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MRFF’s Letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
– April 20, 2010
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Covering the Muslims there Mikey? Don’t like those Christians do you Mikey. Tell you what Mikey, this may not be Christian like, but STFU.
Thank you for your courage in the face of adversity. To be maligned when fighting for justice is an unfortunate consequence. You expose those who wish to impose a Christianist Theocracy upon the vast majority of our citizens. The goals of this “group mindset” are radial and have not been examined and aired in the public place for decades, which has only emboldened them in their efforts to undermine the ideas upon which this nation is based. Those ideas were futuristic at the time of their promulgation, and though Deist, they also were based upon the philosophical ideas of Ancient Greece (which predated all three monotheistic religions).
If there is an ideology contained within the Founding Documents, it is that of the free and legal exchange of ideas! Not the dominance of power hungry fundamentalist members of any religion! You have my support.
Spellcheck!
Actually, this may very well have been a Freudian Error:
…”the goals of this group-mindset are radial”… should have been radical!
But on second thought, radial works in its own way, as their words and actions radiate outward…
So there it is.
Your website should be named ” http://www.IHateChristians.org .” Why try to hide it??
YOU are’offended’ by Reverend Graham’s invitation at the Pentagon, but NOT by that MURDERING ISLAMIC TERRORSIT SOB, Major Nidal, another “Ambassador” from that Religion of Peace, Islam? The same Religion whose other “Ambassadors” from Abu Sayaf murderd and beheaded 53 Catholic men, women and children leaving a Catholic Church in the Phillipines last week? THAT ISLAMIC FASCIST terrorist religion, Mikey? The Religion of Peace? The one whose Quran says “look there’s Jew hiding behind the rock; KILL HIM?”
Thank you, Mr. Weinstein, for such an appropriate letter to Secretary Gates. Despite the facile and vacuous commentary that I see here replying to MRFF’s efforts, it is very obvious that you and your staff are not anti-Christian or even anti-religious. The overt moves of the political Christian “right” to integrate and influence the U.S. government and particularly the Department of Defense is, at its base, pernicious and hateful, besides being latent with violent intentions unlike anything represented by Jesus in the Gospels.
It’s good that you’re fighting this on the grounds that the military has no business endorsing any particular religion over any other (or endorse generically the idea of religion in general over irreligion).
It’s not good that you’re also fighting this on the grounds that the pastor in question said bad things about Islam outside this event. What matters is his presence at THIS event and what he will say here. The idea of secular government is not that everyone has to be an atheist to participate, but that one can still have all the partisan sectarian religious beliefs one wants as long as they don’t use their position in a government office to promote them. This idea that one can leave one’s religion at the door, so to speak, when entering their government office for work in the morning, and then pick it up again when they leave the government office at night, is necessary for secular government to function and by saying that this event has become un-secular merely because the speaker said anti-Islamic things OUTSIDE this event destroys that principle of secularism.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that you’re fighting this, and I do not believe there is anything secular about the national day of prayer. I agree that this means the military has no business taking part on those grounds. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t be using the “this guy said anti-Islamic things in the past” as the reason for coming to that conclusion, as the letter here seems to be doing. If my senator goes to church on sunday, that doesn’t disqualify him from being a secular senator on the following monday. Secular governance does not mandate that everyone behave like an atheist 100% of the time even when not carrying out government work.
Don’t allow the “criticizing a religion’s tenets equals bigotry towards the people who say they follow it” meme to continue spreading. Don’t let yourself be part of spreading it. Criticizing an idea is not criticizing a person, even when that idea is a religion. The principle of honest discourse that says “Even though you are not supposed to attack the person you are still allowed to attack the position” must be upheld, and that means saying bad things about a religion must never be confused with saying bad things about people who are members of it.
The idea that one must never criticize a religion EVER is exactly what got religious groups the power they now hold (and were not supposed to) over government.
Steven Mading: Well thought out comments like yours give me hope for the future of this Nation. Thank you.
Miles Kimber: I salute you as well. We must continue to keep the high the Lamp of Logic in the face of irrationality, and your measured words do just that. Keep going!
Your letter and complaint is cited in this article:
Evangelist Franklin Graham Latest Target of Anti-Christian Group