Continue reading »]]> Just about a year ago, one of our more news-savvy members of Congress showed off his discerning assessment of news sources by posting a very important article on his Facebook page. The article, revealing the shocking news that Planned Parenthood had opened an “$8 Billion Abortionplex,” was from one of the nation’s most highly respected and reliable news source — The Onion! The congressman was Rep. John Fleming (R-LA).

Well, it seems that Congressman Fleming’s ability to separate fact from fiction hasn’t improved much in the past year. The stories he’s now believing might not come from The Onion, a site that anybody with half a brain would immediately recognize to be satire, but the headlines are just as far-fetched and the stories just as fictitious.

Here’s what Fleming had to say last week in Congress:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB6pzhR5ky4

Transcript of above video:

Mr. Speaker, I want to be certain that the administration and Pentagon leadership do not deny our men and women in uniform one of the very freedoms they are fighting to protect. On Monday I led on a letter sent to Defense Secretary Hagel demanding details about a meeting between Pentagon officials and ant-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein. Weinstein has spent nine years at war — those are his words — at war with evangelical Christians who he says are committing “spiritual rape” against the U.S. military. Christians who are merely exercising their First Amendment right or primary duties in the case of chaplains. Mr. Weinstein exploits freedom of speech to name call and to label Christians as the “Christian taliban” and “al Qaeda,” but he seeks to shut down the religious freedom of expression of service members in the process. I have trouble with several anti-Christian steps the Pentagon has taken in recent years. That is why my colleagues and I seek answers from Secretary Hagel on this important question now.

I know it’s becoming increasingly hard to tell if a headline is from a less than reliable alarmist news site or a satire site like The Onion, but you’d think a member of Congress  who has already embarrassed themselves once by falling for a fictitious story would at least check to see whether or not another seemingly unbelievable story is true before repeating it — and especially before repeating it on the floor of the House of Representatives. But not Congressman Fleming! He’s apparently fallen hook. line, and sinker for the rapidly spreading, but completely untrue, story that the Department of Defense has decided to start court-martialing Christians to rid them from the military.

Where did such a ridiculous story come from? Breitbart.com, aided by FOX News and a whole bunch of fundamentalist Christian websites and organizations, particularly the Family Research Council.

Almost immediately after it was reported by the Washington Post that Mikey Weinstein, the president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), along with MRFF board member former ambassador Joe Wilson and MRFF advisory board member Col. Larry Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, breitbart.com went into action. The meeting took place on April 23 and was reported on by the Washington Post on April 26. On April 28, breitbart.com came out with the headline: “Pentagon Taps Anti-Christian Extremist for Religious Tolerance Policy.”

Other articles quickly followed:

May 1: “Pentagon May Court Martial Soldiers Who Share Christian Faith”
May 3: “Pentagon Defends Unconstitutional Policy Against Soldiers Sharing Faith”
May 7: “Pentagon Began Relationship with Anti-Christian Extremist in 2009”
May 7: “Congressmen Probe Religious Bigot’s Influence at Pentagon”
May 8: “Senators to Hagel: Explain DOD Policy on Religion”
May 11: “Congress Must Tell Pentagon to Protect Troops’ First Amendment Rights”
May 13: “59 Congress Members Demand Hagel Explain Meeting with Anti-Christian Extremist”
May 13 “Congress Investigating Obama Admin’s Hostility to Religion in the Military”

And those are just the ones from breitbart.com!

FOX News also joined in, of course, as did other right-wing media outlets.

WorldNetDaily, in one of its articles, quoted Kelly Shakelford of the The Liberty Institute, which has launched an “Armed Forces Religious Liberty hotline,” saying: “They are about to implement a new policy under which any members of the military ‘caught’ talking about their Christian faith will be subject to court martial or imprisonment!”

To list all of the articles that have come out spreading this ridiculous claim, not to mention the petitions that have been launched to fight this fictitious threat of Christian persecution, would turn this into a 20,000 word post. (Just do a search of Google news on “Christians” + “court-martial” to get an idea how far the lies have spread, as well as what the DoD and others are doing to try to combat these lies.)

In an odd twist, Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, after interviewing Mikey Weinstein, actually put out an article debunking some of the claims coming from other right-wing sources. C’mon, if even Glenn Beck isn’t buying a conspiracy theory, it must be a pretty over-the-top conspiracy theory, right? And yet millions of people are actually believing it, including Congressman John Fleming and fifty-eight other members of Congress who signed onto Fleming’s letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel demanding answers about this “scandal.”

But what I want to focus on here is breitbart.com, not only because that was the website responsible for launching the manufactured scandal, but because of the obvious connection between breitbart.com and the Family Research Council (FRC), an organization whose executive vice president is none other than Jerry “my god is bigger than your god” Boykin. For those who don’t remember, Boykin’s “holy war” and other Islamophobic comments, made in uniform when he was an Army general, were even denounced by the Bush administration.

The author of all the breitbart.com articles listed above is Ken Klukowski. And who is Ken Klukowski? Well, he just happens to be the director of the FRC’s Center for Religious Liberty. So, what we have here is not news reporting, but a representative of Jerry Boykin’s organization using a pseudo-news site to push a conspiracy theory to further his organization’s agenda.

Then, on May 14, Congressman Fleming went on the FRC’s “Washington Watch” radio show, and was asked by FRC head Tony Perkins why he wrote the letter to Hagel demanding information about Mikey Weinstein’s meeting with Pentagon officials. Fleming’s answer? He said they “got a report” saying that “Christians could be brought up on charges for evangelizing” and that this even “included chaplains.” They “got a report?” And who was reporting this? Why, the FRC’s own Ken Klukowski on breitbart.com, of course!

By the time Fleming went on the FRC’s radio show, the lies started by Ken Klukowski and picked up by FOX News and others had been debunked by a number of other sources, including the Department of Defense itself, which had put out several statements saying that what breitbart.com had reported was not true.

The U.S. military has no plans to start court-martialing Christians just for being Christians or simply talking about their religion.

Is Mikey Weinstein really an anti-Christian extremist?

Over the past few weeks, MRFF’s Mikey Weinstein has been called a lot of names, ironically by people who like to criticize him for name calling. Weinstein has been called an “anti-Christian extremist,” an “anti-Christian crusader,” a “militant atheist,” and many other similar names. Congressman Fleming, during his appearance on the FRC’s radio show, claimed that Weinstein “hates people who believe particularly in Christianity but also in other faiths.” Tony Perkins, on the same show, called MRFF “one of the most anti-Christian organizations I’ve seen.” FRC vice president Jerry Boykin has been an enemy of Weinstein for years, publicly calling him names like “demon,” and in the recent brouhaha claiming that “anti-Christian and left-wing activists met at the Pentagon with military leaders.”

So, is it true? Are Weinstein and MRFF anti-Christian? Absolutely not! Is MRFF a left wing-organization? Again, absolutely not!

Not only are 96% of MRFF’s clients are Christians, but MRFF’s staff and volunteers are probably the most diverse group out there — both religiously and politically. Mikey himself is a Republican who, after graduating from the Air Force Academy and serving as a JAG officer, served as a White House counsel in the Reagan administration. MRFF’s Advisory Board includes members of all religions, including several Christian ministers who served as military chaplains.

But to those who take the word of the FRC and breitbart.com as gospel without bothering to check the facts, Weinstein is the “spawn of Satan” (another name he’s been called), a man out to rid the U.S. military of all vestiges of religion — with the help of the Obama administration, of course.

What’s really behind the attacks?

Why has a single meeting between Weinstein and Pentagon official sparked such outrage and become a viral story in right-wing circles? Well, it seems to be as much an attack on the Obama administration as it is on Weinstein and MRFF. It is not Weinstein alone who, according to the FRC, breitbart.com, et. al., is trying to cleanse the military of Christians — it is all part of a diabolic plot being carried out by the Obama administration!

Weinstein has also been labeled “intolerant” and a “bigot,” ironically by the likes of the FRC’s Jerry Boykin, a man who claims that Islam — not radical Muslim extremists, but the religion of Islam itself — “should not be protected under the First Amendment.”

Congressman John Fleming has displayed his brand of religious “tolerance” by doing things like barring Muslims from the Subway restaurant that he owns in Louisiana.

Yes, these are the people who are calling Mikey Weinstein a “bigot” and claiming that it is he who is “intolerant.”

While the FRC has been the most visible of the fundamentalist Christian organizations pushing this manufactured scandal, a number of other organizations, including the American Family Association and Wallbuilders, the organization of infamous pseudo-historian David Barton, have also been playing a big role.

Barton’s organization, for example, put out an article on his website in February 2012 titled “America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U.S. President,” which is periodically updated with what Barton claims are examples of Obama’s “hostility toward Biblical people of faith” and “preferential treatment of Muslims.” The examples in Barton’s article, which includes a section titled “Acts of hostility from the Obama-led military toward people of Biblical faith,” has been repeatedly quoted and cited as evidence by other organizations and right-wing news outlets who seek to manufacture yet another Obama “scandal.” (A Google search on the title of Barton’s article currently returns 121,000 hits.)

The repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is also fueling the fire. Part of the fear-mongering consists of spreading lies that under the “Biblically-Hostile” Obama, not only will the rights of all Christians in the military to practice their religion be taken away, but military chaplains will be forced to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies against their will. The incessant claim from certain members of Congress that legislation is immediately necessary to “protect” military chaplains is ridiculous. No such legislation is necessary. Under already existing regulations, no military chaplain ever has, or ever will be, forced to do anything that goes against their beliefs.

What is Mikey Weinstein really talking about?

Much has been made of Mikey Weinstein’s colorful language and use of metaphors, particularly his calling a particular type of Christians “monsters,” and describing some of the actions of this particular type of Christians as “spiritual rape.” These words, very clearly used by Weinstein to describe only a minority of Christians, usually referred to as “dominionists,” have been repeatedly taken out of context to claim that Weinstein has called all Christians “monsters,” and said that any sharing of their faith by any member of the military in any way is “rape.”

In no way has Weinstein ever said these things about all Christians. He has always made it very clear that he is talking only about those who do things that any decent person would consider “monstrous.”

When an Army chaplain serving a special forces unit comes right out and says that he waits until the soldiers are broken down by training and have gone without food or sleep for three days to take advantage of their vulnerability to evangelize them, that chaplain’s behavior is nothing short of monstrous. (Need proof? See the video of this chaplain in action and a whole bunch of other equally egregious examples here.)

When a rape victim goes to an Army chaplain for assistance and is told that the rape was God’s will and that God was trying to get her attention so that she would go back to church, that chaplain’s behavior is monstrous.

When a military youth ministry is allowed to stalk “unchurched” military children by following their school buses, the behavior of that ministry, and whatever chaplains or commanders are allowing this to go on, is monstrous.

Weinstein is in no way calling a soldier who invites their peers to a Bible study, for example, a “monster” or a “spiritual rapist.” This label only applies only to those who grossly abuse their position or rank to do monstrous things, as in the examples above.

Let the fundraising begin

As with any good manufactured threat, the “scandal” of the dangerous Mikey Weinstein meeting with Pentagon officials has launched a number of petitions and fundraising campaigns. By May 2, a petition from the FRC, launched on April 29 and promoted by breitbart.com, had over 110,000 signatures. (it’s now up to over 167,000.)

The FRC has also created what it calls the “American Hero Defense Fund” to raise money to fight their manufactured threat of Christian service members being court-martialed simply for being Christians.

The May 2 press release put out by the FRC to garner even more signatures on its petition contains a list of unbelievable examples of Christian persecution by the military, using many of the same examples found in David Barton’s “America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U.S. President” list. On May 15, the FRC’s Tony Perkins sent out a mass email with the subject line “We must stop the persecution of Christians in military,” which repeated the examples in the press release and added some more.

The examples listed by the FRC and Barton are, not surprisingly, a bunch of wild exaggerations, and outright lies, carefully worded to scare the bejeezus out of their already frightened and outraged audiences.

The FRC claims, for example, that the “Air Force suspended a 20-year-old class on ‘Just War Theory’ because it included scriptural references.” Barton’s version of this one is: “The Air Force stops teaching the Just War theory to officers in California because the course is taught by chaplains and is based on a philosophy introduced by St. Augustine in the third century AD — a theory long taught by civilized nations across the world (except now, America).”

Did the Air Force really stop teaching Just War Theory merely because it came from St. Augustine or because the presentation being used contained a few scripture references? Of course not!

What really happened was that a group of Air Force officers, most of whom were Christians, came to MRFF for help in removing a mandatory part of nuclear missile officer training that the officers (not MRFF) had nicknamed the “Jesus Loves Nukes” speech. This presentation didn’t merely include a few scriptural references, as the FRC claims; it included slide after slide of Bible verses, ending with “Jesus Christ is the mighty warrior.” The presentation also quite offensively quoted former Nazi and SS officer Wernher von Braun as a moral authority. (More details can be found here.)

Another example used by Barton and the FRC is the “Jesus rifles.” Again, it was not MRFF who came up with this name, but what the soldiers who came to MRFF said they were commonly called. The rifles, which were being used both by our own troops and the Afghan and Iraqi forces they were training, were nicknamed “Jesus rifles” because of the Bible verse references stamped on their sights, called ACOGs, made by Christian weapons manufacturer Trijicon.

This is how Barton described  list of “Acts of hostility from the Obama-led military toward people of Biblical faith,” this was the issue with these rifles: “Because of ‘concerns’ raised by the Department of Defense, tiny Bible verse references that had appeared for decades on scopes and gunsights were removed.” The FRC’s list similarly says: “Department of Defense orders removal of tiny Bible references on military scopes and gunsights.”

Now, compare Barton’s and the FRC’s description of the military getting rid of these “tiny Bible verse references” to what MRFF was hearing from soldiers who were actually having to use the “Jesus rifles.” Here’s an excerpt from one of the emails MRFF received about them:

Nothing in my first 2 deployments prepared me for what happened with the Trijicon ACOG gun sights during my 3rd deployment to Afghanistan. I will never forget the day it occurred. It was morning and there was a mandatory formation of several companies. A very senior NCO was yelling at us which is not that unusual. He asked a private what it was that he (the private) was holding in his hand and the private said it was his “weapon” several times to which the senior NCO replied “and what ELSE is it”? FInally, the senior NCO said that the private’s rifle was also something else; that because of the biblical quote on the ACOG gunsight it had been “spiritually transformed into the Fire Arm of Jesus Christ” and that we would be expected to kill every “haji” we could find with it. He said that if we were to run out of ammo, then the rifle would become the “spiritually transformed club of Jesus Christ” and that we should “bust open the head of every haji we find with it.” He said that Uncle Sam had seen fit not to give us a “pussy ‘Jewzzi’ (combination of the word ‘Jew’ and Israeli made weapon ‘Uzi’) but the “fire arm of Jesus Christ” and made specific mention of the biblical quotes on our gun sights. He said that the enemy no doubt had quotes from the Koran on their guns but that “our Lord is bigger than theirs because theirs is a fraud and an idol”. As a Muslim and an American soldier I was fit to be tied but I kept it in. There were many Afghans, both civilian and military, on base within earshot of what was being yelled at us and I can only wonder in shock what they must have thought. This senior NCO was apparently also the head person of a conservative, crazy Christian group called the “Christian Military Fellowship” and made a big deal about the importance of joining to everyone. He told us all that we MUST read a book called “Under Orders” in order to make it through this combat deployment and said he had many copies for everyone. Some of my friends went and got their copies. I refused. Finally, this senior NCO ended his yelling by warning us that if we did not “get right with Jesus” then our rifles would not provide spiritual strength despite the bible quotes on our ACOG gunsights and that we would be considered “spiritual cripples” to our fellow units and soldiers. (The soldier’s entire email and more details can be found here.)

In addition to emails like the one above, Mikey Weinstein had also received a call in the middle of the night from a very rattled soldier who had just had the business end of one of these rifles stuck up his nose by an Afghan man because of that “tiny Bible verse reference” on it. This wasn’t merely a constitutional issue; these rifle sights were putting our troops in danger!

Barton’s and the FRC’s so-called infringements on the rights of the poor, persecuted Christians also include some outright lies, such as the one about cadets at the Air Force Academy being stopped from participating in the Operation Christmas Child program. According to the FRC,”The Air Force Academy rescinds support for Operation Christmas Child, a program to send holiday gifts to impoverished children across the world, because the program is run by a Christian charity.”  Barton’s list uses the exact same wording as the May 15 email sent out by the FRC.

Did this really happen? Were Air Force Academy cadets really prohibited from participating in Operation Christmas Child? Well, no. The program was merely put under the auspices of the chaplain’s office rather than the command structure, in accordance with a memorandum on religious neutrality that had been issued by the Air Force’s chief of staff. The cadets could, and did, continue to participate in Operation Christmas Child.

On Barton’s list, this lie about Operation Christmas Child is followed by another outright lie: “Even while restricting and disapprobating Christian religious expressions, the Air Force Academy pays $80,000 to add a Stonehenge-like worship center for pagans, druids, witches and Wiccans at the Air Force Academy.” The version of this one in the FRC’s email is: “The Air Force Academy pays $80,000 for a Stonehenge-type worship center for pagans, druids, and witches.”

Besides showing just how “tolerant” Barton and the FRC are of religions other than their own, the claim that $80,000 was spent on this worship area is completely untrue. Seriously, have any of these people believing this talking point actually stopped to wonder how putting a circle of rocks on a hilltop could possibly cost $80,000? Of course not. They just keep repeating this so-called “fact” to shock their audiences. The truth is that this money was already being spent on a project that had nothing to do with the worship area.

The boulders that now form the outdoor worship area were moved from the hillside to the hilltop as part of an erosion control project that was already underway. Erosion had made these boulders a safety hazard, in danger of falling down the hillside and crashing into the Academy’s Visitors Center and Cadet Chapel, so they were moved from the hillside to the top of the hill. When the 10th Civil Engineer Squadron moved the rocks to the top of the hill in spring and early summer of 2009, they arranged them in a circle.

Months later, when the pagan lay leader at the Academy was looking for a suitable site for a worship area, he realized that there already was one — the circle of boulders that had been moved to the top of the hill during the erosion control project. All that needed to be added to the already existing site to turn it into a worship area was some flagstone to make a floor and a small altar in the center of the circle. So, no, the Academy’s outdoor worship area didn’t cost anything even close to $80,000. The only other significant expense has been the installation of security cameras, made necessary when some nice Christians decided to send a message by placing a large wooden cross at the site.

These are just a few of the lies being told by the FRC and David Barton, along with their friends in Congress and the right-wing media to demonize MRFF, Mikey Weinstein (and, of course, our secret Muslim president Barack Obama), and because of these lies, millions of Americans now actually believe what really does sound like an Onion headline — that the Pentagon is planning to cleanse the military of Christians!

Continue reading »]]> By now I’m sure most readers here have caught at least a turd or two of the shitstorm created by the lies from Breitbart.com and FOX News about Mikey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).

The gist of the lies is that the military plans to start court-martialing Christian service members for simply practicing their religion, and that the Pentagon and/or President Obama has hired MRFF’s founder and president Mikey Weinstein as an “anti-Christian” consultant to make this happen. None of this is true, of course, but Breitbart.com, FOX News, and organizations like the Family Research Council (FRC) and the American Family Association (AFA) have millions of people believing that it is.

As the Senior Research Director at MRFF, I usually write about what’s going on at MRFF, but when we’re in the midst of a shitstorm of biblical proportions, as we are right now, there are other things I have to do, which is the reason that I’m just about the only person who hasn’t written anything about this particular shitstorm.

I still don’t have time to write anything myself, but some good articles have been written by others that say pretty much what I would say if I had time to write something myself.

One of the best takedowns came out today on examiner.com. In his article “Deconstructing hysteria: one degree of separation from FRC,” Charles McAlpin thoroughly explains what the lies are and includes numerous links to the sources of the lies. Most importantly, McAlpin shows how all roads lead back to the the FRC and its executive vice president Jerry “my god is bigger than your god” Boykin.

That’s all I have time to write for the moment. I must now get back to dealing with this seemingly endless bombardment of excrement.

Continue reading »]]>

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Painting the Church

There was a Scottish painter named Smokey MacGregor who was very interested in making a penny where he could, so he often thinned down his paint to make it go a wee bit further.

As it happened, he got away with this for some time, but eventually the local church decided to do a big restoration job on the outside of one of their biggest buildings.

Smokey put in a bid, and, because his price was so low, he got the job.

So he set about erecting the scaffolding and setting up the planks, and buying the paint and, yes, I am sorry to say, thinning it down with turpentine………

Well, Smokey was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly completed, when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of thunder, the sky opened, and the rain poured down washing the thinned paint from all over the church and knocking Smokey clear off the scaffold to land on the lawn among the gravestones, surrounded by telltale puddles of the thinned and useless paint.

Smokey was no fool. He knew this was a judgment from the Almighty, so he got down on his knees and cried:

“Oh, God, Oh God, forgive me; what should I do?”

And from the thunder, a mighty voice spoke.

“Repaint! Repaint! And thin no more!”

Continue reading »]]> Yeah, I’m talking about everybody’s favorite Christian nationalist history revisionist David Barton. It seems this paragon of lies and propaganda has been invited to speak at the Annual National Prayer Breakfast at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, to be held on Thursday, May 2. The topic of Mr. Barton’s presentation is to be “Our American Heritage: Why History Matters.” Well, as anyone familiar with Barton’s work knows, the reason that history matters to him is that it can be distorted to fit his far-right political agenda.

But, besides Mr. Barton’s Christian nationalist version of American history being so inaccurate that his latest book was pulled from the shelves by Christian publisher Thomas Nelson, there are two other reasons that he is an outrageously inappropriate choice to speak at any military event. One is his very public contempt for the President of the United States. This is a man who recently posted an image on his Facebook page grouping President Obama with … you guessed it … Hitler!

Then there’s his constant denigration of faiths other than his own — not just non-Christian faiths, but also those wishy-washy mainline and liberal Christians who are destroying the church.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (full letter at end of post) demanding that Fort Leonard Wood rescind its invitation to Mr. Barton and that a more appropriate speaker be chosen for the prayer breakfast.

Mr. Barton, along with far-right Christian groups like the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, and FOX News, will no doubt be crying Christian persecution over MRFF’s demand, and claiming that MRFF and its big, bad “anti-Christian extremist” leader Mikey Weinstein is out to rid the U.S. military of all religion. But nothing could be farther from the truth. These people know damn well that MRFF is not an anti-religious organization, and that 96% of our clients are actually Christians; they just need to keep lying about us to keep up the persecution stories.

Now, those of you who follow the right-wing media may have noticed an uptick lately in the number and far-fetchedness of “news” stories claiming that the U.S. military has become hostile towards Christians.

Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) actually told FOX News: “We are getting a lot of calls from soldiers saying ‘we’re afraid of going to church, we’re afraid to be seen praying, we’re afraid that would hurt our careers, our promotions.’” Really, Mr. Forbes? It’s the Christian soldiers who are afraid to express their faith and go to church? Then, please tell us, Mr. Forbes, why the Army is having to build all those mega-churches on Army posts, like that new $30 million dollar one at Fort Hood, to accommodate so many church-going Christians? If they’re afraid to go to church, as you claim, then why on earth did the taxpayers have to pay for these great big churches for them to go to?

Then there’s the one about the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) website being blocked by the Army last week. Headlines like “US Army Labels Southern Baptist Convention ‘Hostile’” have millions of Christians feeding their persecution complexes with tales of the Army saying that the Southern Baptist Convention is “hostile.” Hoo-ah! More Christian persecution! Well, what really happened was that the SBC website was flagged by virus software that detected possible malware, commonly referred to as “hostile content.” In fundie-land, however, the words “hostile content” in the message “The site you have requested has been blocked by Team CONUS (C-TNOSC/RECERT-CONUS) due to hostile content” mean more Christian persecution, dammit, not that some religion-neutral malware was detected.

So, have at us, oh ye persecuted Christians. Here’s our letter to Secretary Hagel:

Monday, April 29, 2013

The Honorable Chuck Hagel
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000

 

Dear Secretary Hagel,

It has been brought to the attention of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) that the guest speaker for this year’s annual Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, National Prayer Breakfast, to be held on the National Day of Prayer, May 2, 2013, is Mr. David Barton.

For the following three reasons, Mr. Barton is an egregiously inappropriate speaker for this or any other military event:

1) his open contempt for and denigration of the President and other government officials;

2) his denigration of faith groups other than his own; and,

3) his revisionism of American history.

Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) states that:

“Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”

Although Mr. Barton is not himself in the military, the invitation for him to speak at this military event can be considered nothing less than the condoning and endorsement of statements that if made by the officer(s) who invited him to speak would be punishable by their court-martial.

 

Open Contempt for and Denigration of the President of the United States

Mr. Barton, who is above all else a political activist, is well known for his open, vocal, and constant use of contemptuous words against the President. Mr. Barton’s statements are not merely political opinions, but the promoting of a number of conspiracy theories and lies about President Obama, and even equating him with Adolf Hitler.

• In an article on his WallBuilders.com website titled “America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U. S. President,” Mr. Barton accuses President Obama of “Acts of hostility toward people of Biblical faith” and “Acts of preferentialism for Islam.” This article is updated periodically with additional unfounded accusations, with the latest accusation being added on April 17, 2013.

(http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=106938)

• He has accused the Obama administration of deliberately allowing the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, claiming that Obama allowed the attack as “the perfect set-up for the anti-blasphemy [United Nations] resolution that we joined on to and said we’re going to be a part of.”

(http://tfninsider.org/2012/11/02/detestable-david-barton-suggests-president-obama-was-complicit-in-the-murder-of-u-s-ambassador-to-libya/)

• He has accused President Obama of exploiting the Sandy Hook tragedy for political purposes, saying he’d “never let a crisis go to waste.”

(http://tinyurl.com/GunsKidsAndCritics)

• He has posted an image on his Facebook page grouping President Obama with Hitler, Stalin, and Castro (see Appendix A):

(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=475046952532882&set=a.157340314303549.22910.101762193194695&type=1&theater)

• As a frequent guest on Glenn Beck’s former FOX News TV show, radio show, and web-based TV show, Mr. Barton has been an active part of, or complicit in, numerous lies and conspiracy theories about President Obama, such as his being a socialist, Marxist, or communist, and his being affiliated with groups such as the “Muslim Brotherhood.”

Dozens, if not hundreds, of other examples could be given of Mr. Barton’s past and ongoing contemptuous words against the President.

 

Denigration of Faith Groups Other Than His Own

Mr. Barton is also well known for his attacks against faiths other than his own, including Christians who do not subscribe to his narrow, fundamentalist interpretation of Christianity. This is the second reason that Mr. Barton is an altogether inappropriate speaker for the upcoming Prayer Breakfast at Fort Leonard Wood — an event that is supposed to be inclusive of members of all faiths.

• Mr. Barton has regularly attacked mainline Christian denominations for their stances on both theological and political issues.

• He has regularly promoted the conspiracy theory that Muslims seek to place the United States under Sharia law.

• He has hosted virulently anti-Muslim guests on his radio show, WallBuilders LIVE!, to include guests who have been disinvited from speaking at other military events due to their attacks on the religion of Islam. For example, one recent guest on his show was anti-Muslim activist Brigitte Gabriel, who was disinvited from speaking at the Air Force Academy after statements she made at a prior appearance at the Joint Forces Staff College (i.e., saying that Americans of the Muslim faith should not be allowed to serve in the U.S. military or hold political office) were revealed.

 

Revisionism of American History

And last, but certainly not least, Mr. Barton is best known for his revisionism of American history.

• Mr. Barton espouses the belief that America is a Christian nation, and that those of other religions are only tolerated here because America is a Christian nation.

• The politically motivated and deliberate historical falsehoods presented by Mr. Barton in his books and presentations have been well documented by both liberal and conservative historians.

• His latest book, The Jefferson Lies, was pulled by Christian publisher Thomas Nelson due to its historical inaccuracy.

The title of the presentation that Mr. Barton is scheduled to deliver on May 2 at Fort Leonard Wood’s prayer breakfast is “Our American Heritage: Why History Matters,” indicating that his presentation will be one of his propagandist Christian nationalist history lectures.

Given that Mr. Barton has a standard history presentation that has remained virtually unchanged for many years, the content of the presentation he intends to deliver at Fort Leonard Wood can be anticipated. It will undoubtedly contain numerous misquotes and lies about America’s founding, all of which have been proven to be untrue, and a grossly distorted view of the Constitution that our men and women in uniform who will be attending this prayer breakfast have sworn an oath to support and defend.

For the three reasons listed and detailed above, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation demands that the invitation to Mr. Barton to speak at the Fort Leonard Wood prayer breakfast on May 2, 2013 be immediately rescinded and a more appropriate and inclusive speaker be chosen for this event.

 

Sincerely,

 

Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein, Esq.
Founder and President
Military Religious Freedom Foundation

 

Chris Rodda
Senior Research Director
Military Religious Freedom Foundation

 

CC:
Barack H. Obama, President of the United States of America, Commander-In-Chief, United States Armed Forces
General Martin E. Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
John McHugh, Secretary of the Army
General Raymond T. Odierno, Chief of Staff of the Army
Brigadier General Mark S. Inch, Commanding General, Fort Leonard Wood

Continue reading »]]> Seriously, that’s what a new bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressional Prayer Caucus member Rep. Louie Gohmert is called – the ‘‘Congressional Hope for Uniform Recognition of Christian Heritage (CHURCH) Act of 2013.” How’s that for Congress not making any law respecting an establishment of religion?

Here’s the text of the bill, followed by a video I made on the subject a while back. While not all of the historical hogwash regarding church services in the Capitol Building that I talk about in my video is included in Gohmert’s bill, the reason for the bill is the same — to connect Thomas Jefferson to these church services and use this as evidence that Jefferson didn’t really mean it when he described the Establishment Clause as a “separation between church and state.” If Gohmert wants a plaque put up in the Capitol Building to recognize these church services, it should tell the whole story of what these services really were in the days of Jefferson and Madison — an excuse to have a weekly social event, described by people of the time, as you’ll see in my video, as not being very religious.

113th CONGRESS1st SessionH. R. 1586To direct the Architect of the Capitol to acquire and place a historical plaque to be permanently displayed in National Statuary Hall recognizing the seven decades of Christian church services being held in the Capitol from 1800 to 1868, which included attendees James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESApril 16, 2013Mr. GOHMERT (for himself, Mr. CHABOT, Mr. BARTON, and Mr. SCALISE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration

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A BILLTo direct the Architect of the Capitol to acquire and place a historical plaque to be permanently displayed in National Statuary Hall recognizing the seven decades of Christian church services being held in the Capitol from 1800 to 1868, which included attendees James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Congressional Hope for Uniform Recognition of Christian Heritage (CHURCH) Act of 2013′.

SEC. 2. ACQUISITION AND DISPLAY OF HISTORICAL PLAQUE RECOGNIZING THE SEVEN DECADES OF CHRISTIAN CHURCH SERVICES BEING HELD IN THE CAPITOL.

(a) Acquisition- The Architect of the Capitol shall enter into an agreement with a private entity for the design and fabrication of a historical plaque to be permanently displayed in National Statuary Hall recognizing the seven decades of Christian church services being held in the Capitol from 1800 to 1868.

(b) Design- The plaque designed and fabricated pursuant to the agreement entered into under subsection (a) shall be of such size and design as may be provided under the terms of the agreement, except that the plaque shall contain the following statement:

`The first Christian church services in the Capitol were held when the Government moved to Washington in the fall of 1800. They were conducted in the Hall of the House in the north wing of the building. In 1801, the House moved the church services to temporary quarters in the south wing, called the `Oven’, which it vacated in 1804, returning services to the north wing for 3 years. During church services, the Speaker’s podium was used as the preacher’s pulpit.

`Within a year of his inauguration, President Thomas Jefferson began attending church services in the Chamber of the House of Representatives. Throughout his administration (1801-1809), Thomas Jefferson permitted and encouraged church services in executive branch buildings. Sermons regarding the Old and New Testaments of the Bible were even conducted in the Supreme Court chambers while the judicial branch was located in the old north wing of the Capitol.

`The term `separation of church and state’, not found in the Constitution, was rather first used by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury Baptists. Though Jefferson saw no problem with having nondenominational Christian services in government buildings, he affirmed that the Government should not choose an official Christian denomination. The worship services in the Government-owned House Chamber–a practice that continued until after the Civil War–were acceptable to Jefferson because they were nondiscriminatory and voluntary.

`President James Madison, the recognized author of the Constitution, followed Jefferson’s example. In keeping with Madison’s understanding of the first amendment, church services were permitted in the halls of State on Sundays during his administration (1809-1817). However, unlike Jefferson, who rode on horseback to attend church in the Capitol, Madison traveled in a coach pulled by four horses. The services were interrupted in 1814 after the interior was burned by the British and had to be repaired.

`Preachers of every Christian denomination preached Christian doctrine in this Chamber. On January 8, 1826, Bishop John England (1786-1842) of Charleston, South Carolina, became the first Catholic clergyman to preach in the House of Representatives. The first woman to preach before the House, and likely the first woman to speak officially in Congress under any circumstances, was the English evangelist, Dorothy Ripley (1767-1832), who conducted a service on January 12, 1806.’.

(c) Presentation Ceremony- The Architect of the Capitol is authorized to use National Statuary Hall for a presentation ceremony for the plaque on a date determined by the Architect. The Architect of the Capitol and the Capitol Police Board shall take such action as may be necessary with respect to physical preparations and security for the ceremony.

(d) Display- Upon receiving the plaque designed and fabricated pursuant to the agreement entered into under this section, the Architect of the Capitol shall display the plaque permanently in a place of prominence in National Statuary Hall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRR-an0-JPA