WASHINGTON, D.C., October 2, 2013 – The government watchdog group Judicial Watch has sued the Pentagon after it failed to respond by the June 18 deadline to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request it filed in May demanding the Department of Defense turn over all records of communication between the Pentagon and controversial anti-Christian activist Mikey Weinstein. Weinstein, whom Defense News called one of the “100 Most Influential People in U.S. Defense,” has been meeting with Pentagon officials in an advisory role since the earliest days of the Obama administration. He is the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). According to Defense News, the organization “Advocat[es] for secularism in the military” and “campaign[s] against public prayer and proselytizing by Air Force officers.” He has compared practicing Christians to Nazis and terrorist groups, called for a ban on Christian prayer in the military, and said that soldiers who attempt to share the Gospel with others are guilty of “sedition and treason” and “spiritual rape.” Mikey Weinstein In his own biographical profile at the MRFF website, Weinstein boasts proudly of the nicknames he claims his Christian “enemies” have given him, including “’Satan, ‘Satan’s lawyer,’ ‘the Antichrist,’ ‘That G-dless, Secular Leftist,’ ‘Antagonizer of All Christians,’ ‘Most Dangerous Man in America’ and ‘Field General of the Godless Armies of Satan.’” The DoD first opened its doors to Weinstein in early 2009, just after President Obama took office. During the Bush administration, Weinstein had filed a discrimination complaint against the DoD on behalf of a Fort Detrick soldier, an atheist who argued that hearing opening and closing prayers during a mandatory military ceremony was “humiliating and dehumanizing.” Both the Bush administration and the Obama administration fought the complaint, and it was eventually dismissed. But General Norton Schwartz, then-Air Force Chief of Staff, accepted a meeting with Weinstein in February 2009 to discuss Weinstein’s concerns about what he called “improper religious influence” in the military, including the appearance of uniformed officers at religious events, displays of crucifixes at military chapels, and the practice of “dipping” the American flag before the altar at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 04:33:09 +0000
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