Travis Nativity

Dear Military Religious Freedom Foundation,

I can appreciate that you are only acting upon your sincere belief that your interpretation of the First Amendment is correct, but until SCOTUS settles the matter once and for all… yours is but a minority opinion.

Your platform rides a wave of political correctness instead of one that is based on fundamental truth. Which is to say, a truth that is self-evident. You are against the government trying to force a belief or religion upon you but have no problem trying to force the majority to believe as you do. With regard to the United States as we know it, there is much more harm done by tearing down a belief system than there is in just letting it be. People here are too keenly aware of their freedom, and they won’t let someone come along and tell them they must worship a singular religion, as opposed to allowing them to express their own religious beliefs. The establishment clause was written to protect religious freedom not hinder it. As long as the government passes no law forcing you to believe one way or another and doesn’t punish you for your belief then your argument is void. And I feel that you cannot see the difference and possibly don’t want to. Like most “Freedom” based organizations today their name is but a ruse to hide their real intention and this gives them and added push by the PC crowd. But such a victory is short lived. Telling people they must not worship as they wish might get you the opposite result and therefore you may inadvertently be sabotaging your own argument, but I guess that’s a risk you are willing to take.

People won’t stand for a dictatorship either way, unless it comes through a most catastrophic turn of events. And if so, whatever system was in place previously wouldn’t matter anyhow. If your way is a superior belief, then time will tell. Every generation thinks they are more enlightened than the last and they somehow know the “real” truth or interpretation of a given thing. If Christianity is supremely flawed then it will peter-out on it’s own witout any help from you. But history tells us that Christianity has endured and will endure extreme adversity. And if you think Empirical Truth can fill the void in a human soul then you don’t know human nature very well.

(name withheld)

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Hi (name withheld),

My name is Rick Baker and I’m a long time supporter of MRFF and a past volunteer.

I saw a copy of your letter to Mikey and had a few thoughts relative to it. I hope you don’t mind me writing to you.

It is not MRFF’s interpretation of the First Amendment that is in the minority. There are many who have little or no idea what has transpired RE: The Constitution” in the long history of our courts. MRFF only subscribes to settled law concerning these matters. If you were to google “Supreme Court Decisions on the separation of church and state” you would find a number of important and binding decisions relative to the First Amendment that have been made a part thereof. Among those is a significant ruling (Lemon Vs.Kurzman 1971) which has come to be known as the Lemon Test. It is a s follows.

The government’s action must have a secular legislative purpose;
The government’s action must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion;
The government’s action must not result in an “excessive government entanglement” with religion.

Clearly the Nativity Scene at Travis is in violation of number one and two.

In addition, the Supreme Court has held that government officials, including the armed forces, may not advance, elevate, recommend, prefer or proselytize particular religions over others or religion over non-religion. The Nativity scene and Menorah do, in fact, endorse specific religious belief to the exclusion of all others.

It is not MRFF’s goal to have people believe as they do. MRFF requires only that the constitution, in it’s present form and context, including all decisions and rulings of the Supreme Court, be upheld.

I’m afraid you are riding a platform of religious correctness, no doubt generated by years of favored treatment of Christianity primarily due to its majority.

MRFF is not engaged in nor do they aspire to any dictatorship. They merely represent the law that currently guides religion’s role in government. As mentioned above it appears many of our government officials and military commanders are engaged in dictating that role to their members and general public.

It is important to know that Christianity, for all its saving graces, remains a religion in which certain operatives aspire, as a tenet of their belief, to the conversion of world populations and the not very nice treatment of those who decline. I believe the term is “Cast into the lake of fire.”

In this pursuit many heinous crimes have been committed in Jesus name ranging from the Crusades, Genocides, Pogroms, Witch Hunts and other egregious acts. Although mainstream Christianity remains moderate there is a growing sect of Christianity known as “Dominion Christianity or Christian Reconstructionism.” It is this group and its adherents in the military that MRFF has been battling for some time.

MRFF is currently addressing over 26,000 client case complaints from our young men and women, service wide, including our service academies. Over 96% of this group are self-identified Christians who are being told that they are not “Christian enough.” This indicates to me a desire on the part of extremists to upgrade existing Christian personnel to higher degree of religious obedience and eventually an all-Christian fighting force. A growing number of Dominionists and their supplicants have been provided proximity to weapons of immense destructive power and opportunity to deploy them.

MRFF is not an alarmist organization but given the vast number of incident reports relating to religious improprieties, has found it necessary to illustrate, highlight and report to authorities the more egregious efforts to achieve Christian dominance in the armed forces or effect legal actions to curb them.

MRFF sees no sign of Christian Dominion “petering out” nor any indication that the armed forces is, by and large, taking their constitutional duties as seriously as they should.

I am a former Air Force Officer and rescue pilot with two tours of duty in Vietnam. I cherish my service to America and will not stand for command centered and coercive Christian proselytizing or displays of religious preference in our military. According to MRFF complaint lists there are thousands seeking redress and assistance but if there were only one young Soldier, Airman, Sailor, Marine, Coastguardsman, National Guard, Reservist or Cadet in the grip of Christian supremacist commanders, MRFF would turn that unit upside down legally until such time as good order and discipline of a constitutional nature was restored. Factually, they have already done that.

Thankfully, we have been instructed by one of America’s greatest men as to the dangers of the tyranny of the majority. Jefferson pointed this out and it is as dangerous today as it has ever been.

Religious freedom is not for Christians only but includes all faiths and non-belief systems which are protected from undue pressures of religious majority parties to affect their beliefs. America is a secular nation in which all religions may flourish but none dominate.

I appreciate your opinions and hope only to bring some new information to them.

Rick Baker
Colorado Springs