Wright-Patterson AFB: Only Fundamentalist Christians Welcome?
At public speaking engagements, Mikey Weinstein says he often reads a letter he received in July 2006 from a former contractor at Wright-Patt. Back at home in Albuquerque, he reads from the letter on the phone:
"I worked at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for just over a year as a civilian contractor...Staff meetings were prefaced and closed by fundamentalist Christian prayer sessions, and the senior NCOs who led the prayer sessions made it clear to the military trainees that they were judged on whether or not they enthusiastically participated. The trainee air persons were given the choice of attending fundamentalist Christian religious prayer ceremonies on Sunday or being assigned to particularly onerous substitute duties. It was made very clear to them that decent evaluations and a successful training period leading to a tolerable term of enlistment or a career in the Air Force included completely embracing fundamentalist Christianity.
...I was appalled to find groups of senior officers praying as a decision-making aid...Once I got to know people and heard more conversations, I realized that for many officers, the war in Iraq is not at all politically motivated, but religiously motivated. It is a fundamentalist Christian jihad that will bring on the apocalypse and rapture, which is what they want...Hearing this from people who hold destructive atomic and nuclear weapon systems is terrifying to me...immediately after I renewed my contract, I was repeatedly and aggressively proselytized and told to ‘get with the Jesus program and help spread the word of Jesus.’"
Casey Weinstein describes the atmosphere when he was stationed on active duty at Wright-Patt in 2005. "I had an issue early on with mandatory prayer at a mandatory Thanksgiving luncheon given when I first got to my unit," Casey Weinstein says. He says that a prayer at the luncheon was offered in Jesus’ name, a violation of Air Force guidelines. "I was told I could go and address the issue with one of the unit members...I addressed the issue in a very calm manner. I said, ‘I just want to let you know there are new guidelines about this.’"
Another issue that came up, Casey Weinstein says, was religious content sent out through official base e-mail. "It was called The War on Christmas (an excerpt from the book by former Fox News anchor John Gibson) and it was sent out to a bunch of people using official e-mail that just trashes on people who have problems with Christmas being in the workplace."
Casey Weinstein went to his direct supervisor to discuss this e-mail. "Now apparently, he heard that I had complained about the Christian prayer in Jesus’ name on Thanksgiving, which was supposed to be a secular prayer," he says. "So he flipped out. He started yelling at me, with the door open, in front of subordinates, basically just ruining my credibility in the squadron. I got back up and got in his face and showed him the regulations and showed him the regulation about not being allowed to use e-mail for those purposes, here’s the appropriate prayers, and he backed down really quickly."
"In the military, they want complete and team players," Mikey Weinstein says. "Anyone who says, ‘That’s great, but you’re in violation of the bedrock principle of our country, which is our Constitution — It’s asking too much of a young trooper to stand up. And it’s very hard to say, ‘No sir, no ma’am, you can’t do this.’"
Source: Jewish Dayton, emphasis added
The ideology of Christian privilege can explain a lot of this: many Christians assume that because they are in the majority and have traditionally been in the majority, then it's appropriate for public institutions to reflect their religious interests and their religious agenda — and just theirs, not everyone's equally. It's a Christian Nation and a Christian Military fighting Christian Wars on behalf of a Christian God for the furtherance of a Christian Agenda. It's all about them and what they want... and to hell with everyone else — sometimes literally.
Casey Weinstein’s wife, Amanda, also graduated from the Air Force Academy and was on active duty at Wright Patt. She is a Unitarian. Together, they attend Temple Israel, a Unitarian church, and a Buddhist fellowship.
"I gained this new perspective of what it’s like to be a minority in the military," she says. "Because for me, I never had to ask to get Christmas off. I never had to ask to get Easter off. And all of a sudden, I have to ask to get Yom Kippur off and go to services. And I’d ask and they’d just say no — here in Dayton. And then I was repeatedly told no, I can’t go to Yom Kippur services by our exec, a captain, and finally Dad had to get involved and say, ‘No, she can go to services.’"
Casey Weinstein and his wife are now inactive reservists awaiting active reserve jobs. "It’s unbelievable," Mikey Weinstein says. "In the headquarters building at Materiel Command (at Wright-Patt), you go to the ladies’ room or the men’s room and they are handing out — this is where the four-star general sits — handing out pamphlets for a class that they’re trying to urge people to go to see. The title of the class was Jesus vs. Mohammed: An Examination of the Life of Both Prophets and Why Jesus Christ is Superior to All, at a nearby off-base mega-evangelical church here in the community. You couldn’t do a better recruiting film for al-Qaeda or the Taliban."
Christians are among those who seek out Weinstein's organization to register complaints and problems, so this isn't exactly a conflict between Christians and non-Christians. Why, though, don't we see conservative, evangelical Christians standing up to complain and denounce all these incidents? Some are unaware of it, obviously, but many are not — they can't be, because many complain about and denounce Weinstein instead. Some are so displeased that they go further:
Weinstein and his wife live in Albuquerque under 24-hour security. They’ve received five death threats. Their tires have been slashed, and feces have been thrown at their house, which was vandalized last month with swastikas and crosses. ...
Mikey Weinstein says the military has tried to prevent people from contacting his foundation. Casey Weinstein adds that most are too scared to contact the foundation. He says that most proselytizing comes from officers. "The officers are the ones with the power. Even if an enlisted person has these beliefs, they don’t always have the power to force it on others. Officers do."
No, it's not Jews who painted swastikas on his house. Does anyone seriously believe that Buddhists have been sending him death threats? Of course not. Could it be the Taliban? Ridiculous. The only people who have expressed any problem with what Weinstein has been doing are Christians and it's implausible that anyone but Christians are the ones who are threatening and attacking Weinstein — just as Christians threatened and attacked people (some of whom were Christians themselves) who worked on behalf of abolition, desegregation, women's suffrage, gay rights, and so forth.
Christians in America have traditionally controlled all the levers of power — political, social, cultural — and they want to retain that power as much as possible. Some Christians are comfortable sharing power with non-Christians but many others are willing to use force and even violence to ensure that their power remains undiluted. Whenever anyone dares to challenge this, even if they happen to be Christians themselves, they may be made to suffer for it. Only those with real courage and self-confidence are able to withstand this — people like Mikey Weinstein and his family. They are more of an asset to this nation than and entire building full of self-righteous, proselytizing officers.
Comments
I have to agree. To further support your claim, I will add the following. I left for Army basic training back Dec 28, 2004. Now I didn’t stay long, medical complications; however, when we were shipping out, they were handing out bibles. Personally, I thought this was a little funny, here we are getting ready to go to war and the Army is handing us out CAMOFLAUGE mini new testement bibles. I looked at it, then commmented “What the @#$% do you expect me to do with this, throw it at the enemy?” Like I said, at first I was more amused, but as I thought about it and definately now, I feel more offended. The military just assumes that everyone must believe in god, and not jsut god but the Christian god. About all this accomplished was driving me further into Atheism. I can say now that I am an open Athiest. I think the only people who don’t know yet, that know me, are my family which will be probably the hardest thing I ever do.
My guess is that this is nothing new. In one form or another the armed forces has been a Christian playground, even going back to the 1800s and perhaps beyond. My question is this: From a psychological standpoint, why is it so important for people to believe in any religion? Why are they so obsessed with it? There is clearly something mentally wrong with these people.
In my experience it isn’t that there is something mentally wrong but more insecure. Religion gives people a way to explain what you can’t find in a textbook. I also, see it as an excuse or scape goat. Theists don’t really have to take responsibility for anything they do. Take a murderer, he can simply “find god” and be “saved” in the Christian faith and all is well.
marc, isn’t it easier to get someone else to go on a crusade for you if you convince them that they’re doing it for god above all? If you want to fight wars, all you got to do is mix in some godist propaganda and the people will do whatever you want.
Thanks Chad.
I should clarify. Why is it that so many religious people, in this case Christians, find it imperative that you believe what they believe? Again, I suppose you can bring up the insecure issue. But that can’t be the entire explanation. It’s like they are infected and NEED to spread the infection.
marc, I can answer that. Scripturally and traditionally, Christianity is not tolerant of other religions, going all the way back to the Old Testament (Deuteronomy is very explicit about the woes of following other gods besides Yahweh). This exclusivity continues to today. And Christians aren’t the only ones that are like that, we just see it that way because they’re all around us in the West.
marc, I re-read your comment, and misunderstood. The need to spread it is called “The Great Commission,” and it is the last few verses of the book of Matthew, if I recall, where Jesus says to go into all the world and preach his message. The book of Acts shows the beginnings of the early Christian missionary movement. They take Jesus’ words at the end of the gospel literally. Ask yourself: how many times have Jews come knocking on my door to preach their religion? Never. Why? It’s a birth-rite thing. For Christians, the door had to be opened to Jews and Gentiles for it to spread quickly, hence the Great Commission.
Too bad the commission isn’t all that great, eh?
He is correct, “God” I really hate bashing on one particular religion but it is hard not to. Christians, above any, have this undying urge to spread their faith. I have friends of various religions. My roommate is Muslim and one of my best friends is Orthodox Jew, neither of which ever try to convert me or treat me differently because I do not believe in god what so ever. I also find that Christians tend to escalate from casual believer to fanaticism more rapidly. One of the best examples of how this happens, I saw in the movie “The Mist” The Christian woman went from being a crazy lady to a prophet in less than a day. I know I can make matter worse with Christians when they try and defend their beliefs, I can get really funny at times. I try not to be disrespectful of other beliefs but when it seems every time I turn a corner there is a Christian trying to fanatically convert me, I can’t help “rolling my eyes into the back of my head and chanting satanically, every once in a while, just to get a rise out of them.” I know this sounds horrible but I just get so tired of being looked down on or at, as if plagued by death himself. I guess occasionally reacting the way I do helps keep me from taking their bible and lighting it a flame, then asking them why their “God” hasn’t smite me yet.
A year or so ago, I asked one of my in-laws why he goes to Brazil every year to proselytize. I said that most people down there are already Christians. What’s the point? He said, “Yes, they’re Christians, but they don’t believe the right way. They are taught an incorrect version of Christianity.”
Well, we’ve got Mormons and different sects of Xianity all trying to convert everyone else. Seems like they’re poaching from each other’s congregations, because how many non-Xians are there, and how many are convertible? Not that many.
Well, I have no problem with someone informing another of their beliefs. I would question your faith if you didn’t at least raise the question to me. The problem I have is not the asking or inquireing it is the pushing. No means no, or at least that’s what they told us back in elementary I think. All I personally ask is that when I say, no or I don;t care, that they respect my wishes and leave me alone.
I once had a Jahova Witness come to my house, it was the first and the last time. You see, my father is a Texas State Trooper, and we lived out in the country, just outside a small Texas town. (pop: 2000)The one time we had these Jahova’s come up to the house, it was kinda cool. They pulled up in this brand new Dodge, got out of the truck and brought their pamplets to the door. My father told them to leave we didn;t want any, problem is they wouldn’t. They kept insisting and pushing. They did finally leave the porch but they got in their truck and sat there, they were there for about 30 min just sitting. I figured they were waiting for my dad to leave. I was probably 15 at the time, and getting ready to go dove hunting up at our windmill. So, being this genius I am, I got this great idea
. I told my dad, they aren’t leaving, but that they will be soon. Curious he watched as I stepped out the front door, carrying: Shotgun, Vest(full of shells), and a bag. I proceeded down towards their truck, about that time, just my luck. A flock of dove flew over head and I caught one just over their truck. I am sorry, but when it takes such an action to get them to leave you alone, we have a problem. Needless to say, they never came back to the house, I guess the total of 45min they sat out in their truck after being repeatidly asked to leave was long enough.
I saw this bumpersticker the other day:
BRING BACK THE ROMAN LIONS
Apparently I’m not the only one who’s had enough.
As a military officer, this makes me SICK! As an atheist, it just makes me sad. If you can’t understand the Constitution, what the heck are you doing in the military? Although, I suppose this is just another hate group using the military to draw recruits?
This whole article is quite frightening.Especially the bit about Christians seeing the invasion on Iraq as part of the descent into the appocolyptic chaos and their eventual redemption.Isn’t it also strange how militant Christians use the Nazi regime as evidence of the perils of atheism,when they’re perfectly happy to daub swastikas when criticism comes from a Jewish source.
The military has always been fertile ground for the violation of the separation of church and sate. This practice has gone off the charts under the Bush administration. Perhaps as a payoff to the evangelical right that supported the Republican party and have not gotten everything else they wished from George Bush.
I think it is very dangerous to permit this religious encroachment in the military to continue.
The Nazis were NOT atheistic. They were a Christian aberration but certainly not atheistic.