Misappropriation of views and values

Published On: April 18, 2014|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|0 Comments|

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Mikey and Bonnie,

You are sharing your views and values that are detracting from the patriotic landscape at the USAFA. It is within the right of each cadet as a citizen of the USA to show his or her feelings and express his or her perspective as “freedom of speech” on their whiteboards.
You have no say as to what can or cannot be abided those hallways. You’re presuming that you as a watchdog agency is bogus. You only want to inculcate your values which are of “no particular use” to stir up the cretinesque viewpoint you support! Go help out the Kremlin’s ethics or the Chinese Chancellor’s civil rights problems!

Best Always…..
(name withheld)


Good Day, (name withheld) –

Mikey Weinstein has read your email and asked me to offer a reply. I’m a volunteer who supports MRFF in a variety of ways, and I’m also a Christian, a USAFA graduate, and an AF veteran.

There are a couple of things in your email that I’d like to address and perhaps discuss with you….

First, your assertion that the efforts of Mikey and MRFF are unpatriotic is simply wrong. Frankly, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a more committed group of patriots anywhere. The ranks of MRFF supporters include both current and former military members, including many combat veterans. You may not know this, but Mikey himself is a Distinguished Graduate of USAFA (unlike me, for whom graduation was only ‘distinguished’ by surprise and incredulity on the part of many people).

We share a deep love of our country, and a steadfast respect for the US Constitution. We desire nothing more than for our military to protect the rights of every service member, and that includes respecting equally the religious beliefs (including non-belief) of each person. By both constitutional mandate and specific regulation, the US military must maintain a position of neutrality with respect to religion. When that balance tips, someone needs to speak up on behalf of military members who cannot always speak for themselves — that is why there is a need for an organization such as MRFF. It serves an important function as precisely the sort of “watchdog” organization to which you seem to object.

MRFF does not set policy for the military, nor does it challenge the military independent of a request for assistance. Every time MRFF raises an issue, it is in support of military members who have asked for help. Interestingly, nearly all of MRFF clients and supporters are people of faith, and the vast majority are Christians. MRFF does not seek to eliminate Christianity or any other religion from the military ranks, but only to ensure that believers of all stripes, including Christians, follow the rules set by the military itself.

Second, I’d like to respond to your comment that “it is within the right of each cadet as a citizen of the USA to… express his or her perspective as ‘freedom of speech’ on their whiteboards.” Actually, that is an entirely incorrect assumption but also a very common misconception that people have about military life. In a sense, I find it encouraging that Americans feel so confident about their own right to free expression that they assume all Americans in all situations have all of the same rights. But the truth is that, upon joining the military, each of us who signs up agrees to surrender some amount of the unfettered freedom of expression to which we were entitled as civilians. There are a number of areas where military leaders, in particular, are required to limit the expression of their personal beliefs; one of these areas is religion.

In the USAF, the guidelines about religious expression are spelled out in Air Force Instruction 1-1, which says that a leader must avoid “the actual or apparent use of their position to promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates.” In the whiteboard incident, a cadet in a leadership role posted a personal expression of his faith in a location that is part of a working squadron duty area, adjacent to his name and leadership position. By doing so, it became a public pronouncement and subject to the restrictions of AFI 1-1.

As I mentioned earlier, I am Christian myself and so, from a personal perspective, I value and appreciate the sentiment of Galatians 2:20. But I still recognize that the time, place and manner of expressing such a sentiment can be erroneous, and that was certainly the case here. It’s important to bear in mind that no one (certainly not MRFF) is trying to limit or restrict the right of any military member to hold any religious belief. I, for one, will fight just as hard for the right of a Christian to hold his beliefs as I will fight for the right of any military member to hold any personal religious belief, or to choose to believe nothing at all.

The core issue is that a level playing field must be maintained, and even more importantly everyone needs to remember that the US military is not a religious organization, either Christian or otherwise.

I hope that you find this perspective helpful. Thanks again for writing to MRFF.

Peace,

Mike Challman
Christian, USAFA graduate (’85), AF veteran, MRFF supporter


Dear (name withheld),

Mikey and Bonnie are up to their necks in correspondence right now so I’ll try to answer your letter to MRFF.

It is true that it is within the right of each cadet as a citizen of the USA to show his or her feelings and express his or her perspective as “freedom of speech” on their whiteboards. But when it comes to expressing favoritism for a particular religion it becomes unconstitutional and a direct violation of US Supreme Court ruling “Lemon Vs. Kurzman, 1971 which states: “Members of the government, including Public Education and the Armed Forces, may not favor, promote, recommend or proselytize one religion over another or religion over non-religion. It is also a violation of the UCMJ and Military regulation and instruction.

Supervisors at the Academy should have made that known to the Cadet Corps as well as permanent station personnel.

What seems like an innocent act of faith violated constitutional provision. It is important to note that religious facilities and chaplains and an opportunity to celebrate all faiths in the proper venue is made available to all personnel.

Although this may not seem to as important as some other issues, MRFF has been actively involved in addressing over 37,000 complaints from our young men and women in all branches of the military as to being subjected to command centered and coercive Christian based proselytizing. Several hundred of these complaints originated from Academy cadets, staff, faculty, permanent station and even command echelons.

MRFF’s main goal is to ensure religious freedom for each and every member of the armed forces irrespective of their faith. Proselytizing of subordinates by superiors is against civil and military law.

Rick Baker
Capt. USAF (Ret)
MRFF Volunteer.

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