COLORADO SPRINGS BUSINESS JOURNAL – Weinstein, MRFF fight near and far

Selected Article Excerpt:

In 2004, Weinstein founded MRFF in response to what he perceived as the undue influence of “far-right militant radical evangelical religious fundamentalists” within the military.

Throughout the past decade, Weinstein regularly has made headlines for taking on Academy leaders over religious issues.

MRFF’s stated goal is to “ensure that all members of the U.S. Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”

Who is he fighting?

Weinstein zeroes in on the above-mentioned subset of believers. Members of the armed forces who subscribe to such beliefs, Weinstein said, constitute an American Taliban, who put their religious beliefs before their “blood oath” to uphold the Constitution.

Earlier this year, Weinstein notified AFA brass that a senior cadet had posted a Bible verse (Galatians 2:20) on the whiteboard outside his dorm room, saying that 29 cadets and four faculty members had complained about the posting to MRFF.

The Academy ordered the cadet to remove the post, igniting another conflict between MRFF and its foes.

In a March 28 letter to USAFA Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson, representatives of 21 different conservative organizations, including the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, Judicial Watch and the Liberty Institute, defended the cadet’s posting and urged her to reverse the decision. They contended that censoring such religious speech violated military religious freedom.

All the signatories are powerful, well-funded organizations with assets and reach that far exceed those of MRFF.

Click to read more