"The Defense Department has no business hosting a virulently anti-Christian activist as a 'tolerance' expert." -- Rick Scarborough

Contact: Janet Cook, 936-560-3900

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- Pentagon officials met last week with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein, head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, to plan court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the armed forces who share their faith.

"We're calling on the Obama Administration to sever all ties with Mr. Weinstein's extremist hate group, and for Congress to investigate an alarming series of anti-faith incidents in the armed forces," said Tea Party Unity Chairman Rick Scarborough, who also heads Vision America, a Texas-based Christian public policy organization.

According to the Associated Press, "Weinstein says even a Christian bumper sticker on an officer's car or a Bible on an officer's desk can amount to 'pushing this fundamentalist version of Christianity on helpless subordinates.'"

It was the latest in a troubling series of events in which evangelical Christians and Catholics in the armed forces have encountered raw discrimination, including being compared by one Army instructor to al-Qaeda, Hamas and the Ku Klux Klan.

"Freedom of religion is one of the founding principles of our nation," said Mr. Scarborough, who is an ordained minister. "Depriving our brave servicemen and women of the freedom to express their faith or to hear chaplains express their faith is outrageous. Mikey Weinstein's open hatred for Christians makes him unfit to be advising our military on matters of conscience and tolerance."

In an April 16 blog post, Mr. Weinstein wrote: "Today, we face incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation's armed forces."

According to Breitbart.com, "Weinstein ... says Christians -- including chaplains -- sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of 'treason,' and of committing an act of 'spiritual rape' as serious a crime as 'sexual assault.' He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are 'enemies of the Constitution.'"

The Tea Party Unity Project is a nonprofit organization serving as a clearinghouse for America's Tea Parties. www.TeaPartyUnity.org