Notice: Trying to get property 'post_date' of non-object in /home/military/public_html/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/custom-content-shortcode/includes/modules/if.php on line 465

Thank you for serving our country

Published On: June 6, 2012|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|0 Comments|

Mr. Weinstein,

First I want to thank you for serving our country. I was a Air Force “brat” and wife. I have always been patriotic and always will be. I was born being proud of being an America and still well up with tears of pride for our country.I participated in our country’s bicentennial in 1976 something I will never forget.  My father recently passed away and he was honored with a military service that I was very proud of being part of. I always thank our service men and women when I see them and want to thank you for serving.
Dear sir, my heart aches for you as I read your article in the Austin paper this Sunday. I am very sorry and ashamed of how “Christians” have treated you and your family. I am a Christ follower and with out the lord in my life I would not have survived the deep heartaches that have come my way. You see my father became an alcoholic and left our family when I was young and I know it had things to do with what he saw when he was in Thailand. My husband still struggles with some of his demons from seeing men killed at Fort Hood years back on the flight line.  It has put a strain on our marriage, but through God I have been able to press through. Not all Christian’s are as you spoke about in the article. I am sorry that you encountered people that proclaimed to love the lord but did not walk it out. Please know that it is not my nature to email someone as strong and powerful as you. You more then likely would scare me if I was ever able to talk to you or maybe not, maybe I would be able to see your heart.
Now I do not understand why you took certain names such as the crusader’s away. That name to me means someone strong and trusting and full of honor and integrity. Being the proud American that I am I would like to know what do you plan to do with everything our fore fathers based our country on. It was based on God and that we trust him and we were and are grateful that he blessed us with this country. In God we trust! I stand on that and I believe that and I pray that soon you will as well.
Thank you for letting me share my heart with you.
Sincerely (name withheld)

 


Dear (name withheld),

Thank you for contacting the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) with you heartfelt thanks to Mikey for his service and your concerns about the Crusader logo.

Mikey has read your email and asked that I respond to you as an ordained minister in the Assemblies of God and on the Advisory Board for MRFF.

Mikey is the founder and face of MRFF. There are many Retired and Active duty military personnel, Chaplains, the California Council of Churches/IMPACT with 5,500 churches, Advisory Board members, volunteers and supporters of MRFF that are Christians. In fact, 75% of MRFF is Christian.

We currently have over 28,000 clients and 96% of them are Christians. The other 4% are made up of other religions and some atheists.

We are NOT anti-Christian by any stretch of the imagination. What we are is the most ardent defenders of our Constitution.

MRFF does not act on its own but only on the complaints we get from our clients and there were 122 Marines – 107 of them Christians – who knew the background of the Holy Crusades and objected strenuously to going into combat under the “Crusader” name in the Middle East.

I’ll give you a little history of the name “Crusaders” on the Marines aircraft.

The air squadron was commissioned in 1942 and they were originally named the “Candystripers” but quickly changed it to the “Werewolves” before going into combat. The “Werewolves” fought in WWII and the Korean War.

In 1958 the squadron obtained the F-8A “Crusader” jet and adopted its name as their logo.

The “Crusaders” never went into combat until the Vietnam War on September 1, 1967 even though they were now flying the F-4B “Phantom” jet.
After the Vietnam War they never flew again for 40 years until 2008, when they were deployed to Iraq. The name was changed back to the “Werewolves” “partly because unit commanders thought the Crusaders nickname would not be well-received by Iraqis and others in the area.”

Lt. Col. Wade Weigel announced at the 70th Anniversary that their name was going back to the “Crusaders.” An uproar ensued amongst the Christians and others and remember – 122 Marines – 107 of them Christians – had the guts to contact MRFF. Many more were angry but did not contact us.

There was already a steady stream of Christian military who took it upon themselves to now make our war in the Middle East a Christian Holy War. They passed out bibles against military law, spray painted crosses on Mosques and had a Bradley tank with “Jesus Killed Mohammed” painted on the side in Arabic. (http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/05/0082488)

We are not fighting a Holy War but a war to destroy Al-Qaeda – the fringe, militaristic extremists of the Muslim religion and to have our Marines flying jets with the “Crusader” logo on the tail wing is nothing more than the Christian religion stating that we are trying to destroy the Muslim religion. Lt. Gen. Terry Robling was correct in changing it back to the “Werewolves” because our soldiers are in more danger than ever before due to this.

Our secular military is not and cannot fight a religious war under our Constitution.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” (First Amendment)

We fight to keep that separation between state and church as wide as it should be and that includes the use of any religious symbol used by our secular military because we have soldiers that are not Christians and some atheists. Our Constitution gives us the freedom to be a part of any religious group we want or to not have any religious inclination.

As a Christian I understand where you are coming from but as an American we must obey our laws.

Again, we are not Anti-Christian and if any other religion were doing the same as some of the Christians against military orders and our laws, we would be fighting them just as hard.

We at MRFF are very patriotic, too and will defend our country under the Constitution – not the bible – against any terrorists – foreign or domestic. We proudly display our flags and some march in parades. Almost all of us have or had family in the military and we honor them.

I hope this clears up your concerns and where we stand at MRFF.

Thank you for being so sweet to Mikey.

God bless you my sister,

Pastor Joan

Share This Story

Leave A Comment