Tragic

To Whom it May Concern:

It is tragic that a group like yours has completely misconstrued the constitution as you have. The constitution has never and does not call for a religion free state. Rather it prescribes the right of every person, of whatever faith, even Christians, to practice their own religion. This freedom is not sacrificed by entering into the United States Air Force Academy, or any other U.S. military service. Rather, entering into military service is entering into a long tradition of preserving that right.

The fact that your group spends money on television in order to try to get a military academy to deny these basic rights is tragic indeed. It tells me that you are a “non-tolerance” group. In fact, the add states “we won’t tolerate it.” So your group, I must assume, is no different than any other non-tolerance group, i.e. KKK, radicalized Muslims, etc.

The right to practice religion, be it Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or yes, even Christianity, is preserved in the constitution. If, in fact, you do not appreciate that freedom, there are many other countries for you to live in that will agree with your non-tolerance policy.

(name withheld)

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Dear (name withheld),

As he is fully occupied in trying to protect the religious freedom of the USAFA cadets and other men and women in our military, Mr. Weinstein has asked me to respond to your message.

I suspect Mr. Weinstein asked me to write because your letter, unlike so many of the ugly, hate-filled rants we receive, indicates both an operating intelligence and what I hope is only a simple misunderstanding.

There is a tragedy here, as you suggest, but it is that you and so many others have so completely misunderstood, or to use your word, ‘misconstrued’ the situation. We are in agreement that our Constitution “does not call for a religion-free state.” We have never claimed it did. What it calls for is the space for our citizens to be free to believe as they will, practice whatever faith they wish and subscribe to the religion of their choice or to no religion at all. The important point some seem to have missed is that it also calls for a separation of church and state so there can be no implication of governmental favor of one faith, one religion, or one belief system over another.

It is to protect the right of our servicemen and women to the belief or non-belief of their choice that the MRFF insists that the U.S. military and its academies, as arms of the U.S. Government, not be involved in or support the proselytizing of one faith or belief system over another. That’s the sum and substance of it. The fact that many have tried to paint our position as being anti-Christian or anti-religion seems to have succeeded in confusing some good people like yourself.

We do not, as you suggest, attempt “to get a military academy to deny these basic rights.” In fact, our whole purpose is to protect those basic rights by protecting the cadets, in this case, from the fundamentalist Christian proselytizing that is currently going on at the USAFA. We also oppose the same behavior in other parts of the military.

In terms of the notion of “non-tolerance,” please don’t take it out of context. The MRFF will not tolerate the intentional proselytizing of cadets to a particular belief system by their superiors, period. To state that we will not tolerate forced proselytizing cannot fairly be equated with the bigotry of the KKK, which was preaching hate-filled propaganda and attempting to promote another twisted form of Christianity, as I assume you know.

You state that “The right to practice religion, be it Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or yes, even Christianity, is preserved in the constitution” and we agree completely. The thousands of men and women in the military who are our members and supporters believe their right to their faith or non-belief is being protected by our watchfulness. I think if you’d go to the trouble of checking out our mission statement on the MRFF website, you’d find that rather than condemning our work you should be supporting it.

Thanks for your message. I hope this calms your fears.

Best,

Mike Farrell