Letter for Mr. Weinstein

Published On: December 15, 2011|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|0 Comments|

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Dear Mr. Weinstein:
As part of my current bible study series, we were tasked with identifying what person has had the biggest impact in our Christianity. After a long thought I came down to two people, my grandfather and yourself. Part of our study was to let the individual know how they have had an impact. Since my grandfather is no longer with us, I decided to take a moment and write to you.
I have considered myself a Christian for years but have been uninvolved in the church for the last 10 years or so. Upon my assignment to Colorado Springs, I joined a local church and began to focus more on my relationship with God and Jesus. As I study and learn more of what the Bible teaches, I have learned that it is a tasking of all Christians to spread the Good News that faith in Jesus brings an everlasting life and forgiveness of your sins. I believe (as do most Christians that I know) that the way to do this is to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to hear about Jesus without any pressure to convert to Christianity. I also feel that I am guaranteed the right to do this by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”.
Given this fact, you have been instrumental in my faith. Your insistence in attempting to prohibit the free exercise of religion in the military has resulted in me focusing more intently upon my understanding of my chosen religion. Outside of the values instilled in me by my family, the most polarizing effect on my Christianity has been observing the continual push to rid it from the American society. Since you have been one of the most constant and vocal opponents of Christianity, you have single-handedly caused me to have a much stronger relationship with my God and my savior, Jesus Christ.
I write this letter not to berate you or bring discredit to your cause but rather to thank you! I have known for some time that I was not strong enough in my religion and your actions have provided the push that I needed to work on it. I hope that one day you may come to know the joy and peace that Jesus provides. You will forever be in my prayers.
Respectfully,
(name withheld)


Dear (name withheld),

Thank you for your letter. My name is Akiva David Miller, I am the Veterans Coordinator for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and I have the happy privilege of responding to your letter.

As a person of faith (I am a religious Jew) I congratulate you on finding a faith that lends meaning and purpose to your life, and as a friend of Mr. Weinstein’s I am confident that he feels honored as well that he inadvertently played a role in helping you to find a home within Christianity.

It’s ironic that Mr. Weinstein is so often accused by Fundamentalist and Dominionist Christians of being hostile toward religion generally and toward Christianity specifically when in fact he’s both a vocal advocate for and big supporter of everyone’s right to freely practice their religion, or no religion. The mission of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is, in fact, spelled out in part in this statement: “The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.” You can of course read the full Mission Statement of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation on its website, located at militaryreligousfreedom.org

Those who accuse Mr. Weinstein and the Foundation of hostility toward religion, any religion, are in fact either terribly mistaken or outright liars. Sadly, in your own letter you repeat this canard about Mikey, saying in part, “Your insistence in attempting to prohibit the free exercise of religion in the military…” and “…you have been one of the most constant and vocal opponents of Christianity.” Since you’re a Christian I would hope that you would be more committed to the truth than this, and that rather than just repeating and spreading lies about others, you would first check the facts. You and I both know the Bible has plenty to say about those who bear false witness; as a quick reminder, here are just a few of many passages that address this issue:

Exodus 20:16 “You shall not bear false testimony against your neighbor.”
Exodus: 23:1 “Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.”
Proverbs 12:22 “The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.”
Proverbs 13:5 “The righteous hate what is false, but the wicked make themselves a stench and bring shame on themselves.”
Revelation 21:27 (speaking of heaven) “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Sadly, I have seen too often how many Fundamentalist Christians today are duped into just regurgitating the lies they hear on Fox News or talk radio without independently checking out the facts.

A relevant fact that puts lie to the accusation that either Mikey and/or the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is anti-Christian, a fact that’s frequently swept under the rug by radical Christians, is that 96% of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s clients are actually Christians. If the Foundation and/or Mikey Weinstein were anti-Christian this would hardly be true; however, ignoring this fact just makes it easier for Fundamentalists and Dominionists to spread lies about Mikey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

You should know that, in my own experience as the Foundation’s Veterans Coordinator, I too have represent several Christians who have faced discrimination and even denial of medical care at the hands of Fundamentalist and Dominionist Christians who have inexplicably considered them “not Christian enough.” In one case I represented three veterans who had fought in both Iraq and Afghanistan and as a result now have service-connected disabilities; all three had been diagnosed with PTSD, along with other health issues. As part of their treatment they were referred by their doctors to PTSD group therapy. But at their particular V.A. Medical Center the PTSD groups were run by Fundamentalist Christians who would only allow veterans whom they considered “born again” into their therapy groups. In this case two of the veterans were Catholic Christians and one was an agnostic Jew – all three were barred from joining and/or participating in the groups because the group leaders considered them unqualified for treatment because they were not what they considered “born again.” Thankfully we were able to promptly remedy that situation and now all veterans with a diagnosis of PTSD are welcome in the PTSD therapy groups at that facility.

(name withheld), as a born again Christian would you support denying those three veterans PTSD treatment because they weren’t considered “born again?” Personally, I doubt that you are capable of being that bigoted and hateful. I find it hard to believe that you would advocate for a policy that would exclude any veterans, regardless of their religious beliefs or no religious beliefs, from medical benefits that they have more than earned through their honorable service to this Country. So, do you believe that my work as part of the MRFF in this regard reflected hostility toward Christianity, or in your words, reflects hostility toward the free exercise of religion? I can’t imagine you do. The fact is that the Foundation and I (and Mikey) work aggressively to defend the free exercise of religion. What we are opposed to are the acts of some who seek to infringe on the rights of service members and veterans, specifically their right to the free exercise of their religion (or no religion). Where we come to loggerheads with Fundamentalists and Dominionists so often is that they routinely seek to impose their religious beliefs and practices on everyone around them, including on religious Jews like me, and on anyone and everyone they determine are either not Christians, or not Christian enough.

If you were assigned to a command where the chain of command was primarily staffed with radical Muslims, Buddhists or Hindus, and they ordered you to participate in events that included mandatory Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu prayers, you would rightly object to having a faith you do not share imposed upon you. If you were a disabled veteran and the V.A. medical center where you sought care was filled with religious symbols of another religion other than Christianity you would be rightly offended. If you were hospitalized (God forbid) with chest pains and kidney stones and were confined to bed, sedated and wired to a heart monitor, would you be offended if a radical Muslim chaplain entered your room, against your expressed wishes, and stood over your bed for 20 minutes and, despite your protestations, he continued to harangue you, telling you that you would go to hell if you didn’t convert to his brand of Islam? Of course you would be offended, but that actually happened to me, except that unlike you I am a religious Jew and the chaplain was a Fundamentalist Christian. Can you fathom how offended I was? How about the fact that when I dared to lodge a complaint about what happened my Fundamentalist Christian doctor cut off all my medical care? Try for a moment to put yourself in my shoes. I served honorably in the U.S. Military and now I am a 100% disabled U.S. Navy veteran; do I not have the right to the free exercise of my own religion? (By the way, that’s how I first encountered Mikey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation – Mikey literally saved my life by finding another V.A. Medical Center (in Dallas, Texas) that would treat me and then raised the funds to fly me there so I could be treated.)

Can you understand how service members and veterans ALL have the right to the free exercise of their own religion or no religion at all, regardless of what their religion may be or if they have no religion at all? Can you understand how they have the right to be free from harassment, unwanted proselytizing, bullying, coercion, threats and even violence at the hands of Fundamentalist Christians just because they are considered not Christians or not Christian enough?

(name withheld), the Military Religious Freedom Foundation absolutely supports your right to the free exercise of your religion; however, we also support the right of others to be free of any pressure you might impose on them to convert to your religion. The Constitution forbids the military from promoting any one religion, and certainly forbids military personnel from using their positions of power over other service members to push their religious beliefs off on them; in other words, proselytizing on the public’s dime is not permitted. Even private institutions such as hospitals that receive federal funds are forbidden from engaging in or supporting proselytizing activities.

I know that Fundamentalist and Dominionist Christians frequently like to believe that the free exercise of their religion includes the right to foist it upon others, but they would scream bloody murder if radical Muslims did the same to them. Life, as they say, is a two way street. In order to protect the rights of all people everyone’s rights must naturally end when they begin to infringe on the rights of others. As I learned in school as a small boy, my right to free speech doesn’t extend so far that I have the right to yell fire in a crowded theater. My rights end where the rights of others begin – my rights are naturally limited by the rights of others.

No one in the military has the right to impose their beliefs on others, or deny the religious rights of others. Unfortunately, we’ve seen all too often that Jews like me are harassed, called Christ-killers, been the targets of religious predation, bullied and even beaten by Fundamentalist Christians; and we are just one faith. The sick reality is that those of other faiths and those of no faith at all have often experienced worse than even Jews like me at the hands of Fundamentalist Christians.

In conclusion, (name withheld), I understand if you have difficulty putting yourself in others’ shoes, so to speak, but the reality is that if you had superior officers who practiced a different faith than your own, and if they regularly engaged in predatory proselytizing of you, harassed you and forced you to participate in their religious rituals, you would cry bloody murder, and rightly so; however, you see no problem in doing this to others. It’s a sad reality.

At this time of year we always seem to hear about issues regarding manger scenes and other religious symbols. The fact is that military and Department of Veterans Affairs have had the iron clad policy for many, many years that permanent religious symbols are forbidden, and religious symbols of all kinds may only be displayed during specific religious services, and then must be taken down afterward so that all military and V.A. facilities may be accessible to people of all faiths and no faith at all. Not even chapels are permitted permanent religious displays, according to policy. However, military installations and V.A. facilities have often flaunted this policy. Orthodox Jews as well as others are forbidden by their religion to even enter facilities where idols are displayed, and to Jews, the cross and a Christmas crèche are both idols. This may seem ridiculous to you or to your coreligionists, but this is a legitimate issue to Jews and others; why do you have the right to practice and live your faith but I do not? The fact is, your rights end when they begin to infringe upon mine.

Obviously I do not expect to change your mind. You will do what you believe is right in your own eyes; but please don’t continue to lie about the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and Mikey regarding the work we do; your own Bible makes clear what awaits a liar. You may not respect the rights of others, but certainly you must believe that you are accountable to how your life measures up to your own scriptures and your own religious beliefs.

I congratulate you again on the renewal of your religious faith; and thank you for taking the time to write us at the Foundation. We appreciate all the correspondence we receive, even the hate mail filled with profanity we receive from so many of your fellow Fundamentalist Christians.

I sincerely wish you a happy holiday season.

Respectfully,

Akiva David Miller
Veterans Coordinator
Military Religious Freedom Foundation

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