Air Force

Published On: October 25, 2013|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|0 Comments|

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You guys are just a bunch of scammers who found a way to scam money from people to promote you cause which is not supported by either the constitution or the American People. You should be jailed for all the money you take in to life your luxury lifestyle.

(name withheld)


Dear (name withheld),

We’ll give thoughtful consideration to your views in light of the following:

-MRFF operates on an annual budget of around $700k while the Dominionist seeking to turn the U.S. Military into government paid missionaries operate on hundreds of millions including taxpayer dollars (MRFF receives $0 taxpayer funding).

-Fox News, in solidarity with several Dominionist Christian organizations, recently announced they will forego all advertising revenue and suspend executive and on-air talent pay while they continue to whip up the masses with their phony ‘War on Christianity’ meme.

Guess what? Only one of these statements is true. You figure it out ‘Einstein’.

Sincerely,

Andy Kasehagen


I have a very serious question – first some background – I am a Vietnam Vet, My son is a Gulf War Vet – My Father was a WWII Vet, My Grandfather was a WWI Vet – In fact my family has had a member in every war since and including the Revolutionary War. Not once, has anyone, military or government EVER tried to tell us what we can believe or not believe. Not Once! We have answered the call of our Government every time it asked. (well being from Mississippi we may have been on the losing side during one call)

There are groups like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Jim and Tammy Fay Baker, the Church that protests at military funerals and so on and so on. NOT ONCE has our government or military leaders EVER tried to force on us any specific belief or non belief. You have no idea of what my thoughts are on if there is or is not a God. It is none of your business. It is not the business of the Government. However I fought, and my Family Fought. for the rights of every American to make their own decisions on religion or not. I respect every persons decision no matter how misguided I may think they may be.

Your organization exists for no other purpose other then to get money from companies or individuals with a political agenda. In the process you and the people who run and work there get a big fat paycheck.

Here is my serious question! Don’t you feel slimy sinking this low?

(name withheld)


Dear (name withheld),

Thank you for your service to our nation. It is, and always will be, greatly valued and appreciated. Although I have no military experience, I am very proud to work with many retired and active duty military members at MRFF who have a very different perspective on what they were, are, and will be fighting for.

… and I have a various serious answer for you after some background:

I am a Christian (Episcopalian in fact) who fully supports Mikey’s and MRFF’s attempt to protect members of the U.S. Military from unconstitutional religious influence in relation to their training, assignment, advancement and retention. In supporting MRFF’s efforts, I defend both my Christian faith and my Constitution proudly and equally. I simply don’t feel compelled to defend one at the expense of the other.

In response to your specific contentions:

“NOT ONCE has our government or military leaders EVER tried to force on us any specific belief or non belief.”

-MRFF has documented military leaders, in their own words, doing exactly the opposite in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB1UifGIqaw

Quotes from the video:

“From an evangelistic standpoint, I always refer to them as ‘ripe as black bananas,'” Maj. Douglas W. Duerksen, Army Chaplain, told a laughing audience about new recruits. “And it’s great to be a government paid missionary!”

Maj. Jeff Struecker, Army Ranger School Chaplain, had this to say about his mission: “It puts the student — the Ranger student — in the absolute worst possible conditions. Most of them will go a couple of days with no food, some of them have gone as long as three days without any sleep whatsoever. My goal has been to meet them when they are at their absolute worst, when they’re coldest and the most tired and the most hungry that they are going to be because the more difficult the circumstances, the more receptive the average person becomes to issues of faith.”

MG (Ret.) Bob Dees, Executive Director, Campus Crusade for Christ International Military Ministry, is shown on the video saying, “Our vision is to transform the nations of the world through the militaries of the world. We try to reach our recruits immediately […] We have staff at half of the nation’s boot camps”.

Lt. Colonel Gary Hensley, Army Command Chaplain, is shown in the video telling troops in Afghanistan that “You are commissioned to be witnesses for Him. Does that mean we are all preachers? Um-hm. […] The special forces guys, they hunt men, basically. We do the same thing as Christians. We hunt people for Jesus.”

-In regards to general “Government Leaders” you have either never heard of or have chosen to ignore the our history of Indian Boarding Schools

By the late 1870s, the federal government began to create a coordinated, national system of Indian education. Encouraged by the 1867-68 recommendations of the Indian Peace Commission and new congressional appropriations for religious schools involved in Indian education, reformers began to champion the cause of a comprehensive federal education program in which children would be sent to boarding schools and separated from their families, culture, and religious activities and retrained in a teaching environment firmly orchestrated by Christian Euro-Americans.

Within a decade, the goals and composition of the large non-reservation schools attended by Indian children from across the nation were clearly articulated by formrer Indian fighter, Colonel Richard H. Pratt,

“I believe that the system of removing them from their tribes and placing them under continuous training in the midst of civilization is far better than any other method… I am sure that if we could bring to bear such training as this upon all our Indian children for only three years, that savagery among the Indians in this country would be at an end… The end to be gained…is the complete civilization of the Indian and his absorption into our national life, the Indian to lose his identity as such, to give up his tribal relations and to be made to feel that he is an American citizen….The sooner all tribal relations are broken up, the sooner the Indian loses all his Indian ways, even his language, the better it will be for him and for the government and the greater will be the economy to both.”

Congress liked Pratt’s idea so in 1980, it appropriated $150,000 for Indian education; within seven years, the federal government’s commitment had soared to $1 million. By the 1890s, an elaborate federal administrative structure had been created to supervise Indian education. At the top was the Indian Office located within the Department of the Interior and administered by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Indian Office field supervisors inspected schools and reported problems, a Superintendent of Indian Schools was responsible to the Commissioner, and inspectors provided supplemental advice and guidance which they reported directly to the Secretary of the Interior. While school attendance was initially voluntary at such schools, the federal government soon took steps that required attendance. Beginning in 1880, the Secretary of Interior issued “Civilization Regulations” making it an Indian offense with imprisonment and starvation penalties for a “so-called” medicine man to interfere with Indian children being taken away to boarding schools. By 1891, Indian attendance at school became mandatory when Congress authorized the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to make and enforce rules and regulations that would guarantee attendance at either a reservation or non-reservation school. In 1893, Congress authorized the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to withhold annuities and rations from parents who refused to send their children to school. Some children were forcible hauled off to school by Indian police or Army soldiers.

(source: http://americanindiantah.com/lesson_plans/ml_boardingschools.html)

…and if you don’t like this source…I encourage you to verify with your own research.

“You have no idea of what my thoughts are on if there is or is not a God.”

Amen brother. I offered my religious heritage willingly without any desire for reciprocation. Why then “So Help Me God” in a required government oath?

“It is none of your business. It is not the business of the Government.”

Amen again brother. Again, what purpose does “So Help Me God” serve in a required government oath?

Assuming your initial motivation to contact MRFF was the result of reporting/interviewing by Megyn Kelly and/or some other equally fine journalist I offer this observation regarding what seems to have upset you:

Ms. Kelly, and others, contended that individuals taking the oath at the Air Force Academy (among others) could simply leave ‘those words’ (So Help me God) off on their own. Logically then, Ms. Kelly obviously feels those words are clearly extraneous and therefore essentially meaningless to the oath. Why are they included in the government’s oath then? Additionally, if they are meaningless, why all the worry and ‘pearl clutching’ in light of the commendable objective of limited government intrusion usually expressed by Ms. Kelly?

Now consider the reverse of what Ms. Kelly said; that individuals taking the oath could simply add ‘those words’ on their own (this was Mikey’s point to Ms. Kelly but you may have not been able to hear during the interview as Ms. Kelly continued to listen with her mouth). Have individual members of the military been denied this personal ability when completing their require oaths? If you are aware of this happening, please let us know here at MRFF, we’ll jump all over that government intrusion into expression of religious faith just as vigorously. Personally, my Christian faith in God and Jesus do not require government prompting for expression.

Now let’s consider the no harm/no foul concept while replacing ‘those words’ in a required government oath with ‘So help me Allah’. So help me Jehovah? So help me Vishnu? Buddha? Flying Spaghetti Monster?….etc. How’s your comfort level now? Any objections being included in a required government oath?

The same Constitution that gives you the right to say what you say also prohibits religious establishment and tests. When a government prompts religious expression through the use of extraneous and meaningless words in a required oath; what other purpose can it logically have than support/establish or test for a preferred religious response when there is absolutely no prohibition against an individual’s expression of such religious faith after taking such oath?

One final background observation in regards to Megyn Kelly’s position:

How long does it take an optional religious oath to become mandatory (i.e. voluntary religious boarding school becoming mandatory)?

Here’s my answer to your very serious question: absolutely not!

Here my very serious question now for you:

Who’s slimier or lower; the Megyn Kelly’s of the world pushing this “voluntary” oath meme in a required government oath or those individuals demanding Mikey and MRFF to look the other way?

Sincerely,

Andy Kasehagen

p.s. Since you’re so fixated on paychecks; MRFF’s IRS990 is available online for all the world to see. Megyn Kelly files no such public documents but its reported online that she has a net worth of $15million and a current annual salary of $6million. How’s your personal slime meter now?

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