Just when you thought we could get through this season of love and giving unscathed, some folks have succeeded in getting the nativity scenes taken down at the Gitmo dining facility.
As Bizpac Review reported regarding a segment that appeared on “The O’Reilly Factor,” Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (how’s that for an oxymoronic title) represented a group of people on the base who complained about the displays and succeeded in having them removed by order of the Commanding Officer there.
The US military in which I served would have told someone like Weinstein to simply go “pound sand.” Furthermore, I cannot imagine soldiers who would have gone to some outside civilian special interest group to complain about a nativity scene — complain about bad chow perhaps, but not this.
According to Weinstein, his organization acted on behalf of 18 complainants, including 11 Catholics and other Christians, who viewed the nativity scenes as “a violation of their civil rights.”
O’Reilly pointed out that Christmas is a federal holiday and the nativity scene is merely a depiction of what happened on the first Christmas. “It’s not like you’re making anyone at Guantanamo Bay pray or go to church,” he said. “It’s a depiction of a federal holiday.”
You can watch their testy exchange below.
I find it unconscionable that Christians would complain about a nativity scene in the chow hall. If I were the Commander, I would have told these individuals, “Since you feel offended by the representation of Christmas in the chow hall, I will allow you to enter through the back kitchen area and receive a take-out plate during chow hours for the duration of the time the nativity scene is displayed. You feel free to tell Mr. Weinstein he can engage in copious amounts of strenuous self-gratification and have a good day. And don’t pretend to tell me how to run anything on this base.”
But I want to make sure you know exactly how dangerous this Mr. Weinstein truly is. He has referred to individuals who profess their faith as committing acts of sedition. He has taken it upon himself to attack any religious symbols or references in the US military — and recently had the words “under God” removed from the US Air Force Academy honor oath – from where he graduated, by the way.
He has anointed himself as some provocateur of ensuring there is “separation of church and state,” when his actual objective is the elimination of America’s Judeo-Christian faith heritage and its connection to military service.
What is ultimately disturbing is that the Obama administration’s Department of Defense has provided this vile, delusional individual access to the Pentagon and allowed him to infiltrate its decision-making process. Weinstein is a contributing player in our Slouching Towards Gomorrah as Robert Bork detailed in his 1996 book. We really need to bring back some Pattons, MacArthurs, Halseys and Pullers — leaders, most certainly Commanders, who with just a stare could settle a matter.
