To whom it may concern

GO TO HELL!! I am very angry with your organization and I know this is falling on deaf ears but I needed you to see my comment. THE MILITARY HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM…. You are worse than the ACLU….. Don’t military Chaplains have to be schooled in ALL religions and denominations? It looks to me like you are after publicity! It is your GOD given right to say what you wish, but to force it on other people is worse, and that is what you did! If you have been in a PX you would see not only the normal bibles but also ones that showed pride in our military by putting a unit logo on it. If you were even the least bit of smart, you would see that it never hurt anyone. Your organization is not about religious freedom it is about YOUR religious freedom. If you had a complaint about military logos on bibles then your organization should have made sure other religious items had logos or the PX had other bibles for sale without logos also.
Quit pushing your so called religious freedom on other people like our troops and let them be their selves for a change. You are doing nothing but making a name for yourself. I have more respect for the ACLU then you. The PX is not the Federal Government, it is a store that sells quality items to quality people (Our Soldiers and Sailors).

(name withheld)

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Hello (name withheld),

Rick Baker here. I’m an MRFF Volunteer and I try to help make sure that all correspondence is answered in a timely and courteous manner.

Thank you for your service to America. I’m a former Air Force officer and rescue pilot having served two combat tours in Vietnam. My brother, Jim, served in the 82nd Airborne for 22 years, mostly at Ft. Bragg North Carolina.

Actually, (name withheld), your letter would have been more effective if you had sent it to the folks that wanted to place military endorsements on the Bibles. You see, the Supreme Court held in Lemon Vs. Kurzman (1971) that government, including public education and armed forces, may not in the course of their duties recommend, elevate, prefer, promote or proselytize one religion over another or religion over non-religion. Therefore placing endorsements on Bibles would have been a violation of constitutional law and the UCMJ.

The military series of Bibles were published by B&H Publishing, a division of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention whose intent was not to provide Bibles for voluntary buyers but to lay a platform to proselytize Christianity in the Armed Forces.

Please view the short video I have included. I would be interested in your take on it. This will help you get a feel for what MRFF is really all about and that it is frankly not us who seeks to dominate the armed forces. Just so you know, MRFF doesn’t always act on its own. We are currently addressing over 29,000 complaints from our young men and women in the armed forces as to command centered and coercive Christian proselytizing.

Sincerely,

Rick Baker
USAF/MRFF

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Dear (name withheld),

First, thanks for your service to this nation, and for defending our Constitution.

Thanks also for sharing your concerns. We will do our best to address them as objectively as possible. Mr. Weinstein tries to answer as many letters as possible personally, but is of course quite busy handling this and other cases, but he was most concerned about your issues, and asked me to respond on his behalf.

Also, thanks for your kind wish for us to go to hell. We get a lot of that from your co-religionists (assuming her that you are Christian?), which is mildly amusing in that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Yusuf was said to have taught “Love thy neighbor as thyself” and other less aggressive ill-wishings.

We also get both kudos from Christians (which comprise the bulk of our clients) and hate mail from people of many different belief systems — mostly from those terming themselves Christians, of course, but also from Jews and Muslims — and even from some agnostics and atheists!

I believe the MRFF must be doing something right to get both praise and hate mail from such diverse faiths and belief systems. (Of course, most of the most virulent hate mail is from Abrahamic religions, to my knowledge — I don’t think we have gotten any from Hindus, Buddhists, or other belief systems.)

I will attempt to answer your questions. First, however, please let me give you some background by way of introduction, and some information on the MRFF to clear up some possible misconceptions.

Most of the MRFF 28,000-plus clients and volunteers are veterans, often from multi-generational service families, and include active, reserve, and retired, from all branches of the US Armed Forces, holding ranks from enlisted through flag officer, with MOSs in all fields, including combat arms, representing eras from WW II, Korea, Viet Nam, on through Gulf I, and the present GWOT.

MRFF members’ awards and decorations are numerous, and include the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star w/ V, the Silver Star, the Army, Navy, and AF Crosses, and one Medal of Honor.

For example, my own family has a long history of US service, which includes 5 generations of Marines, as well as other branches. My thrice-great grandfather fought in the Revolution and my great-grandfather fought in the Civil War (66th OVI). We also had representatives in WW I, WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf I and the GWOT, as well as most of the smaller wars and conflicts.

My own service included close personal ground combat in several of the major operations in Vietnam in 1967 and 19 68, including Operation Scotland (Khe Sanh), before, during, and after the Tet 1968 assault and the Siege, and in the Hue-Phu Bai area both before and after Tet 1968.

I later lost a limb which unfortunately ended my active career, but I subsequently went on to teach in the USMC JROTC program for several years, before using my GI Bill to attain a BA in history and later a Master’s degree and teaching credential, after which I taught K-12 and Adult education at a number of levels in public and private schools, including at-risk inner city, and in the Neglected and Abused home, Juvenile Hall, and incarcerated adults in medium and high-security jails.

Mr. Weinstein is also a veteran, being an Honor Graduate of the USAF Academy, and served for 10 years a JAG officer, including service in the Reagan White House as a Special Counsel. His family has over three generations of service that include distinguished service academy graduates, and members of the US Armed Forces. His nephew (a Christian) is a GYSGT in the USMC in a Combat Arms MOS, who recently returned from another tour in the Sand Box. He is also a member of and supporter of the MRFF.

I think you might therefore agree that we are very familiar with the nature of the military services.

We are also very familiar with the Constitution, which is the focus of our mission. The MRFF supports the Constitutionally and legally mandated requirement that there will be no established religion (i.e. no official state religion), and no religious test for office, as clearly intended by the Founders both in their words and documents, and as supported by subsequent decisions of US courts through the Supreme Court.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . ” (1st Amendment)

“. . . no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” (Article VI, Section III)

The MRFF is committed to ensuring that this boundary between church and state is maintained, and that the Constitutional rights to freedom of conscience for all Americans (particularly our servicemen and women) are not violated, and that they are not subjected to unwanted proselytization by any religious group whatsoever.

MRFF’s Position on Faith

Neither Mr. Weinstein nor the MRFF are “for” or “against” Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any other religion. On the contrary, as the name implies, the MRFF supports religious freedom and pluralism for service personnel of all faiths (or none), in accordance with the US Constitution and public law. Our founder, members, and supporters include people of many different faiths and belief systems, as well as free-thinkers and skeptics.

Mr. Weinstein, the founder of the MRFF, is of Jewish heritage, and his family circle of blended faiths includes observant Christians.

The MRFF staff is approximately 75% Christian (mainly Protestant, followed by Catholics), 15% Jewish, and 10% other.

While we have many people of faith among us, we are (like the US itself) secular in nature, and we defend all US service personnel of whatever faith (or none) against violations of their Constitutional rights to freedom of conscience.

Who MRFF Represents, and Why

All MRFF cases are filed because of complaints brought by active duty, reserve, or retired service personnel or employees of DoD or other military agencies.

Currently, 96% of the over 28,000 MRFF cases are brought on behalf of professing Christians, (mainly Protestants), followed by Catholics (including Roman and Eastern Orthodox).

The 4% balance of cases includes Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs, as well as Pagans (and at least one “Jedi Knight”), as well as some atheists, agnostics, and other free-thinkers.

The great preponderance of our cases involve abuses of authority and violations of the Constitutional guarantees of freedom of conscience by a specific sub-set of aggressive radicals who style themselves “Christians” and who are becoming increasingly entrenched and powerful in the military in all braches and MOSs at ranks up to and including flag officer ranks. They are known by a number of names, but we use the generic term of one of the main branches (“Dominionists”) for convenience. I attach some specifics re: Dominionism below.

In some recent cases, we opposed the placing of US Armed forces, DoD, or Pentagon crest (or that of any other branch of the military or government), which is a CLEAR violation of the First Amendment, in that it wrongly implies government or military sponsorship of religion. US law and judicial decisions have expressly forbade any such show of “favoritism, preference, or elevation of any religion.”

As to your specific concerns:

First, a correction — our right to freedom of conscience and free speech are not “God-given” — they are mandated in the Constitution, which does not mention any deity or specific religion in the entire document. The only references to religion are (as mentioned above) to forbid the establishment of any religion (that includes Christianity) and to guarantee one’s freedom to exercise (or not to exercise) the religion of one’s choice.

In the case of the marked bibles, they were in violation of both the US Constitution (which explicitly forbids the establishment of ANY religion — Mr. Weinstein’s, mine, yours, or anyone else’s), and of public law, specifically (as our colleague, SGT Chalker so ably put it):

> “The Defense Department and Military Seals are protected by law and reserved for official use only. Under U.S. Code Title 18, Section 506, unauthorized use of the Seals may include, but is not limited to commercial, marketing, advertising or promotion use by any non-government entity and is punishable.”
>
> Here is the law: http://trac.syr.edu/laws/18/18USC00506.html
>
> It was illegal for this company to use the service seals to market their Bibles. They can still sell Bibles and you can buy as many of them as you like. Nobody is threatening your religious freedom by removing the official seal. An official seal implies official endorsement, and the Constitution prohibits government establishment of religion. That means they can’t create a state church or show favoritism to some beliefs over others. Allowing these Bible manufacturers to break the law was an unconstitutional endorsement of your belief over the beliefs of other people. You have every right to believe what you want, but you most certainly do NOT have the right to have government endorsement of your belief over others.

As to the PX not being the Federal Government – it most certainly is a part of the Federal Government, being set up by it, and maintained at least partially by tax dollars. If you think it isn’t, try removing all tax support (including its tax free status) and see how long the PX lasts.

As to the chaplains being trained in tolerance for all religions, and “religious freedom” in the military — that is indeed the way things are supposed to be — but despite that, we have had, as mentioned over 28,000 cases in the last 7 years of service members (mainly Christian) whose religious freedoms were being abused, mainly by members of the group known for convenience as Dominionists. (See above and below for details.)

To us that indicates a clear problem, and the growing number of cases represents a problem that is on the rise.

Whereas in my time in the USMC (1960s-70s), we had few overt instances of abuse (at least in my units), the problem has increased by orders of magnitude as these zealots have gained power and authority in the military and in the government. They are now a force to be reckoned with, and are actively and often openly pushing their agenda.

I hope that this information will help you to better understand the nature of the MRFF and the nature of the struggle we are waging against a large and growing enemy with deep pockets and strong political and economic backing, and who constitute a far greater and more urgent threat to the Republic than a handful of rag-tag radical Islamic fundamentalists either here or elsewhere.

Again, thanks for writing us with your concerns.

I remain, sir,

Semper Fidelis,

F. J. Taylor
USMC (Ret.)

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