No gifts at Christmas???/

Dear Mr. Weinstein,
You misunderstand. Our founding fathers wanted us to have freedom to practice our faith/religion. Not to prevent us from giving expression to it.
How about giving poor, disadvantaged children a Hanukkah Gift, a gift from the Christ Child, and maybe the Muslims will get jealous and give a gift in honor of Allah. That is true freedom.
I feel sad for a person who thinks prevents another from a good he has every right to because they are so wounded.
I’ll pray for you
Shalom,
(name withheld)

Hi (name withheld),

Thank you for contacting the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) with your concerns about Operation Christmas Child. When you email info@ it goes to Mikey, the staff, the Board and the Advisory Board.

I’m sorry for the delay on getting back to you but as you can imagine, we are swamped with emails.

Mikey may be Jewish but there are many mainline Christians that volunteer with MRFF. I am one of them and I am an ordained minister in the Assemblies of God. Also, the California Council of Churches IMPACT with 5,500 churches supports us besides many individual churches, ministers and lay people. We are the most ardent supporter of the Constitution and the separation of church and state under the articles within it. We also have many active and retired soldiers from all branches of the military. Other distinguished military include –

A Lt Col (Ret) 25 year veteran of the Air Force who served as an ICBM crewmember

A former Navy Seal

A Retired brigadier general

A Naval Academy graduate with a 36 year career in the United States Air Force, he also served a three-year assignment as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first to hold that position.

A former Chaplain in the United States Air Force

A retired U.S. Air Force Major General, recently Deputy Director, Center for Special Operations, U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida

A retired Air Force Brigadier General – a Master Navigator

A military aviator who possesses both Senior Command Air Force wings and aircraft carrier qualified Naval Aviator wings, in addition to having been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism in combat during Operation Desert Storm.

If anyone knows the proper place of the Constitution in the military it is the above mentioned individuals.

When we received direct complaints from 120 Cadets and 12 Chaplains at the USAFA and 2 Muslims families, we had to act and force them to conform to Chief of Staff for the Air Force – Gen. Norton Schwartz – memorandum which follows-

MEMORANDUM FOR ALMAJCOM-FOA-DRU/CC

FROM: HQ USAF/CC
1670 Air Force Pentagon
Washington, DC 20330-1670

SUBJECT: Maintaining Government Neutrality Regarding Religion

Leaders at all levels must balance Constitutional protections for an individual’s free exercise of religion or other personal beliefs and its prohibition against governmental establishment of religion. For example, they must avoid the actual or apparent use of their position to promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates or to extend preferential treatment for any religion. Commanders or supervisors who engage in such behavior may cause members to doubt their impartiality and objectivity. The potential result is a degradation of the unit’s morale, good order, and discipline.

Chaplain Corps programs, including activities such as religious studies, faith sharing, and prayer meetings, are vital to commanders’ support of individual Airmen’s needs and provide opportunities for the free exercise of religion. Although commanders are responsible for these programs they must refrain from appearing to officially endorse religion generally or any particular religion. Therefore, I expect chaplains, not commanders, to notify Airmen of Chaplain Corps programs.

Our chaplains are trained to provide advice to leadership on matters related to the free exercise of religion and to help commanders care for all of their people, regardless of their beliefs. If you have concerns involving the preservation of government neutrality regarding religious beliefs, consult with your chaplain and staff judge advocate before you act.

NORTON A. SCHWARTZ
General, USAF
Chief of Staff
Part of the article form the Gazette-

The Gazette –

“The academy, which initially stood by its promotion of the charity, changed its tune Thursday evening, with an email to cadets that retracted an earlier missive asking for help with the program. The academy’s commandant of cadets Brig. Gen. Richard Clark called Weinstein Thursday with an apology.
“We agree that it was inappropriate,” said Lt. Col John Bryan, an academy spokesman.
The project has been handed over to the academy’s chaplains, who can legally take part and recruit support for religious endeavors.”
Brig. Gen. Richard Clark even admitted that it was inappropriate (illegal) and the academy’s Chaplains are now in charge, as they should be.

“Commanders have put “religious respect” training in place. In September, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz issued a memo to commanders that told them to avoid mixing religion with theirmilitary roles.
They must refrain from appearing to officially endorse religion generally or any particular religion,” Schwartz wrote.”
We are not trying to take Christmas presents away from the children. If MRFF was attempting to do that I wouldn’t be volunteering for them. We are just trying to put religion and Operation Christmas Child back where it belongs – in the hands of the Chaplains.
I hope this clarifies what seems to be perceived as an attack on Christmas. We are more than grateful that those in charge at the USAFA have seen the illegality of their original position and are now adhering to Gen. Schwartz’s memo.
Prayers are always welcome.
Pastor Joan