Re:

If all you have to do is whine about military insignia on bibles you must be a bunch of really bored useless drones. People like you make my roids itch.

---

(name withheld)!

We are not bored at MRFF. Sometimes a little scared of the Dominionist Christians out there who would do great harm to anyone who would disagree with their frightening form of worship.

We try to protect our young men and women in the armed forces from those who would violate their constitutional right to freedom of religion ( a religion of their choice, not one which is foisted on them.)

Constitutional provision is violated when the government, including the armed forces, promotes or recommends one religion over another or religion over non-religion.

You wouldn’t want a particular religion forced onto your kids would you?

That’s what we are all about protecting your kids and anyone’s who fall afoul of religious zealots in the military.

Oh, and a little Preparation H ought to handle those itchy ‘roids for you. LOL

Rick Baker
MRFF Volunteer and
Former Combat Rescue Pilot, USAF

---

Dear (name withheld),

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

As a Christian (Episcopalian in fact) volunteer for MRFF, I am not offended but truly pissed off by the U.S. Military’s decision to selectively endorse a version of the Bible that I find to be a figment of the collective imaginations of a selective group of clowns who were selected based on the ulterior motives of a tiny minority of the Christian faith:
Around 1998, the Holman Bible Publishers (LifeWay Christian Resources) assembled an international, interdenominational team of 100 scholars and proofreaders, all of whom were committed to biblical inerrancy. The translation committee sought to strike a balance between the two prevailing philosophies of Bible translation: formal equivalence (literal, “word-for-word”, etc.) and dynamic or functional equivalence (“thought-for-thought”). The translators called this balance “optimal equivalence.”
I don’t personally give a damn if they called their selective translation a ‘Doughnut’ or if your “roids itch”. However, when the government in the form of the U.S. Military begins to dole out endorsements for one biblical translation over another, or one religious text over another, then I give a big damn.

The U.S. Military or any government entity has essentially two options to comply with the U.S. Constitution in this matter:
1) Remove endorsement of ALL religious texts.
2) Provide equal endorsement and service branch seal use by all recognized religious texts (example: http://www.sacred-texts.com/).
The U.S. Military service branches chose the sane option. I’m sure they did this because they knew that they would have received just as much support from mental midgets such as yourself when they allowed their branch emblems to be slapped on religious texts such as the Wiccan ‘Book of Shadows’ or L. Ron Hubbard’s (Scientology) ‘Dianetics’.

Although I have never served in the military, I have been in enough BXs and PXs to realize that the Service Branch Emblems are sold individually in many forms like self adhesive stickers. As such, I believe the intelligent men and women that make up our exceptional family of military service members, active duty and veteran alike, can figure out how to attach their service branch affiliation to their personally chosen religious text. If there is some military regulation, directive, or section of the UCMJ that would prohibit individual service members from doing this, then I stand corrected and my point that the U.S. Military chose the sane option in this matter is made that much stronger.

My belief in Christ and his teachings (i.e. faith) is not so feeble as to make me feel the need to prop up my Christian faith and heritage with government approved crutches. To do so as a patriotic American would be weak willed and would come at the expense of my duty to protect and defend my Constitution and the secular democratic republic it established.

If you wish to submit another intellectually stimulating and ‘non-useless drone’ like email for our further consideration, I’m sure I can find an eight year old on summer vacation who can engage you at a sufficient intellectual level.

Bless your heart (and your roids),
Andy Kasehagen, MRFF volunteer