Rev. Franklin Graham

Dear Sirs:

I am registering my strongest possible protest against your bigoted attack on Rev. Franklin Graham in particular and Christianity in general. Your campaign to assert Muslim over Christian values exposes your ignorance and repudiation of the founding principles of America – Christianity. We were not founded on religious pluralism, although free religious expression is granted to all our citizens. Read the untainted original source documents of our nation and you cannot help but see to roots of America are in the Bible not the Koran.

And for the record, Islam is a religion of intolerance and violence. Just ask the millions of Christians in nations where Muslim law prevails and you will see that persecution of non-Muslims in the name of Allah is not just the practice of extremists.

I would also like to thank you for advancing the Day of Prayer by your actions and actually giving a great amount of free media coverage to the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray that you will see the error of your ways and turn to the one and only true God of the Judeo-Christian faith.

Sincerely yours,

(name withheld)

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Dear (name withheld),

Thank you for your note to MRFF.

I’m afraid your protest is sadly misplaced.

MRFF is neither bigoted against Rev. Graham or Christianity in general. We are, however, acutely aware of the movement known as “Dominion Christianity,” and those who practice it to the shame and degradation of moderate Christians everywhere. We seek to protect all military personnel from the ravages of coercive and command centered Christian proselytizing.

It is your take on the founding principals of America that are severely mistaken. It is true that the roots of our country as specified in the Constitution are not found in the Ku ‘ran but neither are they rooted in the Bible for there is not a line, article or amendment that refers to God, Christ or other deity. The First Amendment and the many Supreme Court rulings and decisions attached thereto, guarantees freedom of religious practice within established parameters. This is what pluralism is all about and your lack of this knowledge does not speak well for you.

The separation of church and state as described and reaffirmed by the Supreme Court ruling establishing the “Lemon Test” requires government officials, including those elected to office and military personnel to remain religion neutral. They may not, in the course of their duties, favor, prefer or proselytize one religion over another or religion over non-religion.

You can readily see that a well known Christian leader such as Rev. Graham’s appearance at the Pentagon, leading sectarian prayers, would be in direct violation of that ruling. That is why the military, upon consideration of the information directed to them by MRFF canceled Rev. Grahams invitation.

MRFF is aware that there are elements of Islam that are indeed violent. This does not merit a broad condemnation of all Muslims as there are sizeable numbers who practice a very moderate form of Islam. In addition, your message was as vitriolic as any we have received, laced with insults, accusations and the self-righteous absolutism of which you accuse the Muslims. It would seem that your Christian beliefs are right up there with other religious terrorists.

We hope we have aided in advancing the National Day of Prayer but in the non-sectarian sense that reflects America’s true freedom of religion. I can assure you that unlike you, it is our goal to tolerate and advance all religious and non religious belief. In that regard the military nor MRFF could promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the individual beliefs of any other religion.

Your note indicates to me the beginnings, if not the intermediary indications of Christian Dominionism. I am hopeful you will rethink your position and take your place as an American who values all faiths.

Sincerely,

Richard Baker
Regional Coordinator
Military Religious Freedom Foundation

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Dear (name withheld)

Mr. Weinstein asked if I would respond to you since we, representing mainline Protestant denominations with 6.5 million members in California, are also supporting MRFF and its work for religious freedom.

America was founded as individual colonies with strong central religious bias.  I say bias since my own forebears were Congregationalists who settled Massachusetts precisely for one reason – to build a haven for their ideas.  But no one else’s.  Their treatment of those who became Baptist, Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams, is well documented.  What is less well known is that they finally allowed Baptists to worship – as long as they paid to support Congregational churches AND adhered to Congregational ideas.

Some of those ideas were quite wonderful.  They operated entirely on the principles of Deuteronomy in their economics – first fruits for the poor, all prices regulated for and by the towns so the survival of all people was triumphant over personal gain; relative equality among all people, honoring the landless as “property owners” if they owned the tools of their trade, and so on.  They were grounded in fairness, and those ideas were admirable.

However, their religious intolerance, and that of other colonies, did not make for a good nation.  One of the causes for independence was the Crown’s effort to install Anglican Bishops everywhere.  Well, you can imagine how THAT was received in all the colonies that were not primarily Anglican themselves!  The issues of the separation of church and state arose before the Declaration over that insult to colonial religious views AND prevailed in the Constitution so that our personal views would ALWAYS be triumphant over any institutionalized ones.  Honoring the religious diversity of our immigrant populations is what is the fundament of American Exceptionalism.  We are the only nation that is so free, so emphatically supportive of freedom.   We would, of course, posit that it is this joyous celebration of our freedom of religion that precisely distinguishes us from Islamic or any other religiously institutionalized nation.  Would we have it any other way?

What we see from institutionalization of a single view of faith within our governmental organizations, especially the military, is offensive to those who do not want a Caliphate, do not want a state church, who do not want you or any other person to have a faith rammed down their throat.  What MRFF does is protect all of us, including Muslims who fled to America to get AWAY from Islamic dominance even as they bring their faith with them.  MRFF honors ALL of us which is why 95% of their clients are Christians.  Christians who have been forbidden to exercise their own views of what Christianity means.  That is not American – that is unacceptable.

Our young men and women who put their lives on the line for our Constitutional rights must not have theirs deprived.  That is what MRFF stands for – anyone’s beliefs, any time or place, being held sacred.  No one in command structure must be allowed to force our troops to be engaged with any public event or private worship that they, individually, do not specifically choose.  No one in our nation’s military should be told he or she is unworthy because of their religious beliefs.  That is an abuse of our rights, their rights.  We have to do the best by our troops, especially those who are in harm’s way, to assure that we live up to American Exceptionalism in their name and to their honor.

That is why we support the work of MRFF – they protect our military families and help keep us all free to worship as we choose.  They protect the fundamental American values we all cherish.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Sholes
Director of Public Policy
California Council of Churches/California Church IMPACT
4044 Pasadena Avenue
Sacramento, CA 95821
916.488.7300