"My Commander...Could Never Convert Me" November 25, 2009 I wish I could be present in person, to tell you my story, and the story of Mikey Weinstein and the MRFF. Before getting started, though, let’s all of us bow our heads… <5 SECOND PAUSE> Did any of you feel uncomfortable, just now? How about a little helpless, but too self-conscious to leave? Can you appreciate the subtly coercive order to pray? How about the bait and switch? Too many of our brave military members, veterans, and civilian contractors are going through the same thing and worse. Reports are coming in, of experiences from humiliation to physical injuries to stress intended to coerce or cause heart attack and suicide. Soldiers who don’t comply with the religious directives of their chain of command may be ordered to take point, day after day, absorbing all the risk of being the first to encounter an IED. Others are told to pick pubic hairs off the bathroom floor with a tweezer for weeks at a time. Still others find themselves turning a blind eye on the battlefield, while “good Christian soldiers” play convert or kill with real life locals in Iraq and Afghanistan. If all this is news to you, peruse the website of The Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Read anything recent by Jeff Sharlett. See the movie Constantine’s Sword. Catch the play … Read Mikey’s own book, … But first, sit back and listen to Mikey Weinstein. He’s the world’s expert. I met Mikey a year or two after I was ousted from the USAF for not fitting my hospital commander’s religious worldview. He busily decorated his new command with nothing but nativity scenes, the winter before I arrived at Andrews AFB. I heard about it in April. This was my first assignment, and I was surprised. You see, in Commissioned Officer Training class, we had one chaplain candidate who blew the opportunity to give invocations by ending his first with “in Jesus Christ’s name, amen.” Maybe I just got lucky, there. You see, we had quite a few lawyers in the class, including a pagan whose wife is a wiccan. I had no such protection at Andrews – regardless of the fact, or worse, because of the fact, that this was where the President parks his plane. President Bush set the tone, and public displays of affection – toward Jesus and Christianity and every opportunity to pipe up about it – were the offerings of the day. That year, Christmas fairly coincided with the start of Chanukah. President Bush planned to light a menorah next to the Christmas tree. It was three months after Yom Kippur, the single most significant day in the Jewish calendar, a day of fasting and praying for forgiveness. It was exactly the same amount of time since the spectacular Air Force Ball at Andrews AFB. Apparently, no Jews need attend the Ball. Attendance at the tree lighting, though, would allow for further evangelizing. I was named Jewish Lay Leader just in time to ready preparations. I was separated from the USAF right after, on trumped up grounds, in a way that is impossible to prevent. I was also fired as lay leader, despite or because of shockingly high approval ratings from enlisted and officers, military and civilians alike. Notice that one need have no military connection or background at all, to be a religious lay leader. It was not necessary to terminate me from that position, just because I was leaving active duty. It was a year or two later, right after Mikey Weinstein founded the MRFF, that I heard of him. Reading what I could find, and then speaking with him on the phone, I came to realize I’d been in denial about the connection between my religion and the truncated one year experience I had in the USAF. My commander must have realized he could never convert me. Turns out, he deliberately put me in the high risk category for suicide – and avoided any intervention to prevent it – right before ousting me. Of course, he’d have had to do paperwork, if I committed suicide while on active duty. Mikey was a well-to-do lawyer/businessman, while this was going on. He’d graduated with honors at the United States Air Force Academy and married Bonnie just before graduation. He trained as a lawyer, practiced in the Air Force for ten years, worked for President Reagen in the White House, and then made his money working for Ross Perot and with many others. Those days are gone now. Mikey exhausted the lion's share of his assets defending us, all in barely four short years. You see, Mikey’s sons and daughter-in-law followed in his military academy footsteps, just as he had followed his own father. Mikey’s sons were victims of vicious anti-Semitic attacks at the Academy, just as Mikey had been. Even his daughter-in-law felt the sting of religious oppression. There was a difference, this time, though, and Mikey was sharp enough to quickly pick up on it. Now, the behavior was institutionalized, coming down the chain of command from the very top at the United States Air Force Academy. He couldn’t imagine, until it smacked him in the face, that it could extend beyond Colorado Springs, either. Now, he knows. Now, there is undeniable evidence proving it exists at military bases all around the world, even on the battlefield, especially on the battlefield, and the targets are not only Jews. The targets of this wave of religious exceptionalism in the United States military include everyone, military member, civilian contractor, even local populations in the theatre of war. Perhaps the most vulnerable, though, are our own military members, because each is under the absolute control of his or her chain of command, where self defense is virtually impossible, and where, as it turns out, governmental defense doesn’t exist. I know. I approached the MEO (military for EEOC) and Inspector General offices and was turned away, just as my career was being set up for destruction and I was being deliberately set up for suicide. Fortunately for me, my chain of command wasn’t aware of the strength of my survival instinct. So, Mikey’s working in a corporate environment, making the big bucks, when the reality of this subversive, fundamentalist Christian, military culture smacks him in the face, by targeting his Jewish military kids, including his Christian military daughter-in-law. He refuses to assess the situation as a misunderstanding, because it isn’t, nor as an isolated situation because, hey, it’s not that, either. And then, he realizes, just enough, what he’s up against. He quits the fine, secure job, sets up the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, starts getting the word out, all the while protecting his sons and daughter-in-law the best he can. And then, the tsunami starts to build. First, there are a few brave souls who call to report their tyrannical experiences, and shockingly enough, almost all of them begging for Mikey's help are Christian! They’ve been deemed “not Christian enough” by the convert-or-kill extremists we’ve come to know as evangelical, fundamentalist "Dominionist" Christians. Google it! Believe me, there is a much longer, more precise name, but it won’t fit in this paper. Next, Mikey and Bonnie and their family members experience threats. From phone calls with children singing a death chant, to cross and swastika painted on their house, to windows being shot out in their home to "imprecatory prayers" from fundamentalist Christians asking Jesus to kill Mikey and his family and the following ten generations of his descendants, Mikey found himself having to spend a good bit more for security than the average American citizen. Taxes, apparently, don’t cover enough for the FBI to take action against such hate crimes – at least, not in his case. He’s up against the really big boys. So far, Mikey has received over 15,300 phone calls, emails, letters, and other complaints from military members and veterans (96% of whom are from Christians!) who suffered religious intolerance and abuse ranging from intimidation to physical injuries and near death experiences. Some of those near death experiences would likely have resulted in death, had Mikey not personally, immediately, and forcefully intervened. How does he do it? When Mikey finds out someone has been harmed or put at grave risk, he gets the service member’s commander on the phone. That’s going straight to the top. With the Constitution as his legal weapon, he issues such a challenge that things happen. He’s learned the results are good for only a few weeks at best, though, so he goes next to the media. Getting the story out to the public can cause longer lasting protection for the service member. Finally, if the service member wishes, Mikey looks into legal action. Right now, he and MRFF have joined a decorated Army combat medic in a lawsuit against the DoD and Secretary of Defense Gates, himself. Mikey’s got huge cajones. He can’t be intimidated. Others have noticed; many others. In mid-October, 2009, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation received a cherished nomination for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Last year (2009) saw the most ever Nobel Peace Prize nominations. Only 33 organizations and 172 individuals (one of whom was Obama) worldwide received such an honor. Mikey’s also recognized a hierarchy of unwanteds, in this fundamentalist Christian Dominionist’s military: Faith is a “sacred cow”, so atheists and agnostics rank even lower than Jews. Secularism, especially rational secularism, is being rooted out and replaced with beliefism. After all, once someone concedes to believe in that which can’t rationally be proven, those beliefs have a chance to be manipulated. Follow MRFF, if you want to learn more. Mikey’s money ran out a long time ago. Danger awaits more military members, unless you help. Please, support your Constitution. Support the United States of America. And, do it by supporting those who risk their lives to protect us; our servicewomen and men. Protect them by supporting the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. There is much you can do. Learn more. Spread the word. And give what you can and please give it fast. Mikey will tell you more. (Former USAF Officer and Jewish Physician's Name Withheld) SUPPORT MRFF The wall separating church and state
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