With God on Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military (Hardcover)

by Michael L. Weinstein (Author), Davin Seay (Author) "On July 29, 2004, Mikey Weinstein took advantage of an unpatrolled stretch of I-25 just outside of Santa Fe to open up his fire-engine-red, five-hundred-horsepower..." (more)
Key Phrases: sexual assault scandal, basic cadet training, cadet wing, Colorado Springs, Jesus Christ, General Weida (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

     “With God on Our Side is the story of one man’s willingness to stand up for the Constitution of the United States. Arrayed against Mikey Weinstein are those who would transform the United States military, our most revered institution, into a force of evangelical crusaders, intolerant of the diversity of our society and willfully subversive of our national security interests. It is an important call to arms for all who love our country and the principles for which it stands.”
     —Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, author of The Politics of Truth 
 
 

     “The extremists and the militants of the Muslim world would like us to believe that the world is embroiled in a cosmic battle between Christianity and Islam. Yet instead of debunking this twisted ideology, there are those in the armed forces who are legitimizing it with their fundamentalist indoctrination of our nation's troops. If the war on terrorism is a war of ideology, then Weinstein deserves a medal because his battle to put an end to the rampant Christian evangelism in the United States military is making the whole country safer.”
     —Reza Aslan, author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
 
 
     “U.S. Air Force Academy graduate Mikey Weinstein’s struggle to keep his beloved school—and the U.S. military—a secular institution has meaning for all of us. Wherever you are on America’s religious and political spectrums, you’ll find With God on Our Side a challenging and provocative read.”
     —Ray Suarez, author of The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America, and senior correspondent, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
 
 
     “No one I know is more willing than Mikey Weinstein to take on such a tough, unpopular issue that goes to the very heart of one of our nation’s most important and long cherished principles. Read this book to understand why we should all share Mikey’s concern.”
     —Robert T. Herres, General, USAF (Retired), former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
 

     “Mikey Weinstein’s stand against intolerance, intimidation, and inappropriate evangelism in the armed forces is a courageous defense of the principles on which our country was founded. Read this book and be enlightened and motivated to protect the ideals of our Founding Fathers.”
     —Richard T. Schlosberg III, publisher and CEO (retired), Los Angeles Times
 

Product Description

One of the most elite educational institutions in the world, the Air Force Academy has, from its inception, attracted the best and the brightest, producing leaders not only in the military but throughout American society.
     In recent years, however, the Academy has also been producing a cadre of zealous evangelical Christians intent on creating a fundamentalist power base at the highest levels of our country.
     With God on Our Side is shocking exposé of life inside the United States Air Force Academy and the systematic program of indoctrination sanctioned, coordinated, and carried out by fundamentalist Christians within the U.S. military.
     It is also the story of Michael L. Weinstein, a proud Academy graduate and the father of two graduates and a current cadet, who single-handedly brought to light the evangelicals’ utter disregard of the constitutional principle of separation of church and state that is so essential to the nation’s military mission. Weinstein’s war would pit him and his small band of fellow graduates, cadets, and concerned citizens against a program of Christian fundamentalist indoctrination that could transform our fighting men and women into “right-thinking” warriors more befitting a theocracy. In the process, he would come face to face with religious bigotry and at its most extreme and fight an unrelenting battle to save his beloved Academy, the ideals it stood for, and the very future of the country.
     An important book at a critical time in our nation’s history, With God on Our Side is the story of one man’s courageous struggle to thwart a creeping evangelism permeating America’s military and to prevent a taxpayer-funded theocracy in which only the true believers have power.

 

 

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312361432
• ISBN-13: 978-0312361433
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #316,186 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tremendously important book., October 19, 2006

By	P. Willson (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Do you recall the bumper-sticker, "If you're not outraged, you aren't paying attention"? That IS this book. Anyone who cares about the future of the USA, the Bill of Rights, or our national identity, really must read this disturbing work. There is no bashing of Christianity; there IS a clear challenge to a self-righteous, inbred, belligerent and politicized subset of Evangelicals who've become deeply rooted in our military and government (Think "Alien").

This gets 5 stars because it is an extremely important book, but I'd only give it 4 stars for style. The initial chapters are self-consciously erudite, distractingly so. I suspect this was an effort to sound measured and restrained and to avoid seeming inflammatory, but both the subject matter and the protagonist, Mikey Weinstein, ARE explosive. As a result, for awhile I felt like I was riding a dressage-trained East Coast show horse when what was needed was a Western cutting horse that could turn on a dime.

Fortunately, the natural intensity of the story and the players took over after several chapters, and it became a compelling read as well as an essential one. I hope this is only an opening salvo in the war for our national conscience, and that someone will promptly take an equally careful look at the other major branches of the military and the defense hierarchy. If we lose this domestic war, we lose America's soul -- what a bitter irony.

If you pray, better pray Mikey Weinstein isn't too late.

34 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What god on which side?, October 10, 2006

By	J. Johnson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you care about the growing power of the evangelicals in our national politics and their ability to shape our policy, then you need to read this book. It's not just about one or two isolated instances of religious discrimination; it's about the systemic abuse of power of some of the leadership in one of our most prestigious institutions, The United States Air Force Academy. The abuses described are, on one hand, almost unbelievable in this day and age but on the other, totally believable in this day and age. It also makes us aware of the necessity to keep the government from sanctioning, or even appearing to sanction, one religion over another or one religion over no religion. Read the book and do your part to keep our military members free from other people's religion(s). No one should be allowed to take advantage of the captive audience that is cadets at service academies or Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines serving honorably anywhere.

36 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The corruption of power, December 12, 2006

By	Phelps Gates (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Weinstein's account is a fascinating illustration of the famous quotation "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." For better or for worse, the training of a cadet involves tearing his personality down and rebuilding it; unfortunately, the officers in charge of the Air Force Academy have chosen to use this power to take cadets at their most vulnerable and indoctrinate them with their own particular brand of religion. Some of the most chilling passages describe how Jewish cadets are subjected to Mel-Gibson-style anti-Semitism, and how the administration fails to support them.

A good companion to this is Reichen Lehmkuhl's book Here's What We'll Tell Them, about his experience as a gay cadet at the Academy in the mid nineties, and he pervasive homophobia in the chaplain corps. This is a problem in the U.S. military in general, but seems to be a special problem at the Air Force Academy, maybe because of the influence of the many Christianist groups that have their headquarters in Colorado Springs. It sounds like things are totally out of control there!

One disappointment: I was expecting to hear at the end of the book about how the lawsuit turned out. But this is an ongoing event.... you'll have to resort to sources such as Google News to keep up with the latest developments. I note that the suit has recently been thrown out on a technicality, but will be refiled. Mr. Weinstein isn't going away, and I suspect that he will be holding the military's feet to the fire for years!