Mikey Weinstein Debates Christian Right Leader Jay Sekulow at Air Force Academy
Please check back often over the week; we are posting news of the debate as it becomes available.
 Listen to KRCC-FM's recording of the Weinstein-Sekulow debate here.
Background: April 24, 2007. Mikey Weinstein, who is leading a campaign to uproot religious intolerance from the U.S. military, and particularly from the U.S. Air Force Academy, his alma mater, tonight debates Jay Sekulow, who heads the American Center for Law and Justice. The debate will be at the Academy. Pat Robertson founded Sekulow's organization, which litigates to destroy the constitutional boundaries between church and state.
Weinstein is the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and his family have a long tradition of service in the United States armed forces. He is suing the Air Force over incidents of religious intolerance suffered by his sons and other Air Force Academy cadets. Weinstein is a member of the JewsOnFirst Advisory Board.You can read more about him here. You can learn more here about the situation that the Christian right has created at the Air Force Academy. There is information about the religious right's activities in the military here, including a promotional video made by a Christian group in the Pentagon, featuring high-ranking, officers in uniform. Weinstein is calling for an investigation.
Weinstein is doing a gutsy thing, debating Sekulow at the Air Force Academy, before what is unlikely to be a welcoming audience. Indeed, a rabbi in Colorado Springs circulated a vicious disparagement of him on a Jewish community listserv, which we have posted below.
Listen to KRCC-FM's recording of the Weinstein-Sekulow debate
This page contains a link to the recording. Click here.
Lawyers Debate at Air Force Academy
Rebecca Spence, Forward, April 27, 2007
Colorado Springs, Colo. - Two controversial attorneys representing opposite ends of the church-state separation dispute faced off at the U.S. Air Force Academy here this week in an impassioned debate over the reach of evangelical Christianity in the ranks of the military.
The debate pitted Mikey Weinstein, the New Mexico attorney who sued the Air Force Academy in 2005 over what he calls rampant proselytizing on campus, against Jay Sekulow, a Jewish convert to Christianity who works closely with televangelist Pat Robertson and represents Christian groups before the Supreme Court.
Taking place in the midst of an unseasonably fierce spring-time blizzard, the debate drew a crowd of some 300 Air Force cadets. Judging by the applause, the audience seemed noticeably more sympathetic to Sekulow, who hosts a radio talk show and heads the Robertson-affiliated American Center for Law and Justice, than to Weinstein, an Air Force Academy graduate. Continue.
Debate over religion in military cordial
By Paul Asay, Colorado Springs Gazette, April 25, 2007
The battle over religion’s place in the military took a strangely cordial turn Tuesday at the Air Force Academy.
“We may have to see a movie together,” Mikey Weinstein told Jay Sekulow toward the end of the debate. “It won’t be ‘The Passion of the Christ,’ I can tell you that.”
Weinstein, an Air Force Academy graduate who’s led a two-year crusade against alleged proselytizing at the academy, squared off against Sekulow, an attorney who defends religious freedoms. They hold opposing views on what constitutes unwanted. Continue.
Air Force Academy Debate: Role of Religion in the Military
Reported by Mike Conneen, Fox21News (Colorado Springs), April 25, 2007
Tuesday, the Air Force Academy hosted a debate on the proper role of religion in the military. An Academy law professor moderated and two prominent speakers from either side of the issue participated.
The debate will have no influence on military policy, but it could have an influence on opinions in the military.
Academy alum Mikey Weinstein said he demanded to speak at the Academy, because he said Christian groups like Focus on the Family have free access there.
The Academy agreed to let him speak, but in a debate format. Weinstein said he does not want to take religion out of the military. However, he said there is a time and place for it.
Weinstein said, "We have a Christian Taliban within our U.S. military, the pentagon has become the penacostalgon and this administration has turned the Department of Defense into a faith based initiative." Continue.
News release from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation
Mikey Weinstein to debate Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for Pat Robertson (ACLJ),
at the Air Force Academy's Arnold Hall. Click here to read the release.
Safety fears at debate
Paul Asay, The Colorado Springs Gazette, April 24, 2007
An Air Force Academy graduate who has been an outspoken critic of what he’s claimed is religious intolerance at the school is concerned about his safety at a debate today.
Mikey Weinstein, who sued the Air Force in 2005 over alleged proselytizing on campus, will debate conservative attorney Jay Sekulow on the issue of religion and the military at 5 p.m. at the academy’s Arnold Hall.
Weinstein says he’s received four death threats this week -- about average, he says, but enough to warrant concern. Continue.
Because I love America: Reagan's Assistant General Counsel Speaks Out
Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Foundation, OpEdNews.com, April 23, 2007
Mikey Weinstein served as Assistant General Counsel for Ronald Reagan. He founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to ensure the continued separation of Church and State, as essential principle of America's Constitution.
When I began asking questions about what I saw going on at Colorado Springs in 2004 I never expected that the inquiry would lead me to the horrifying conclusion that our country had been taken over by people who have used our own freedoms to enslave us. But that is what happened. When I began I, like most people, was focused on the personal. I believed that what was happening at the United States Air Force Academy, the harassment of cadets and staff with unwanted evangelism, was limited in scope. As the months passed, however, I found myself forced to constantly reassess my basic assumptions. The logic of events was stark and undeniable. Promises of an open inquiry were ignored; decent and courageous people like former Air Force Chaplin MeLinda Morton were intentionally muzzled to ensure the truth would not be heard and the wrongs righted.
As a Republican and an Academy graduate I find myself in head on conflict with my own oath to protect the Constitution. As a Jew I confronted a situation through ears that still hear the cries of my people walking silently into the brick buildings that would reduce them to ash. I cannot stand still and let that happen to my country.
You know about the law suit we filed; that suit took on the issue directly, based on the 1st Amendment Right of members of the military to choose their own spiritual paths, unhampered by those placed in positions of authority and on the basis of the Establishment Clause and Clause Three of Article Six, which prohibit the existence of a national religion. That is what has happened. America now has a national religion whose tenets extend to a foreign policy that sees war in the Middle East as the fulfillment of its core mission . The power block responsible for the take over are now, effectively, in charge of the mightiest weapon the world has ever known, the United States Military.
My law suit was one element in the larger battle to take back America. That might seem excessive or alarmist; I only wish that was the case. Continue
Rabbi Howard Abel Hirsch of Colorado Springs posted the attack quoted below on Mikey Weinstein on the ShalomColorado listserv last week. We took a quick glance at federal tax documents filed by Hirsch's Center for Christian-Jewish Dialogue and noted that James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, is a member of the group's board, as is Rev. Ted Haggard, the former megachurch pastor and leader of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Last week Hirsch wrote the following in response to a letter encouraging Jews to attend Weinstein's debate with Sekulow.
Shalom Colorado, which emails news of interest to the Jewish residents
of Colorado Springs, has posted on line your letter seeking Jewish
community support for the forthcoming appearance of Mikey Weinstein on
April 24. I believe that your letter represents a serious error of
judgment and Shalom Colorado, which has distributed ill informed
editorial comment before, especially in the area of Christian-Jewish
relations, rather than merely publicizing the "news," has equally
erred by publicizing your letter.
Many of us believe that the Weinstein case has been appropriately
addressed by the appropriate authorities. I am more inclined to accept
the judgment of a leader of the caliber of Rabbi Arnold
Resnicoff rather than rely on the fantasies of a
non-religious, secular, intermarried Jew who represents no none but
himself, as well as the fantasies of others who are dealing with
second hand information at best.
I regret that distance has resulted in my inability to be more
involved with the Rocky Mountain Board, and I do wish that Denver were
closer so that I might speak these words to you directly. I assure
you, however, that quiet diplomacy and cool heads have produced more
lasting results for us than any inciting appearance of Mikey
Weinstein. The Jewish community will not benefit from his appearance
nor will we benefit from your outrageous letter encouraging our
attendance and support.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Howard Abel Hirsch
Founding President and CEO
The Center for Christian-Jewish Dialogue
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