Jeremy Hall case

Published On: April 16, 2012|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|0 Comments|

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Dear MRFF,

As a born and raised Kansan, I’m responding to the Jeremy Hall case with a common citizen’s perspective of your foundation mission. Just like other atheist organizations, you prosper and have the freedom to fight and defend a constitution that is founded on the Christian religion. It’s a historical fact. Your freedom has been paid for with the blood and lives of countless Christians you now fight against. The constitution you uphold was written by Christian founders who declared “we’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the ten commandments”. I have a couple questions for you, Mikey:

1. Is atheism a religion? last time I saw it defined, it was merely a belief. Does Jeremy Hall have the abiltity to redefine it?

2. You’re defending a cause that finds it offensive to derride the Islamic religion, according to the news article I read. This is the very “religion” that has waged a war on our country, performed countless acts of brutality and terrorism, attacked us repeatedly, and declared a “holy war” on us. And yet you believe our military should endorse it? What would you have us do Mikey? Shoot and kill them, but don’t say anything bad about them!

Whether I believe in Christianity or not, I have to ask, is our country better off with or without it’s influence….the answer is obvious. Ask the Arab countries how their religion is working out for them…

(name withheld)


Dear (name withheld),

As one of the many proud Christian volunteers for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, Mikey Weinstein has asked me to respond to your email.

You begin your email with an unfounded assertion that MRFF is an atheist organization. MRFF is a secular organization that has a clientele made up of 96% Christian members serving U.S. Armed Forces and volunteers such as myself who believe that they do not have to defend or support their Christian faith by attacking the explicitly secular intent of the U.S. Constitution. Your claim that the Constitution was founded on the Christian religion is specious at best. I fully agree with you that the Christian religion has historical significance to the United States and its Constitution. However, the Constitution provides absolutely no significance to my Christian faith above other religions, or no religion at all. To argue otherwise with weak historical references ignores the clear language and intent of the Constitution. And yet, you attempt this weak argument once again by including the following in your email:

The constitution you uphold was written by Christian founders who declared “we’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the ten commandments”.

Although I do appreciate your admission that Mikey and MRFF uphold the Constitution, I must point out the obvious flaw in this statement that has been repeatedly made by so many people hoping that repetitiveness establishes validity. It was not Christian founders (plural) who declared “we’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the ten commandments”. This is a statement purportedly made by one of our nation’s founders; James Madison. I’ll ignore this trite attempt at expanding the declaration of an individual founder to the entirety of our Christian founders and simply focus on the entire quote as listed on God’sTenLaws.com (http://godstenlaws.com/ten-commandments-america.html) is:

James Madison, Fourth President of the USA
“ We’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all of our heart. We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity… to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” [1778 to the General Assembly of the State of Virginia]

The selective use of this quote by Madison, in addition to attempting to attribute it to multiple Christian founders, is a very common form of intellectual laziness and dishonesty employed by individuals with preconceptions about MRFF and personal agendas regarding the U.S. Constitution. Stating in your email that “It’s a historical fact” does not make it so and is the type of ‘bon mot’ the intellectually lazy and dishonest try to sell as conventional wisdom.

Madison’s comments to the 1778 General Assembly of the State of Virginia was not for the purpose of drafting our Constitution or for drafting the Articles of Confederation which had already been ratified by Virginia on December 16, 1777. On January 21, 1786, the Virginia Legislature (following Madison’s recommendation) invited all of the states to send delegates to Annapolis, Maryland to discuss reduction of interstate conflict that was prevalent under the Articles. This ‘Annapolis Convention’ resulted in a report that spurred Congress on February 21, 1787 to call for a convention of state delegates to propose a new plan of government. This convention began deliberations on May 25, 1787 and produced the final Constitution for state ratification on September 17, 1787. The ratification process for the Constitution concluded on June 21, 1788 when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify. The Constitution was then put into operation by the Continental Congress by resolution on September 13, 1788.

Due to this chronology of events, a much more honest and accurate quote regarding James Madison’s true beliefs regarding religion would have been his direct words used in his contribution to the Federalist Papers which were written for the expressed purpose of supporting Constitutional ratification:

The Federalist No. 10

The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (continued)

Daily Advertiser
Thursday, November 22, 1787[James Madison]

http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa10.htm

The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning RELIGION [my emphasis], concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts.

The disdain towards the division and mutual animosity created by religion shown in this statement by Madison could not be any clearer. Although I may agree with the importance of my Christian faith in the history of my country, I will not allow my Christian faith to cloud my agreement with our Founding Fathers that ALL RELIGIONS should and will have no particular importance in my Constitution. It is due to the actual language that does exist within the Constitution and intent shown by RELEVANT historical documents that I will continue to work to defend man’s law (U.S. Constitution) developed through a democratic process of equals over holy law (Sharia/Biblical/Judaic/etc.) every damn day of the week.

I will not waste my time answering more than underlying premise of your email. If however you would actually like an answer for your accusations masquerading as ‘questions’ to Mikey, please feel free to share with me the “news article I read” or other sources upon which your accusatory questions were based. I’d be happy to respond.

MRFF counts on its supporters, volunteers, AND DETRACTORS as the indispensable “eyes and ears” who alert us to egregious constitutional violations. Should you have an actual charge of unconstitutional religious influence in the U.S. Military by Muslim/Jewish/Hindu/Buddhist/Christian/etc., as opposed some nebulous accusation, you are encouraged to try us again at [email protected]. MRFF stands ready to investigate and take action on any properly vetted complaint. This sincere invitation to all of our detractors is based on both our mission here at MRFF and our sincere desire to find even a sliver of usable intelligence.

Finally, it should be well noted that your freedom has also been paid for by the many members and clients of MRFF who currently serve, or have served, to defend the Constitution.

Sincerely,

Andy Kasehagen, MRFF volunteer

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