Tornado Alley (PROG)

[arizona1]

As for our military, there have been numerous news stories about the excesses of religionists...even non-believing soldiers at Fort Sill being restricted to quarters after declining to attend openly religious music concerts.

One guy is fighting this with everything he's got.

Michael L. Weinstein
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein is an attorney, businessman and former Air Force officer. He is founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and author of With God on Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military in which he describes his fight against alleged coercive evangelistic practices by some members of the military.

Weinstein graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1977 and later served as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) for ten years. He also spent over three years in the West Wing of the Reagan White House as legal counsel in the White House. In his final position there, Weinstein was named the Committee Management Officer of the much-publicized Iran-Contra Investigation in his capacity as Assistant General Counsel of The White House Office of Administration, Executive Office of the President of the United States.

In October 2005, Weinstein sued the United States Air Force for permitting proselytization by evangelical Christian officers. U.S. District Judge James A. Parker, who presided over Weinstein v. U.S. Air Force, dismissed the case, stating, "No Plaintiff claims to have personally experienced any of the things described under “Factual Allegations"... while at the Academy or after leaving the Academy." "The only fair reading of Plaintiffs’ factual allegations limits them to practices and events at the Academy and policies as they affect persons, other than Plaintiffs, at the Academy." "Not a single Plaintiff has alleged any personal factual situation that has allegedly impinged on that Plaintiff’s constitutional rights since the Plaintiff left the Academy." [1]

Weinstein served as the first General Counsel to Texas billionaire and two-time Presidential candidate H. Ross Perot and Perot Systems Corporation and left Mr. Perot's employ in 2006 to focus his full-time attention on the nonprofit foundation he founded in March 2006 to directly battle the evangelical, fundamentalist religious right; the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. This foundation was formed as a watchdog organization to protect religious freedom in the Military in accordance with Department of Defense Directive 1300.17, Accommodation of Religious Practices Within the Military Services.[2][3]

On September 17, 2007, Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation filed a Federal lawsuit[4] in Kansas City, KS against the United States Department of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Major Freddy J. Welborn, accusing the defendants of allowing a "pervasive and pernicious pattern and practice of unconstitutional religious rape of freedoms of our U.S. military.[1] On March 5, 2008, the lawsuit was re-filed in Federal court to include allegations that co-plaintiff Army Specialist Jeremy Hall was denied a promotion due to the filing of the original lawsuit in September 2007.[5]

Weinstein appeared in the film adaptation of James Carroll's best selling book, "Constantine's Sword", which details the 2,000 year history between the Church and the Jews.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_L._Weinstein