Air Force Decision

Published On: August 3, 2011|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|0 Comments|

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Hi Chris,

This is concerning your pressing of the Air Force Chaplains to remove bible passages from their course. I would like to know why you all are dragging your feet and wasting you time with this small stuff. Just go for the jugular already. sue the military over the very existence of Chaplains themselves. There is no room for faith or religion in the armed forces because it offends the extreme minority. Are Chaplains not employees of the government? Are they not the most despicable example of the mixture of church and state it its very core? As long as there are military Chaplains, there is government endorsed religion and you all have failed.

I say get to it already. Do it and do it now. Get it over with already. This bit by bit crap is a total waste of everyone’s time and resources.

After all, how dare most people believe differently =han you and your organization? I say you should accelerate the litigation process so you can hurry up and force everyone to believe as you do. After all, that’s the core mission of your organization. Am I ill informed?

(name withheld)

Thank you for your time.


Hi (name withheld)

I’ve been asked to respond to you.

Thank you for contacting the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) with your concerns over military Chaplains. We are more than happy to answer any questions you have and in doing so; hope to clarify our position regarding the religious atmosphere in the military, especially at the Air Force Academy.

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. Many of the people involved with MRFF are military veterans. Some of them, including Mikey, have been the object of beatings, verbal abuse, withholding of advancements, drummed out of the military on false charges and subject to the harshest religious proselytizing ever imaginable.

First and foremost, we are not anti-Christian. In fact, there are many mainline Christians that volunteer with the MRFF. I am one of them and am also an ordained minister in the Assemblies of God. What we are against is the forced, in your face, proselytizing by the Dominionist Christians who believe our soldiers should be “Warriors for Christ” and every war a “crusade.” Painted on the side of a Bradley tank in Iraq was “Jesus killed Mohammed” in Arabic. Mosques in Samarra were spray painted with crosses. Bibles are given out in Iraq and Afghanistan against military law. No wonder they hate us even more because we are signaling that we are fighting a religious war.

The MRFF believes that any person who wants to don the uniform of the US military to fight for our freedoms under the Constitution, has that right no matter what religion they practice or if they practice no religion at all.

Currently the MRFF is helping over 22,000 soldiers who have reached out to us to help them with the unwanted religious proselytizing they are being forced to endure. They have tried the chain-of-command to no avail because those in command, all the way up to the Pentagon, are of the same belief. There is no one else to turn to but the MRFF.

We receive many letters from soldiers that would break your heart if you could read them. The Catholics, Protestants, Methodists, etc. are being told that they are not the “right kind” of Christian and will ‘burn in the lake of fire for all eternity” unless they are “born again” and join their fundamentalist/evangelical/dominionist church. Those soldiers that do not want to attend events put on by Chaplains or attend church are confined to their barracks, can’t use their cell phones, watch TV or use the internet, instead of free time. They must do menial jobs such as cleaning the bathrooms. They are being unfairly punished because they would not repent of their own personal belief system for a more extreme one. One letter we received was from a soldier whose buddy was contemplating suicide because he couldn’t take the proselytizing anymore. When I hear on the news that another soldier committed suicide I wonder if this could be the reason.

Dominionists want to destroy our government and place it under the Mosaic Laws of the Old Testament. They want to destroy every department in our government starting with the Department of Education. The most egregious act of this dominionist sect has been playing out on our news for months…the default debate. NEVER in the history of raising our debt ceiling were there EVER any strings attached. Reagan did it 18 times and Bush 7 times. Who are responsible for this? Those elected by the Tea Party. Boehner even said that there were those who WANTED us to default on our obligations. The Tea Party politicians are part of and were elected by these right wing/dominionist Republicans. This is just the beginning of what is in store for us. How do I know? I was part of this group for 30 years and walked away from it 8 years ago. I know their end game and I now expose it.

We have no problem with diverse Chaplains in the military. We understand the spiritual need of those that practice their faith. But those Chaplains of different faiths have been overrun and pushed aside in favor of “the right kind” of Christianity. Even some Chaplains have contacted us because they have been unable to perform their duties within their chosen church affiliation. Again, this is what we fight for…religious freedom for ALL religions.

Now, on to the Power Point presentation. You will notice that a lot of the quotes are in the Old Testament. The military has to live in the Old Testament to justify their wars.

In the Old Testament God was establishing the Jewish race as His “chosen” people. There were many battles won and territories taken. It soon became apparent that the God of the Jews was a mighty God and blessed His people. Modern day fundamental/evangelical/dominionist Christians have taken on the mantle of the “chosen.” They believe God has cast aside His people in favor of this type of Christianity which is unbiblical.

The New Testament is about Jesus and the birth of Christianity. There is a dramatic change in how God wants his people to behave. There is not one sentence where Jesus says to make war and kill. There is no longer to be an eye for an eye but the turning of the cheek (Matthew 5:38-39), to love your enemies and pray for them (Matthew 5:44) and to be peace makers.

As an ordained minister I fight against the distortion of scripture that has been taken out of context to fit an agenda by these dominionists. They don’t tell the whole story only bits and pieces. The perfect example is David. “David is a warrior and also a man after God’s own heart.” This is stringing two separate ideas together to form one. Yes, David was a warrior but the “after God’s own heart” means that David loved to read the OT scriptures, he repented of his sins and asked forgiveness, he constantly prayed and always praised God jubilantly. This is what God enjoys in His heart. When David wanted to build a temple to God to place the Ark of the Covenant in it, God said a profound “no.” ” But God said unto me, Thou shalt not build an house for my name, because thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood.” (I Chronicles 28:3) Another is “John the Baptist doesn’t tell the Roman soldiers to leave the army before being baptized.” John also doesn’t tell the poor to get a job first because there are no conditions attached.

The Power Point presentation is nothing more than cherry picking scripture to justify war. This has no place in our military seeing as there are many diverse religions being practiced.

We are not out to destroy Christianity but to put it in its proper place in the military…up to the individual. It is not to be used to justify wars. It is not to be used as a mandate from God to go nuke a country and kill many innocent people. It is not to be used to brainwash our soldiers in thinking they are doing God’s will. It is not to be used as a slogan as the keys on the nuclear warheads are being turned to “Praise you Jesus” the same way the extreme Muslims use “Praise be to Allah.” We fight for our freedoms under the Constitution not the bible. This is what we fight for.

Please visit www.militaryreligiousfreedom.com and check us out. You will see exactly who we are and that we fight for the freedoms of all religions.

Best regards,
Pastor Joan

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