How the Religious Right Spreads Phony Stories of Religious Persecution of Christians in the Military

[SecularMotion]

We've seen these disinformation and smear campaigns orchestrated by the Religious Right play out before: Religious Right organizations make an outrageous claim; in this case, a secret meeting aimed at attacking the religious freedom of Christian conservatives in the military, took place at the Pentagon April 23, 2013. This phony claim spreads like a virus through conservative networks. The story takes off at outlets like Breitbart.com, Fox News, WorldNetDaily and other right wing websites, blogs, e-mail newsletters and on twitter.

The target of this particular campaign is Michael L. "Mickey" Weinstein, the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). Since its founding the MRFF has been dedicated to battling Christian fundamentalism in the military. For waging this battle, the Religious Right's has labeled Weinstein -- a registered Republican and former military prosecutor who served in the Ronald Reagan Administration -- an "anti-Christian extremist," "a religious bigot" and the "Field General of the Godless Armies of Satan."

Over the years, Weinstein has been swamped with hate mail.

Now, he is one of the Religious Right's premier public enemies.

http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18229-religious-right-phony-persecution-military

[el_bryanto]

1. That story should have gone through another editing pass

It's not very clearly written.

It does sound like Mr. Weinstein's record is generally good, and he's being attacked unfairly (no real surprise there).

Bryant

[COLGATE4]

3. Weinstein's record is a lot better than

generally good. Along with his political leanings (Registered Republican) and his background serving with the Reagan administration Weinstein is a graduate of the Air Force Academy. He took up this challenge when his sons, both cadets following in their father's footsteps at the Air Force Academy were mercilessly harrassed by officers and staff for the sin of being Christ-killing Jews who just wouldn't accept the mercy of Our Lord. He has since broadened his work to preserve the religious freedom of all military personnel from out-of control evangelism prevalent in today's military.

[COLGATE4]

2. Clliff Notes version of this despicable

smear attempt by RW'ers and Xian fundamentalists: "'Mikey' Weinstein is nothing but a Satan-loving Xian-hatin JEW!!!!! JEW!!!!! JEW!!!!!!

[skepticscott]

4. One doesn't even have to be a fundy

to fling bogus accusations of bigotry against the non-religious. It happens on this board all the time, even from those who preach "tolerance" and "understanding".