I Realized Exactly How Far These People Were Willing To Go

Dear Mr. Weinstein,

It was an honor and a privilege to speak with you on the phone today. As I explained during our conversation, my experiences with proselytizing directly from the military while my husband was stationed at the USAF Academy may have been relatively minimal, my passion and support for your organization stems from the experiences I had with the civilian population in Colorado Springs and the negative effect it had upon my children. The things I witnessed while living very near the Academy enabled me to grasp the depth and the seriousness of what the evangelical movement is attempting to accomplish within the military and the government as a whole.

I feel it is important to emphasize that I am in no way against Christianity or any other religious doctrine. In fact, my grandfather was a Presbyterian minister and as I was growing up, my family was very active in our local Presbyterian church. I participated in the choir and the youth group at our church and believe those activities have positively impacted my life. The current evangelical movement that is currently sweeping this country seems to have very little in common with the things I was taught in the Presbyterian church which included concepts such as acceptance, tolerance, and the encouragement of free thinking. Obviously, many things have changed within the Christian community.

My family arrived in Colorado Springs during the summer of 2005. We were looking forward to moving there even though we were sad to leave the quaint lifestyle we had enjoyed while stationed at RAF Lakenheath in England. It was within the first week of our arrival in Colorado that I realized we had arrived in the fundamentalist capital of the United States. Besides the constant knocking on our door by people armed with their respective religious propaganda trying to recruit my family to join their cults of choice, it is how my children were treated at PUBLIC school by these fanatics that made my blood boil. After the article about your sons’ experiences at the USAFA was published in the Colorado Springs Independent newspaper, I realized exactly how far these people were willing to go to influence the young cadets at the USAFA. I specifically remember that New Life Church regularly sent a bus to the Academy to transport the cadets to their “worship center”. I considered this a form of encouragement, if not an outright endorsement, of this particular church’s brand of “Christianity”. The thought that a government institution, particularly our armed services, could so blatantly defy the United States Constitution by supporting and encouraging participation in any religious organization thoroughly sickened and appalled me.

I would like to briefly share two events that profoundly affected my decision to move my children out of Colorado Springs after my husband elected to leave the USAF. My oldest daughter, at the age of 8, planned a slumber party for her birthday. Unfortunately, 3 of the 5 guests she invited were forbidden to attend because of the fact that our family did not attend church on Sundays. The other incident occurred after my 6 year old daughter had returned home following a play date with a little girl from her school. As we were eating dinner that evening, she suddenly burst into tears and very fearfully began to tell us how we are all going to be “devils” when we die because we don’t go to church. It took me a certain period of time to convince her that that was simply not the case. My child reported to me that the family with whom she had spent the afternoon had discussed God and Jesus the entire time she was visiting their home. Needless to say, I was outraged. These two incidents certainly reinforced the notion that the evangelical movement has little or no respect for any agenda other than their own.

Although my direct experiences with the evangelical movement in Colorado Springs were on a civilian level, there is no question in my mind that these “Christian” organizations are attempting to influence and recruit young people in order to swell their influence and power over the political process in this country and in the military. I am aware that your and MRFF’s necessarily furious fight for religious freedom in the military began prior to my arrival in Colorado and I believe that you, your family’s and MRFF’s many successes may well have shielded my family from being directly targeted by military personnel. However, it seems plausible that civilians were encouraged to approach us in an attempt to further their agenda by actively recruiting my family to join their ranks. What these organizations fail to realize is that their brand of fanaticism is directly in tune with the Taliban and the jihadists they claim to abhor. I would savor any opportunity to help end their attempts to force their beliefs and practices on our military members and protect the Constitution.

Sincerely,
(name, address and phone number withheld)