Question about your organization

Dear Military Religious Freedom Foundation,

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is the sole nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantee of both freedom of religion and freedom from religion, to which they and all Americans are entitled.

If your organization is supposed to guarantee the freedom of religion for military members why do you do everything you can to obliterate the freedom of religion forChristians. Your attack on the Air Force Academy because they want to allow cadets to choose to give Christmas gifts to poor children around the world is absolutely sickening. No one is forcing cadets to give to this organization! Your atheistic organization is taking away the choice for the cadets because you hate Franklin Graham and the work that he does. You are taking away the freedom that you say your organization protects. I am a Christian and I am sick of my freedom being taken away by atheistic organizations like yours. If you really do respect religious freedom then leave Christians alone. You will never by happy with that because what your organization wants is no religion, no God, only atheistic ‘religion’ in the public square. Why won’t you leave people to choose what they want to believe instead of taking that choice away?

I hope your current campaign of intimidation against the Air Force Academy to take away cadets’ religious freedom is unsuccessful. If it is successful, I am very sorry for the many children who would have had the joy of receiving gifts from the cadets whom you are taking religious freedoms from.

(name withheld)

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Dear (name withheld),

Mikey has read and asked me to respond to your email.

I’ll begin with the complete factual inaccuracy of the assumptions and allegations contained in your email. In regards to your reference to Operation Christmas Child, you should be aware that it continues unabated at the US Air Force Academy simply with the lead change as requested by MRFF from USAFA’s Command Structure to its Chaplain Corps. A change by the way, requested by MRFF, in order to follow clear direction recently ordered by the Air Force Chief of Staff (http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2011/09/air-force-schwartz-warns-commanders-on-religious-programs-091611/). Confirmation of this can be seen in this USAFA press release:

Friday, November 4, 2011

Academy responds to cadet community project — Community project will continue, led by Academy Chaplains

http://www.usafa.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123278819

Assumptions and accusations based on factual ignorance reveal pre-conceptions and nothing else. This may create a cheap anger driven adrenaline thrill, but accomplishes nothing. As a proud Christian volunteer with MRFF, I find the easy willingness of many like you to bear false witness against Mikey or MRFF to be quite troubling.

The clear Missionary/Proselytizing purpose of OCC is discussed freely in the following video produced by Samaritan’s Purse; ‘The Greatest Journey’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X1MNZvED3mw. If this one video by the parent organization of OCC is not enough for you to see the clear and unambiguous proselytizing purposes of OCC, please feel free to review the entire Samaritan’s Purse YouTube Video Channel located at http://www.youtube.com/user/SamaritansPurseVideo. This is obviously a program best administered/supported through the Chaplain Corps, not within the chain of command.

To be clear, MRFF doesn’t want to “Grinch” some toys out of the hands of children and, in fact, has engaged in several toy drives itself. Rather, through its assertions to the academy and other military commands, MRFF is trying to look out for children by assuring the most powerful military in the world doesn’t promote or disparage any religion, which, as history has shown us, can lead to horrific consequences for those, including children, who don’t belong to the “preferred” religion.

You raise questions not only of my organization, but cast aspersions on my Christian faith and the faith of my fellow Christian volunteers for MRFF. I can only assume you feel some form of superiority to us, granted by God maybe (?), to pass such judgment without factual basis. I suggest you review the Gospel according to St. Matthew regarding the non-factual judgment of others.

To claim your freedoms are being taken away when MRFF objects to government sponsorship of your faith reflects poorly on your understanding of our Constitutional guarantees of freedom. As a Christian in the United States, I neither need nor desire government involvement in my faith, no matter how supposedly innocuous or at any level. If you truly are Christian, a defender of the secular democratic republic established in the Constitution, or both as I am, I trust you will reflect upon the false accusations put forward in your email.

Your consideration of this information is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Andy Kasehagen