Klingenschmitt also posted a very strange disclaimer on his website, in which he defended his right to call himself "Chaplain," stating that he had a current endorsement as a "Chaplain and Evangelist to America" from the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (CFGC). It was this statement that led MRFF to take a closer look at the CFGC, a chaplain endorsing agency founded by retired Army colonel and chaplain Jim Ammerman, and authorized by the Department of Defense to provide the ecclesiastical endorsement required by the military for all military chaplains, with several hundred of its chaplains currently serving in all branches of the military.
It didn't take long to find out that Jim Ammerman was a dangerous conspiracy theorist with a long record of making statements to foment anti-government sentiment and incite violence as a speaker for the Topeka, Kansas based Prophecy Club, an organization that promotes a plethora of conspiracy theories against the U.S. government -- everything from 9-11 being a government conspiracy to the United States being in imminent danger of being placed under the control of U.N. forces to the entire U.S. government being an illegal government founded by the Illuminati and satanists. In fact, way back in 1997 a three-star general had called for an investigation of Ammerman and CFGC with a memorandum including nine pages of excerpts from Ammerman's radio appearances and his Prophecy Club video, "Imminent Military Takeover of the U.S.A.," a video being circulated among militia groups at the time.
Ammerman's statements included everything from saying that Bill Clinton (president at the time the video was released) should have been executed to inciting the militia types by making claims that his chaplains were reporting back to him that they had inside information that the U.S. military was preparing to attack U.S. cities, and claiming inside information from other sources indicating an imminent threat of the United States being placed under martial law.
Ammerman's more recent statements include a "suggestion" in his September 2008 CFGC newsletter that the four democratic senators who were then candidates for president -- Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and, of course, Barack Obama -- should be arrested and executed for voting against making English the official language of the United States. He has also advocated armed violence against law enforcement officials.
(To read more about Jim Ammerman, see my previous post, "Conspiracy Theorist Military Chaplains Promote Anti-American Militia Activity.")
Ammerman has also allegedly slandered Mikey Weinstein and his family. In one speech, describing a meeting he had had with a U.S. senator during which the senator asked him how the chaplains praying in Jesus' name controversy got started, Ammerman claimed that Weinstein became a "madman" because one of his sons, both of whom are Air Force Academy graduates, "got saved" at the Academy. (Ammerman's claim about Weinstein's son is completely untrue, as is his claim that Weinstein is a multi-millionaire who's getting other Jews to give him money).
"He [the senator] said, 'this big question about the name of Jesus, where did it start?' And I said, 'In the Air Force -- the Air Force Academy, in fact, by a Jew who had two boys there. He was a graduate from there and became a lawyer -- a real estate lawyer -- and he's a multi-millionaire and he's getting other Jews to give him money to stamp out the name of Jesus throughout this nation. But, one of his two Jewish sons got saved up there and he's been a madman ever since. He should come -- and I pray God will enlighten him and say your son's not on the road to hell any longer, and if I get a chance to meet him, I will say, 'Do you know how happy you ought to be. One of your sons is on the road to heaven.' Now, he might slug me because he'd turned into a madman at that point, but I'll take a lick for Jesus. In fact, if he broke my neck and I died, I'd be in the instant presence of Christ, and I'm sure Jesus would have a little smile on his lips when I reported in."
In September 2009, Mikey Weinstein and his wife Bonnie filed a lawsuit against Gordon Klingenschmitt, Jim Ammerman, and the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches. This is not a MRFF lawsuit, but a suit brought by the Weinsteins personally.
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