National Day of Prayer at the Pentagon

Mikey Weinstein,
Don’t you have anything better to do than protest a day of prayer? Christians, even Christian Soldiers, have a right to have a day of prayer and to use a preacher who is a Christian to host it. If Muslims are offended by the remarks by Mr. Graham then maybe the ones who are offended should do more to clean up their religion, which does commit atrocities both against other religions and their own women. If they spent their energy fixing their problems instead of killing people who let their behavior be known then maybe that would change our perception of the religion. Not every Muslim is a terrorist, but the vast majority of terrorist are Muslim. Maybe there is something to Mr. Graham’s criticism.

(name withheld)

Hi (name withheld),
My name is Rick Baker and I am a regional coordinator for MRFF. Mr. Weinstein is up to his proverbial water line addressing many of the responses we have received relative to the National Day of Prayer so I hope you don’t mind me sitting in for him.

First, let me thank you for your service to America. As a former Air Force officer and pilot, I can certainly identify with many of your feelings.

There are many criticisms of government and of religion that are valid. Criticism of a religion which is the national faith of an enemy may not be politically sound given the efforts to ameliorate the conflict, especially in a forum which is distributed nationally.

We are at war with two countries in the Mid East, soon maybe more. We must concentrate on not making more enemies by alienating a religious base which may only be enlisted in the conflict by religious insult.

And, yes, we do have better things to do. We are engaged in addressing some 16,000 complaints from our young men and women in the armed forces and service academies relative to coercive and command centered Christian Proselytizing. Were it not for this most important function, MRFF might well simply join with the many other civil rights organizations in preventing the blatant religious hegemony now undertaken by Dominion Christian organizations.

For us to suggest that other beliefs “clean up their religion” would be an open invitation for them to point out that Christians have allowed child molestation, rape, theft, and other unspeakable crimes to be committed, often without charge or punishment right up to the Pope.

Let me suggest that our outrage should be leveled at repressive religion in general and not reserved for beliefs that differ with Christianity.

As an aside, my Dad was a crusty old infantry Colonel, highly decorated and wounded three time in WWII and Korea. He was with the Knights of Columbus and about as religious as you can get.

When I deployed to Vietnam he said to me; “Son, the people. their customs and religions will be alien to you. The secret is to fight the political and not the religious war.
I think that is still good advice.
Rick Baker
MRFF