POLICYMIC – How Atheists Are Fighting Back Against Military Discrimination

Selected Article Excerpt: 

The evangelizing of the military that I discussed in my previous article has not come without a backlash. The controversies at the Air Force Academy were enough to galvanize one man to begin the long fight to roll back Christian Dominionism. Mikey Weinstein, whose son, a cadet, was slurred and harassed as a “dirty Jew” who “killed Jesus,” founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) in 2005. Weinstein, a registered Republican and former lawyer in the Reagan White House, has made it his goal to assist members of the military who are targeted, excluded, or harassed for their beliefs or lack thereof. (He’s also living proof that the separation of church and state is something that all of us — not just those on the left — can support.)

The watchdog MRFF, whose explicit mission is the defense of each soldier’s control over his or her faith, has found itself involved in several controversies since its inception. Its 2007 report on government involvement with parachurch organizations revealed the paid missionaries noted above. But the group is far from the only one pointing out the evangelizing of our military, specifically at the Air Force Academy. The Yale Divinity School’s 2004 report to Chaplain Colonel Michael Whittington detailed systematic proselytizing toward non-evangelical soldiers.

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