TULSA WORLD – Mikey Weinstein, an opponent of Christian proselytizing in the military, to speak in Tulsa

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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.”

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