Battle for religious rights

Weinstein is the founder of Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to resurrect what he believes is the crumbling wall between church and state in the military.

Specifically, Weinstein believes that a minority Christian viewpoint - one that seeks to turn the military into a Christian force - is infiltrating the ranks at all levels. If they succeed, he says, their beliefs could be forced onto people around the world and here at home.

As Weinstein says it: "We're a Tiger Woods' putt away from becoming the United Fundamentalist Christian States of America, brought to you by the faith-based Department of Defense and its Pentacostalagon."

Weinstein has a way with sound bytes, as did two of his former bosses: Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot and President Ronald Reagan. That has helped propel his message into hundreds of newspapers and magazines, and on TV, radio and the Internet. He'll be speaking in Sacramento this Sunday, a free appearance that is open to the public.

He's also written a book about his cause, "With God on Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military."

It's a cause that came to him four years ago, in the form of a conversation with his younger son, who at the time was a sophomore at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. His son complained about being unduly pressured by other cadets and academy leaders to give up his Jewish faith and become a Christian.

Weinstein, a 1977 Air Force academy graduate who served in Judge Advocate General Corps for 10 years and also did a stint in the Reagan White House, said he'd look into it. He thought it could be resolved with a few phone calls.

But as he probed, he began to see evidence of what seemed to be U.S.-sanctioned proseltyzation not only at the academy, but throughout the Air Force and in all branches of the military. Locally, he said he's event received complaints from Travis Air Force Base, though he would not detail them.

Now the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been in contact with more than 7,500 active-duty military members with similar complaints. Weinstein estimates that "96 percent" of those complaints come from other Christians.

"We're at war, with the fundamentalist Christians pitted against the nonfundamentalist Christian brothers and sisters," he says. "This is a national security threat internally every bit as much as that which is now challenging our country externally by a resurgent Taliban and al Qaida."

The threat isn't just to individual service members' ability to practice their chosen faith - or nonfaith, as in the case of an avowed atheist whose opportunity for a promotional interview was rescinded, allegedly because he declined to participate in Christian prayers, according to a lawsuit recently filed by the foundation.

And it's not just that "combat troops refusing to accept their commanders' biblical world view are sent on more dangerous assignments," or that "commanders are censoring movies," so that troops are having trouble obtaining "Lord of the Rings" or Harry Potter DVDs, as Weinstein has been told by service members.

The threat to national security comes when American Humvees are "driven through Iraqi cities playing, in Arabic, Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life," or when company commanders are allowed to hand out tracts in Iraq depicting Christians going to heaven and Muslims going to hell, as alleged by a soldier who contacted Weinstein. Such actions serve to fuel the belief in Muslim countries that they are engaged in another holy war, and that this time, the Christian crusade is being led by the U.S. military.

When he returns to Sacramento this weekend - Weinstein is a graduate of McGeorge School of Law - the founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation will bring a simple message: "Join us."

"Our constitution doesn't separate drinking and driving or matches and kids playing with them. But it does separate church and state," he says. "That's our fight. The people I'm fighting view the separation of church and state as a myth."

Weinstein will speak from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday in Room 4203 at the State Capitol, in a free public forum sponsored by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. It will be followed by a reception and book sighing at Congregation B'nai Israel in Sacramento.