Church and State separationist: Michael WeinsteinAs so often is the case, a Reagan Republican comes to the defense of secularism where the bipartisan pious fear to tread. Meet Michael "Mikey" Weinstein , founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group that uncovers cases of proselytization and confessional bullying within the ranks of the armed forces.

For Weinstein -- a former Air Force judge advocate and assistant counsel in the Reagan White House -- more is involved than isolated cases of discrimination. He charges that several incidents in recent years -- and more than 5,000 complaints his group has received from active-duty and retired military personnel -- point to a growing willingness inside the military to support a particular brand of Christianity and to permit improper evangelizing in the ranks. More than 95 percent of those complaints come from other Christians, he says.

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For example, he says, Lt. Gen. William Boykin, who gave speeches at churches while in uniform that disparaged Islam and defined the war on terror in fundamentalist, "end times" terms, was not fired but promoted. (Speaking of a Muslim warlord he had pursued, Lt. Gen. Boykin said, "I knew my God was a real God and his was an idol." And our enemies "will only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus.")

MRFF website here.