Michael L. Weinstein: Fighting Christian influence

Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein is founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a 9-year-old, media-savvy group that fights what it says is religious intimidation by evangelicals in the U.S. military. I disagree with Weinstein and probed his biases before an audience of Patrick Henry College students. Here are edited excerpts.

Story: At a U.S. base in Iraq, 200 Buddhist worshippers bow their heads in meditation. Any problem with that? We’ve received zero complaints. If we had a commander saying, “The Buddhists are having a celebration today, and you don’t have to be there, but I’d like to invite you to be there,” I would ask whether or not the commander were Buddhist, because it would make a difference to us.

A Buddhist commander should not send out an invitation? Yes, that would be a problem. Oftentimes we have Christian commanders, officers, NCOs saying, “We’re having a little fellowship at my house this weekend, a Bible study. You don’t have to feel like you have to come.” That’s when we fire up the tanks and get moving.

If an officer invites soldiers but makes it very clear the activity is completely voluntary … We get involved in the following situations: duty hours, wearing the uniform, in a military workplace, and when there’s a superior-subordinate relationship. Of course, the workplace could be a cockpit, a tank, or a Bradley fighting vehicle, and duty hours typically go 24/7.

Another news story: Several soldiers baptized in the base pool in Iraq. A lieutenant colonel is in charge, but he’s a chaplain. He’s still an officer. Your military superior, of whatever rank, enlisted or officer, is not your shift manager at Starbucks. The military is unbelievably tribal, adversarial, communal, and ritualistic.

Another story: In Afghanistan, a Navy chaplain baptizes a Marine lance corporal in an irrigation ditch during combat operations in Afghanistan. This baptism, the Marine says, “means more after going through firefights.” Problem with that? Norman Schwarzkopf, one of our last great generals, told his chaplains, “Take your religious emblems off your uniforms.” He said you can still have your faith, but “we are not going to wave a red flag in front of religious extremists.” When we are viewed as occupiers and interlopers, why are we doing something that will enrage our Islamic allies, embolden our Islamic enemies, and, many times, eviscerate good order, morale, and discipline among the rest of our military?

How about this 2010 story of a Navy chaplain in the ocean off Camp Pendleton baptizing 29 Marines heading to Afghanistan? We obviously got massively involved in that one. We absolutely look like the 10th version of the nine prior Crusades. We’re providing an unbridled propaganda bonanza to ISIS.

No problem with the event itself? Correct. Assuming there wasn’t command duress placed by that senior commander to get his people out there.

Let’s say the lieutenant colonel attends but he’s not pressuring them. If that person’s there, his command authority is there.

One current controversy concerns Bibles in rooms at Navy lodges, where Navy folks can get rooms at modest prices. In June the Navy said Bibles are out. In August the Bibles came back. Now, the discussion continues. Would it bother you if groups that wanted to donate a Quran or Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion did so? It wasn’t just the Bible; it was the Gideons’ version of the Bible. We ask that Bibles of any sort, Qurans, Dawkins, my favorite book Green Eggs and Ham, be at the reservation desk. If you want it, you go up and ask for it.

The Gideons volunteer their time and money. If Buddhists or Muslims or others wanted to make the same commitment, why not let them? Why have a naked public square? We really miss Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court. She once said we don’t count heads before enforcing the First Amendment. It doesn’t matter if we say, “Go get funded the way the Gideons are funded.” That’s the wrong focus. The focus is that it’s there.

Let’s say a group of Jane Austen devotees wants to put a copy of Pride and Prejudice in every room at a lodge. OK? Do you really expect me to say, with everybody watching, that a Jane Austen book couldn’t go in there? Of course it’s OK. That’s not proselytizing.

What about John Milton’s Paradise Lost or Dante’s Inferno? We’re getting a little bit closer, but I’m not a bookmeister.

Headline from your website: “Christian Extremists Driven Mad Through Constitutional Advocacy, MRFF Pressure.” Is it fair to characterize you as anti-extremist? We are in favor of extremists if they support Slayer, Metallica, Springsteen, and the Dodgers.

Here’s an essay from a person who wrote how others characterized him as an extremist: “I was disappointed originally, but I eventually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love? ... Was not Amos an extremist for justice? ... Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel?” If someone wanted to put that in a hotel room, yes or no? In the Marriott? I don’t think that fits the LDS narrative.

Wherever you like. I like the Hiltons, the Hyatts, the Motel 6s. Obviously, that’s not the U.S. military, so we wouldn’t give a crap about that.

What if we were in a Navy lodge? Then we would give a crap.

This is Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. I understand. I recognize the letter very well.

You say the military is a special circumstance because of the great difference between officers and enlisted men. What about at a university, where professors grade students? If a troubled student comes to a Buddhist professor’s office, can the professor say, “I’ve had experience with the Buddha. Meditation works for me, maybe it’ll work for you.” If someone came to a West Point professor, we’re not going to say you can’t say, to someone who’s suffering, “Here’s something that’s worked for me.” But it has to be done deftly and very carefully.

If it’s not done deftly in the military, there’s the inspector general [IG] hotline, the chain of command, legal services. … They’re all worthless.

All worthless? I wasn’t strong enough. They’re all freaking worthless. If you’re the victim of religious, fundamentalist, generally Christian predation, you can go up your chain of command, but they’re usually the perpetrators, so that’s out. You can go to the JAGs, but they’re only staff officers—they only have so much clout. You can go to the chaplains, but 85 percent of them are evangelicals. If they cross the line into becoming dominionist or fundamentalist, about a third of them, that’s not going to help. You can go to the inspector general, but you have to out yourself.

The inspector general hotline also allows anonymity, right? Arguably, to start with, until there’s an NSA voice analysis. One more thing—a large number of folks who are professional IG staff and EEO [military equal opportunity] staff are clients of ours. When the correction officers at the prison come to the prisoners asking for protection, we call it a national security threat.