respond to a request for a quote, but his office confirmed that he co-sponsored the amendment and that he spoke on the House floor urging his colleagues to pass it.
Weinstein said his organization includes evangelicals and people of influence. Glen Doherty, one of two former U.S. Navy SEALs who were killed in Benghazi, Libya, was on his advisory board.
He said the influence of Christian fundamentalism in the military is a national security threat "so enormous most people can't imagine it."
The image to the world of the U.S. military being on a Christian crusade, he said, does three terrible things:
- It enrages Islamic allies.
- It emboldens Islamic enemies and provides them a propaganda bonanza.
- It eviscerates good order, morale and discipline.
Weinstein said U.S. military action in Syria would a "terrible mistake."
"The rebels are not the kind of people we want to be supporting," he said.
He said he also is concerned about Christian fundamentalists being eager to get involved militarily in Syria because of a world view based on certain Bible prophesies.
At the reception, Don A. Pittman, director of the Interreligious Understanding Program at Phillips Theological Seminary, will receive the Tulsa Interfaith Alliance's Russell Bennett Faith and Courage Award.
Awards ceremony
What: Tulsa Interfaith Alliance annual Russell Bennett Award presentation
Recipient: Don A. Pittman
Speaker: Mikey Weinstein
When: 2 p.m. Sept. 21
Where: All Souls Unitarian Church, 2952 S. Peoria Ave.
For more: tulsaworld.com/interfaithalliance
Bill Sherman 918-581-8398
bill.sherman@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Opponent of proselytizing in military coming to Tulsa
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