"These people should be court-martialed" Former Air Force officer Mikey Weinstein

[Jon8503]

says evangelicals are trying to turn his beloved military into a "frickin' faith-based initiative."

By Alex Koppelman

Dec. 13, 2006 | When a Christian group shot a video inside the Pentagon that featured uniformed senior military officers talking about their evangelical faith, Mikey Weinstein went on the attack. Himself a former Air Force lawyer and Air Force Academy grad, Weinstein, who is Jewish, is the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. He founded the MRFF earlier this year to oppose the spread of religious intimidation in a military increasingly dominated by evangelical Christians.

On Monday, Weinstein held a press conference in Washington, D.C., to announce that he was asking the Department of Defense's inspector general to look into the video, and determine whether the people who appeared in it -- Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack J. Catton Jr.; Army Brig. Gen. Vince Brooks, the former public affairs director of the Army; and Undersecretary of the Army Pete Geren -- had violated military regulations. He also filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the government to find out who, if anyone, had approved the video shoot.

Bob Varney, the executive director of Christian Embassy, the group that made the video, tells Salon he believes no regulations were violated, and he says Weinstein's allegations about increased evangelical influence within the military are wrong.

"I don't understand how one could come to that kind of conclusion," Varney says. "The military believes in religious freedom, it offers religious freedom, it therefore offers people of different religions to express them, and we're one among a number of different religions that are working in the Armed Services."

Weinstein spoke with Salon Tuesday afternoon.

(rest of this article @ link below; from Salon)

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/12/13/weinstein/

[BOSSHOG]

1. I agree with Mikey

A military chaplains job is to provide spiritual counseling to military members and their familys not to evangelize and attempt to recruit those in uniform to a certain religion. Yes, they should be court martialed.

Its a sad commentary in our country today that an organization has to be created to protect our servicemembers from radical christian clerics.