Be Afraid

Published On: December 19, 2011|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|0 Comments|

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Dear MRFF,

Be Afraid, be very afraid – – – The Christians are coming!!!

(name withheld)


Dear (name withheld),

The MRFF salutes your service, and thanks you for sharing your thoughts. Mr. Weinstein does his level best to answer as much correspondence personally as he can, but his time is very limited by his heavy schedule, so he asked me to respond on his behalf.

My name is Jim Taylor, and I am a volunteer for the MRFF. Like most MRFF staff and supporters, I am a veteran (USMC), with service that included close personal ground combat in Vietnam, at Khe Sanh and elsewhere. I come from a family with a long history of US military service dating back to the Revolutionary War and on forward to the present.

Mr. Weinstein is also a veteran, and also from a family of long and meritorious service to the Republic. He was an Honor Graduate of the USAF Academy, and spent a decade as a USAF officer, during part of which time he served as a counsel in the Reagan White House. For Mr. Weinstein’s full biography, please see:

The MRFF membership, staff, and clients includes active, reserve, and retired members from all branches of the US Armed Forces, holding ranks ranging from private through flag officer, and military specialties ranging from support to combat arms, whose service eras include WW II, Korea, and Viet Nam, and on through Gulf I to the present GWOT.

Members’ medals and decorations include the Purple Heart for wounds received in action, and awards for valor ranging from the Bronze Star w/ V and the Silver Star, through the Army, Navy, and AF Crosses, and the Medal of Honor.

MRFF Mission

The MRFF supports the Constitutionally and legally mandated requirement that there will be no established religion (i.e. no official state religion), and no religious test for office, as clearly intended by the Founders both in their words and documents, and as supported by subsequent decisions of US courts through the Supreme Court.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .” (1st Amendment)

“. . . no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” (Article VI, Section III)

The MRFF is committed to ensuring that this boundary between church and state is maintained, and that the Constitutional rights to freedom of conscience for all Americans (particularly our servicemen and women) are not violated, and that they are not subjected to unwanted proselytization by any religious group whatsoever.

MRFF’s Position on Faith

Neither Mr. Weinstein nor the MRFF are “for” or “against” Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any other religion. On the contrary, as the name implies, the MRFF supports religious freedom and pluralism for service personnel of all faiths (or none), in accordance with the US Constitution and public law. Our founder, members, and supporters include people of many different faiths and belief systems, as well as free-thinkers and skeptics.

Mr. Weinstein, the founder of the MRFF, is an observant Jew, and his family circle of blended faiths includes observant Christians.

The MRFF staff is approximately 75% Christian (mainly Protestant, followed by Catholics), 15% Jewish, and 10% others.

While we have people of faith in our ranks, we are (like the US itself) strictly secular in nature, and we defend all US service personnel against violations of their Constitutional rights to freedom of conscience.

Who We Represent, and Why

All MRFF cases are filed because of complaints brought by active duty or reserve service personnel.

Currently, 96% of the over 23,000 MRFF cases are brought on behalf of professing Christians, (mainly Protestants), followed by Catholics (including Roman and Eastern Orthodox).

The 4% balance of cases includes Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs, as well as Pagans, a few atheists, agnostics, and other free-thinkers.

The great preponderance of our cases involve abuses of authority and violations of the Constitutional guarantees of freedom of conscience by a specific sub-set of aggressive radicals who style themselves “Christians” and who are becoming increasingly entrenched and powerful in the military in all braches and MOSs at ranks up to and including flag officer ranks. They are known by a number of names, but we use the generic term of one of the main branches (“Dominionists”) for convenience. I attach some specifics re: Dominionism below.

I hope that this information will help you to better understand the nature of the MRFF and the nature of the struggle we are waging against a large and growing enemy with deep pockets and strong political and economic backing, and who constitute a far greater and more urgent threat to the Republic than a handful of rag-tag Islamic fundamentalists either here or elsewhere.

Finally, in answer to your threatening statement that we should “Be Afraid, be very afraid – – – The Christians are coming!!! ). This seems like an attempt to intimidate us by the use of religious terrorist threats. We take all such threats seriously, and they are turned over to the FBI.

However, let me make it clear to you that although we do take all threats seriously, our majority (Christian) members, staff, and clients are hardly going to be “afraid” of those who practice real Christianity as Yehoshua taught it, because real Christianity teaches the Golden Rule, which does not state; “Threaten thy neighbor and terrorize him into submission.” You might want to look up what Yehoshua (and his Jewish predecessors) actually said sometime. Try this verse from your scriptures for starters:

> Matthew 22:35 – 37
> 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
> 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
> 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
> 38 This is the first and great commandment.
> 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
> 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Likewise, our Jewish members and staff don’t fear real Christians (though Christians historically have a very poor track record in their treatment of Jews). However, as they have shown several times in the years since the end of WW II and the establishment of Israel, most Jews don’t intend to ever let Christians or anyone else cow them into submission and take them without a fight again. As Mr. Weinstein has told me on several occasions, if the time ever comes again, he intends to take the example of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, rather than those who went unresisting to the cattle cars and camps. (And as we have seen over the years, Jews can fight and fight well.)

As to the Jewish people here being afraid of your chosen version of deity, remember that they consider themselves the Chosen People of Yahweh, and do not recognize Yehoshua as the Meshiach, let alone a deity (which would be sacrilegious in their faith), though some choose to recognize him as a teacher or prophet. Also, kindly recall that Yehoshua was himself a practicing Jew, so they certainly don’t fear any theological threats involving him.

Our Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Pagan, and other faith group members and clients also respect real Christians — but don’t fear them, or their deity — though of the many wise things Mr. Ghandi said, one is particularly applicable to your threats: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

As for our non-believers and free-thinkers (which includes atheists, and agnostics like myself), we don’t fear threats in the name of any religion or deity — for obvious reasons.

So nobody here fears real Christians, and thus not you — if you were one (which is not likely from the bullying and threatening tone of your E). However, I suspect from your threats that you may be one of those Dominionists or related culties whom we oppose — in which case, you are part of the problem — but we still don’t fear you.

While we know that there are those among the obsessively religious far-Right who are bat-shit crazy wing-nuts, and quite capable of killing (at least from ambush or by bomb, of unarmed people, as in the abortion killings), we don’t go around obsessing over it. We all take security precautions due to the nature of the threats we receive daily (yours is relatively tame by comparison), but be assured we don’t fear the many bragging, threatening, boasting would-be bullies and Net bravos we hear from daily.

As to fearing you personally — please don’t make me laugh! If you sought to intimidate anyone here by virtue of your being “US Army, Retired” it didn’t work. Remember, most of us are current, retired, or former service members, many of us are decorated close combat veterans of many hard fights, and while I don’t know your own background, I can assure you that many here have backgrounds as least as impressive as your own — if it is impressive.

As to me personally, I have been in plenty of tough fights, in the service and out. I have won some and lost some, but I have never given in, or given up, and never will — especially to threats like yours, which just make me more determined to stand my ground. I don’t know you, sir, but I know enough from the threatening and bullying tone of your E to tell you that I am not afraid of you or a thousand more like you, whatever cult-like belief you choose to cloak yourself in, and justify your misdeeds with.

So the only thing you have accomplished here is to give us (and thus the FBI) your name (thanks!), and to put us on alert to your intentions, and those of your fellow “Christian” cultists — which we already knew.

You have also brought disrepute and disgrace upon your former service branch by acting the part of a bully. Too bad. I have some good friends in various units of the Army (such as my SF MACV-SOG friends from Khe Sanh) who would almost certainly like to teach you some better manners….

I hope that clarifies our position for you.

I remain,

Very Sincerely,

F. J. Taylor
USMC (Ret.)

http://sites.google.com/site/usmccaposcar


Dear Marvin,

Exactly what do you mean by “Be Afraid, be very afraid—The Christians are coming!!! Are you threatening us in the name of Jesus?

As an ordained minister in the Assemblies of God I don’t remember where Jesus taught us to kill our enemies, real or perceived. I do remember Him saying to pray for our enemies.

Please respond because I’d love to know why you think you can write something like this.

Pastor Joan


My Dear Pastor Joan,

You have it exactly right, Jesus taught us to love one another. As stated in John Chapter 13

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Which is my point. Sorry you didn’t pick up on the sarcasm.

I’m disgusted with organizations such as the Military Religious Freedom Foundation trying to take God and His Son, Jesus Christ out of our lives by attempting to confound the First Amendment to the Constitution. Your boy Mikey is obviously confused when he states on his website that he is attempting to keep individuals from attacks and recruitment from Christians. I’ve known many missionaries during my sojourn on this planet and I’ve never known any of them to attack anyone although they themselves are often assaulted because of their beliefs . Does Mikey confuse missionary work with attacks? If indeed he does, then you as an ordained minister in the Assemblies of God should take the responsibility on yourself to educate him of the differences.

Your boy Mikey also needs to be instructed as to what constitutes religious symbols, scriptures, and faith. When I swore an oath to defend the Constitution I didn’t join a church. Contrary to Mikey’s beliefs, the American Flag is not a religious symbol, the Constitution is not scripture, and patriotism is not a faith. So do yourself and Mikey a favor and teach him.

I can write something like this is because of the Constitution of the United States (A document obviously inspired by God) and the First Amendment.

Sincerely

(name withheld)


Dear (name withheld),
Thank you so much for getting back to me with the clarification of your statement…that it was sarcasm.

As you can imagine, we get a lot of violent, hateful, bigoted emails and the wording of your statement fits the death threats we also receive. We take these death threats very seriously and turn them over to the FBI.

I understand your disgust with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) but if the media would do their job and report the stories accurately, people would see that we’re not anti-Christian in any way. If that were so, I wouldn’t be here nor would the California Council of Churches/IMPACT with its 5,500 churches and numerous individual churches and Christian volunteers.

MRFF also has many retired and active duty military from all branches of service on our advisory board including, but not exclusive to the following distinguished personal-

A Lt Col (Ret) 25 year veteran of the Air Force who served as an ICBM crewmember

A former Navy Seal

A Retired brigadier general

A Naval Academy graduate with a 36 year career in the United States Air Force, he also served a three-year assignment as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first to hold that position.

A former Chaplain in the United States Air Force

A retired U.S. Air Force Major General, recently Deputy Director, Center for Special Operations, U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida

A retired Air Force Brigadier General – a Master Navigator

A military aviator who possesses both Senior Command Air Force wings and aircraft carrier qualified Naval Aviator wings, in addition to having been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism in combat during Operation Desert Storm.

These honorable soldiers know the proper position of military stance under the Constitution and we rely on their expertise.

While working with MRFF I have been privy to information that is not public knowledge and as a Christian it really frightens me. I can tell you that our military has been hijacked by an extreme form of Christianity who believe that every war is a Crusade, our soldiers are “Warriors for Christ” and that they must cleanse the world of all non-Christians and not the “right kind of Christian”, so that Jesus can come back and rule for 1,000 years. They believe in “Kingdom Now” theology that throws out the whole book of Revelations.

We have over 26,000 military clients of which 96% of them are Christians…Baptists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, etc. They are confronted daily with the worst in-you-face proselytizing by this extreme form of Christianity to repent of their church affiliation and join them. Their very careers are in jeopardy and many have been the subject of beatings, denied free time, bad reviews, advancements withheld and drummed out of the military on false charges. Many of the women at the US Air Force Academy, who want to become pilots, are told they have to give up their under graduate pilot slots for men because God says they must be housewives and sheep under the subjection of their husbands.

Mikey Weinstein, the founder of the MRFF, is an honor graduate of the Air Force Academy, held the position of Judge Advocate for 10 years at the Air Force Academy and was a Presidential Counsel to President Reagan for 3 years. While at the academy, Mikey was beaten severely and thrown down the stairs, left for dead, simply because he is Jewish. When his sons attended the USAFA, they were also harassed for their belief. Mikey stepped in and soon realized that it was not only those of the Jewish faith that were being subjected to verbal and physical assaults, but Christians as well. Hence, MRFF.

Our military, under the Constitution, is secular and no one form of Christianity has the right to dominate all others. Anyone who wants to don the uniform of our military and fight for our freedoms under the Constitution, regardless of their religious affiliation or lack thereof, has that right and should nor fear that their careers hang in the balance because of membership in a certain religion. Hence, he left his job and started MRFF to protect all soldiers and their beliefs or non-belief under the free exercise clause of the Constitution. MRFF quickly included the fight for the establishment clause in the Constitution because other religions were denied their right to practice their beliefs and get time off to do so.

Now, back to the story on Travis AFB.

The Air Force is rampant on its egregious attacks against both the establishment clause and the free exercise clause by favoring one form of Christianity.

Gen. Norton Schwartz, Chief of Staff for the Air Force, visited the USAFA earlier this year and in his speech he told them that they cannot mix religion with the military. That all religious events were to be done by the Chaplains. That they were not to endorse one religion over another. But, Lt. Gen. Gould disobeyed his order and continued on. In September of this year, Gen. Gould was forced to issue a memorandum (attached)to all military bases and Commanders to enforce his edict. Here are two quotes from that memorandum but please read the whole thing.

Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz issued a memo to commanders that told them to avoid mixing religion with their military roles.
They must refrain from appearing to officially endorse religion generally or any particular religion,” Schwartz wrote.”
The Commander of Travis AFB placed the Nativity scene at the gate of the base in direct disobedience to his Chief of Staff. This borders on insubordination. When MRFF complained, 3 days later they put up the Menorah to see if Mikey would fight against his own religion. MRFF did and would fight against any endorsement of a religion base wide. Then days later other Christmas decorations were put up.
MRFF is not against Christianity. We are only asking that they put the Nativity scene 2 blocks away on the grounds of the Chapel where it always was.
You see, this battle is not really between the military and MRFF. It’s between the Chief of Staff standing up for the Constitution and the Commanders. Because MRFF is the most vocal, we are demonized and used to win the support of the public. The people are being used as pawns and don’t even realize it in order to override the Constitution. Period.
We get many emails from active duty personnel that believe the bible and its laws override our laws. They believe that if God tells them to nuke a country they will, without the consent of our President –the Commander in Chief. Here is part of a quote I got recently.
“And for the record, GOD’s law far far far outweighs any military our federal law.” The spelling was left as written.
Romans 13:1-6, 1 Peter 2:13-14 and Hebrews 13:7 tell us we must submit to our earthly authorities.
To reinforce MRFF’s position—we are NOT anti-Christian. We are backing up Gen. Schwartz’s command to keep ALL religious events in the hands of the Chaplains on Chapel ground—not giving the appearance of military endorsement of one religion over another.
I hope this clarifies the situation and eases your mind on the false accusations hurled our way.
May God bless your socks off Marvin, and have a Merry Christmas, my brother!
Pastor Joan

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