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Commander projects Mikey Weinstein on screen at unit gathering, calls him “anti-Christian terrorist“ [1]

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Date: 2023-12-04  

That time of year is upon us once again — that joyful season when crusading Christian military commanders bent on bringing all of their subordinates to Jesus abuse their authority to compel all to have a merrily mandatory Christmas. Often, this is done in the form of a commander’s Christmas party, which all unit members are expected to attend, lest they end up in the “naughty” column on their commander’s “naughty or nice” list (a distinction that, in all seriousness, could negatively affect their careers).

In this story, the commander, who, according to two Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) installation representatives in the unit, “belongs to a well known Christian proselytizing organization whose express mission is to spread The Gospel of Jesus Christ in the military community,” was planning his annual “Christmas Extravaganza Party.” This “party,” as described by the MRFF reps, who had been at it the two previous years, is “more like a solemn Christmas religious service and less like a party,” with “chaplains who lead sectarian Christian prayers” and only the most religious of Christmas carols sung.

And, of course, attendance was not to be optional, with the commander saying he expected the unit’s “full participation” at “my Christmas Extravaganza Party.”

But this year, 47 members of the unit (36 of whom are Christians, as are the two MRFF reps) decided to put a stop to their commander’s torturous tradition, calling upon the MRFF reps to represent them. With threats of bringing in Mikey Weinstein and the full force of MRFF, the commander at length relented, reluctantly agreeing to the demands of the MRFF reps and their 47 clients to rename the event and make it inclusive of all.

The story doesn’t end there, however. The true insanity didn’t occur until a few days later. As the MRFF reps reported in an e-mail to Mikey Weinstein (emphasis added):

“Several days later at a previously scheduled mandatory unit gathering, our Commander started the meeting off by getting all jacked about what had happened with our demands. He started loudly yelling about what had gone down with the new name change and other inclusive changes for ‘his’ Christmas event and the new emphasis on inclusion and diversity. He said that the ‘globalist War on Christmas’ had no place in his unit and that ‘Christmas is for everybody anyway.’ He then said that he knew that many in our unit were as equally pissed off as he was. And that they should direct and vent their rage against ‘that anti-Christian terrorist Mikey Weinstein and the anti-Christian MRFF.’ He then had the screen projector show a picture of Mikey with his 800 phone number at the MRFF plainly visible.”

But this Christmas-crazed commander wasn’t done yet. He continued his raucous retaliatory rant by telling the unit’s members to contact their members of Congress in support of Christian nationalist Rep. Mike Turner’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) amendment to shut MRFF down by making it illegal for military members to contact or respond to MRFF (a measure that is still up in the air with the NDAA still in conference and the final bill not having been passed yet). As the MRFF reps wrote in their e-mail to Mikey (emphasis added):

“Our Commander then additionally advised all attendees to contact their Members of Congress as Congress was ‘just this far away’ (he held up his left thumb and left forefinger to indicate a very short distance) from finally accomplishing the banning of MRFF from even existing anymore. He even told everyone that this was his personal Christmas wish for this year.”

When I first heard about this commander putting a picture of Mikey up on the screen, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the time, over a decade and a half ago now, when a prominent fundamentalist mega-church pastor put Mikey’s picture up on the large screen TVs in his church, dubbing him the “Field General of the Godless Armies of Satan.” As outrageous as that was, that was a civilian pastor, who was free to do it. This is a freakin’ military commander, which is an altogether different matter!

Here is the entire e-mail from the two MRFF reps, who we all should congratulate on a job well done!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/4/2209612/-Commander-projects-Mikey-Weinstein-on-screen-at-unit-gathering-calls-him-anti-Christian-terrorist?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

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