BREAKING NEWS: MRFF Featured by Truthout – Army’s “Fitness” Test Designed by Psychologist Who Inspired CIA’s Torture Program Under Fire

Dear MRFF:

Your organization is trying to destroy the military!!!

(name withheld)

Hi (name withheld),

Actually, Christian Dominionist organizations and their operatives in the military are doing a great job of destroying the armed forces all by themselves. It is MRFF that is attempting to preserve our hard working military, exposing the Dominionists and their unconstitutional activities.

The Army’s “Spiritual Fitness Test” is just another thinly veiled coercive proselytizing exercise, developed to bring our military personnel into lock step with distorted Christian Dominionist doctrines and foisted on our young men and women when they are at their most vulnerable, in Basic and Advanced Individual Training.

But, it doesn’t stop there. Pervasive Dominionist efforts continue throughout the full spectrum of age, sex and rank and in all military venues, here at home, in foreign garrisons and even combat zones.

Christian Dominionism, in case you are not familiar with the term, is a sizeable and growing Extremist Christian movement whose goals include an All-Christian Armed Force, elevated to a state of obedience and religious commitment that supercedes their oath to the Constitution and subordinates them to a strict adherence to a “Higher Authority.” Such a force would enable Dominionists to undertake world domination and conversion of all world populations to Christianity with those who resist being “cast into the Lake of Fire.”

Ostensibly, this would guarantee a one-world, one religion nation under the Kingship of Jesus Christ ( and those Dominion Christian strategic operatives appointed to assist in the governing process) for at least a Thousand Year Reign.

I can assure you, having seen with my own eyes the machinations of this Christian Dominionist movement, that they are quite serious about these goals and have invested much time, money and effort to co-opt, subvert and countermand US Military command and control.

It is the duty and intent of MRFF and those who support us to make clear to the general public the un-American activities of the Christian Dominionist movement and to support those young men and women in our military who have fallen into the grasp of these most aggressive agents of a Christianity run amok.

The United States is a secular nation in which all religions may flourish but none dominate. It is therefore supremely important that our Constitution never be abrogated or watered down to allow religion to co-opt the government and military.

You are invited to access our web site at militaryreligiousfreedom.com to better acquaint yourself with MRFF’s mission and witness some of the egregious unconstitutional activities undertaken by Christian Dominionists.

Rick Baker
Regional Coordinator
Military Religious Freedom Foundation

Dear Mr. Baker:

Thanks for the reply to my statement. In 20 years as a US Army chaplain I did not see or hear a hint of what you claim…. It is ASTONISHING!!!
What you say is totally absurd, and beyond rational belief… what right wing comic book fantasy did you get your theories from????

(name withheld)

Hi Again (name withheld),

Thank you for your timely response. Also thank you for your service to America.

I am a former Air Force Officer and Rescue Pilot with two combat tours in Vietnam, 64-65 so we have something in common. Most of us volunteers at MRFF have military backgrounds which is why we are so dedicated to assisting those young men and women in the armed forces who have, in some fashion, fallen victim to command centered proselytizing.

So as not to direct you to any information which you may think is biased may I suggest that you Google “Dominion Christianity” and/or “Christian Reconstructionism.” In those definitions you will find the makings of the current misguided efforts of such Dominionist organizations as Campus Crusade for Christ Military Mission, The Navigators, Focus on the Family and others including the most recent, The Warrick Paternal Shepherding Cult, now deeply imbedded at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Also complicit in many of the cases we are now investigating is the Officers’ Christian Fellowship.

MRFF is now addressing in excess of 20,000 client case complaints from members of the Armed Forces, all of which claim some form of religious impropriety from superior officers, NCO’s or groups of fellow military members. A number are from junior officers also caught up in command influenced Christian proselytizing.

One could only wish that these egregious cases of Christian Supremacy were “right wing comic book fantasies.” Sadly, they are all too true and have ruined a number of lives already. The extent to which this infestation has grown is truly astounding but the precepts of the Dominionist movement appear very attractive to certain military minds.

The important thing to bear in mind is that this movement is not all-encompassing. We have no quarrel with mainstream Christianity and many here at MRFF are Christian. In addition fully 96% of the complaints received by MRFF relative to over-bearing proselytizing are from self identified Christians who claim that they are told they are not “Christian enough.” So please do not confuse any negative thing I might say about Dominionist Christianity with an attack on Christianity in general. They are horses of a different color.

There are many in the armed forces who now believe that our actions in the mid-east are basically a modern day Crusade, as former President Bush put it. We try desperately to keep the mid east conflict a war on terror and not a war on Islam.

Look, (name withheld), no truthful person could deny the awful and deadly march of extreme Islam and its trail of death, destruction and mayhem world wide.
But we can’t fight Islamic belief run amok with Christian belief run amok. We combat any religious impropriety in the military so it’s not a one on one effort.

I am hoping you will look into what I have said objectively. There is every good reason for you to join us and help preserve the Christianity we know and love and keep it out of the hands of usurpers. In protecting our young men and women from all coercive religious activities we also protect mainstream Christianity from corruption.

As an aside, when I arrived in Vietnam and our squadron was deployed, among the military units already there were the 1st Marine Division, Army 25th Infantry Division and the 101st ABN Air Mobile which was just getting to combat strength. One of the Helo pilots turned out to be a guy I went to high school with in Augsberg Germany where we were both military dependents. I still correspond with him today.

Rick

Dear (name withheld),

Thanks for your service.

I am writing to augment the information my colleague Rick Baker sent.

Like Rick, I am a Viet vet, albeit a ground-pounding “mud Marine” whose service includes close personal ground combat at Khe Sanh in 1967 – 68 and elsewhere.

As to your statements, I assure you Mr. Baker and Mr. Weinstein and the rest of our team are NOT making this up. We WISH we were – then we could go get some therapy and drugs and get better… However, this is not a product of fevered imaginations, but a well-documented situation that is spreading like cancer – and it grows worse by the day.

I am not sure when you were in, but this cancer was already in and spreading when I got out (mid-70s). In the last years of my service, it was already becoming known that attending things like staff prayer breakfasts was a good career enhancer. However, as a life-long agnostic, and one who has always refused to use the “old boy” network for personal benefit, I was not interested. (Probably cost me some time in grade, and maybe even a promotion, but, oh well!)

However, it has progressed far beyond that stage now.

As to our sources, IMO, the best sources are the perps themselves, who have documented their plans and intentions in speech and writing for years – and are now getting quite bold about it, whereas in the past, they hid themselves among mainstream Christianity.

Approximately 96% of our clients from the inception have been active duty members who are self-described Christians (mainly Protestants, followed by Catholics). They report serious cases of harassment, unwanted proselytization, and even persecution – not by Muslims, Jews, Pagans or free-thinkers, but by another group of people calling themselves Christians.

Dominion Theology adherents spring from several different sects and denominations, and believe in a radical interpretation of a narrow Calvinistic, and (mainly) postmillenial eschatology known generically (and I realize this is a simplification of a difficult topic) as Dominionists. They are also sometimes described as Reconstructionists or Subjectionists, etc. For our purposes, we have chosen to use the term Dominionist, as it most clearly defines them and their agenda.

Most mainstream Christians reject Dominion theology as quite radical.

According to the late RJ Rushdoony, one of the founders, and others (including Gary North), the idea is put forth that Genesis 1:28 implies a theonomy (“rule of the law of God”), which requires all citizens to observe a strict Reconstructionist form of Christianity.

They have advocated in both words and writing the overthrow of the Republic and Constitution (by ballot if possible, but by bullet if necessary), and replacing them with an Old Testament style theocracy, complete with “Biblical” Sharia-like laws, complete with public executions by stoning, sword, or other “Biblical” methods, with mandatory attendance and participation by the whole community – including children.

Anyone not considered not “Christian enough” by these people if they gain power will be forced to either convert to or accept their warped version of Christianity – or die. They have been correctly described as “American Taliban.”

But don’t listen to what I say – let us examine the words of the individuals who founded and run the movement, such as the late Rousas John Rushdoony who wrote that they intend to “…lead them (non-believers) to Jesus – in chains, if necessary.”

Rushdoony also wrote that democracy is “heresy” and that Christians must remember that “a monarchy (referring to “God’s kingdom on earth”) is not a democracy.” (No doubt with Rushdoony and friends as the privileged leaders of the “monarchy” while awaiting God’s arrival…)

Rushdoony also wrote that “Democracy is the great love of the failures and cowards of life.” (I’m sure the ancient Athenians and early Romans, as well as our own Founders, would have been interested to learn that. I know I was!)

Rushdoony listed eighteen capital “crimes” including blasphemy, witchcraft, astrology, adultery, incorrigible delinquency, homosexuality, promiscuity or unchastity before marriage, wearing a red dress (for women – though one must suppose for men too), and failure to keep a Kosher kitchen. (I am not joking here or making this stuff up – though I wish I were.)

Punishment for non-capital crimes would include whipping and indentured servitude or slavery (including for debt), and prisons would become temporary holding tanks while prisoners awaited sentencing. Women and children would again become chattel property of men.

Rushdoony and the other Dominionist “American Taliban” have more in common with their Afghan counterparts than just their morbid interest in cruel and unusual punishment. They are also extremely retrogressive socially and politically. One can only hope that they never recognize their true kinship with the jihadists, lest they join forces in a truly unholy alliance.

Rushdoony’s Chalcedon Foundation also helped establish The Rutherford Institute, a legal organization to promote their agenda through the very courts they plan to supersede once in power.

Although Rushdoony is dead, his odious organization and legacy of theocracy lives on, and there are other proponents besides him.

Gary North, Rushdoony’s son-in-law, espouses (publicly) a slightly less draconian version, stating, “I don’t want to kill homosexuals–I would be happy just driving them back into the closet.” However, he also espouses stoning for blasphemers and those who curse their parents, and has stated that public stoning of “malefactors” would be “a great way to bring communities together.”

A stunning example of their theology (and ultimate plans for everyone not of their belief) is the statement of US Army chaplain MAJ James Linzey, who, in a 1999 video, described mainstream Protestant churches as “demonic, dastardly creatures from the pit of hell ” that should be “stomped out.”

The Council of Full Gospel Churches (Linzey’s accrediting agency founded by retired Army COL “Jim” Ammerman) not only didn’t pull his accreditation, but supported this egregious violation of his mission and orders as a military chaplain, and of his oath as an officer.(Of course, Ammerman is as bad or worse.)

The CFGC, COL Ammerman, MAJ Linzey, and their cohorts have also denigrated Judaism and Catholicism, as well as mainstream Protestant churches.

COL Ammerman and MAJ Linzey have also spread conspiracy theories about “Satanic forces” in the US government for years aiding a military takeover aided by unnamed “foreign” (presumably UN) troops.

In 2008, COL Ammerman said that four presidential candidates (US Senators Obama, Clinton, Biden and Dodd) should be hanged for treason – for not voting to designate English as America’s official language. He also stated that President Obama would be assassinated as a “secret Muslim.” (In the late 1990s, he had also called for the execution of then-president Clinton for treason.)

CFGC and its chaplains have repeatedly and egregiously violated the Constitution and the laws and regulations regarding chaplaincies, including those on interfaith cooperation, bans on membership in organizations with religious or racial supremacist principles, especially those espousing violence, and that active military personnel cannot make disloyal or contemptuous statements about officials.

This problem, as stated, is very wide-spread and deeply entrenched, not only in the military but in many areas of government and indeed, other nations.

These people have been operating “under the radar” for years, and are now firmly entrenched in every branch and MOS of our armed forces and government, at every level – and are getting bolder by the day.

These groups and their fellow-travelers aggressively seek converts, but if persuasion fails, they unconstitutionally harass, bully, and attempt to intimidate under color of authority service members under their command or control, in order to attempt to proselytize – even service members who have expressed their unwillingness.

When in command positions, they use tactics ranging from denying choice assignments and promotions to those they don’t consider Christian or “Christian enough” to giving poor performance reviews, and difficult, dirty, and dangerous tasks – including potentially deadly tasks in combat. (One of our clients was assigned as “permanent point” in a combat unit!) – all of which is clearly in violation of the Constitution, public law, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

These people are very clever, subtle, well-organized, and well-funded. They are gaining ground in many areas – including the military and the Service Academies.

These people are regular violators of the very Constitution which guarantees them freedom of religion and pluralism, which they call upon to defend themselves as they attack and undermine the very principles which allow them to exist and operate.

While we accept their right to believe as they please, within the framework of the Constitution and public law, we balk at allowing them to proselytize unwilling service personnel under their command “under color of authority” and to undermine and work to destroy the Constitution that many of our members (most of whom are former or serving members of the US Armed Forces), swore to “uphold and defend.”

The Dominionists and their allied sects are committing egregious assaults on the Constitution and on the rights of servicemen and women daily. We expose to the clear light of day their violations and machinations, as well as those of any other individuals or groups who attempt the same. However, this group constitutes the bulk of the complaints we receive.

Pat Robertson’s “The Secret Kingdom” also details his group’s plans to establish a theocracy.

Here are a few online sources of information on Dominionism:

http://www.mainstreambaptists.org/mob4/dominionism.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominionism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Theology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christofascism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rousas_John_Rushdoony

http://www.religioustolerance.org/reconstr.htm

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dominionism

http://www.publiceye.org/christian_right/cr_intro.html#dominion

http://www.theocracywatch.org/dominionism.htm

http://www.jewsonfirst.org/dominionism.html

http://www.rwor.org/a/033/dominionism-be-very-afraid.htm

We of the MRFF are one of the few groups who stand between these people and their plans. We are only a few, and they are many. We are always struggling to survive financially, while they are well-heeled. They have man powerful people doing their bidding. We have a small handful of patriots. Can we win? Quite possibly not – but we are going to try.

I have only one question for you, (name withheld); do you endorse these people and their work, or do you adhere to the pluralistic freedom of conscience guaranteed by the Constitution which you swore to uphold and defend (as did Mikey, Rick, and I)?

If you adhere to their theology, or approve of them, we have nothing further to discuss. If you adhere to the Constitution, you belong on our side. The time is coming when you (and indeed all of us) will have to choose. We have made our choice. We are vastly out-numbered, out-spent, and have vastly less “connections” – but we know our duty.

I remain,

Very Sincerely,

F. J. Taylor
USMC (Ret.)