So sad…

Dear Military Religious Freedom,

Nice twist on history folks… The forefathers (on literally hundreds if occasions) wrote at length on the inspiration they drew from the Judea-Christian model. Lying (or lying via omission of the truth is just the same) about it is better though…

I also really enjoyed the choice of uneducated “hate mail” you posted. Who would believe your sincerity when you put such ridiculous things on your website (not to say they are not real – I am sure they are – however, they do not help hour plight). Pretty laughable and sad that you would not have the intestinal fortitude to post intelligible emails that disagree with your “mission”. Simply a joke that one would choose those in a feeble attempt to support your seemingly disingenuous and less than righteous cause.

Ever read Dr. Seuss? “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch – you really are a heal”… I am not particularly religious, but am intelligent enough to know that striving for the love of ones enemies and striving for the treatment of ones neighbors better than the self are principles we all should strive for.

Why not use this seemingly endless amount of energy that Mikey has to: feed the poor, volunteer at a school to teach math, clean public spaces, hug a child in a oncology ward that has little or no family, reach out to a stranger that is having a seemingly “bad day”. Any one of a million other things that contribute in a positive way to the enlightenment of the human condition… No – you choose this.

Military Religious Freedom Foundation – your very name is disingenuous! Clever, but disingenuous… You have no intention of “fighting for religious freedoms”, your org only wishes for the military to be free FROM religion.

Congratulations Mikey! Thanks for carrying the flag for negativity and the foils of the human condition.

Tell you what – I will donate resources for a Negativity Display at Shaw AFB in your honor… What do you think it should consist of? How about aborted fetuses or unadulterated violence (like screen in most pop culture), both of which are COMPLETELY accepted & championed under the guise of “women’s health” by our culture and current president.

I do not suppose this will make it (or I am sure thousands like it) will make it on to your “hate mail page”… It does not support your mission to defame Christianity or those you would like to pigeon hole as Christian (or religious zealots).

Mikey… You walk a tightrope my friend… A tightrope. Please reconsider your chosen path of hate and disdain… You are seemingly allowing your negative experiences from the academy motivate your hatred of others… You need a hug brother.

By the way… The Grinch said hi and to keep up the great work!

(name withheld)

---

Dear (name withheld),

Mr. Weinstein keeps pretty busy protecting the rights of the men and women in our military, so he has asked me to respond to your message.

First, let me say it’s a relief to be able to answer a message, however sarcastic and mistaken, which is at least somewhat clearly written and mostly understandable. Yours, please understand, is the exception. The parade of uglies you noted on the website is not a carefully selected representation of what comes our way chosen to make a point, as you imply, though make a point it does. No, it is the standard incoming barrage, aimed too often at the Weinstein family personally, which is foul, vile, grotesquely stupid in most instances and laced with venom and a kind of mind-numbing ignorance of both the Christian values it claims to represent and a sickening form of jingoistic pro-American, hate-everyone-else nationalism. The site on which this junk is posted is not intended to represent a debate; it is to display the sick and twisted thinking, if one can call it that, which threatens the freedoms we too often take for granted, and exposes an encrusted view that is, sadly, widely held in our society.

So, to your charges. If you’ve read enough to know “the founders wrote at length on the inspiration they drew from the Judea-Christian model” (I’ll assume here you meant the Judeo-Christian model), you also know they stated very clearly that ours was not and was not to be a Christian nation. If the sentence that follows, in which you indicate we are lying, is meant to suggest otherwise, I urge you to read further in our nation’s history about the clearly-stated positions of our founders on this question.

Your next point deals with the sludge from the pseudo-Christians and I trust I’ve cleared that up.

You follow your confusing Dr. Seuss comment (who is a “heal” anyway?) with a statement that needs parsing. You mention “striving for the love of ones (sic) enemies.” I always thought the aspiration was to love one’s enemies, not strive for their love. No? And “the treatment of ones (sic) neighbors better than the self”? You seem to go a step farther here than to “do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Good on ya’.

But I fail to see the point you’re making there. Unless, of course, you’re pointing to the next paragraph where you set out a list of good works that “Mikey” could do to “contribute in a positive way to the enlightenment of the human condition.” Your list consists of some things he could do that you’d approve of, instead, clearly, of what he is doing, which you don’t. This gets you into some pretty deep water, as I would hope you’d understand. It assumes you know a lot about Mr. Weinstein’s life when you clearly know very little. You know about that which you’ve chosen to dislike and condemn, but you have not a clue about how he spends his time, money and energy to help others. Assuming, as you do, that his life is shy of such good works reaches, when analyzed, a degree of arrogance and preachy self-importance that I trust might embarrass you if you were to give it serious consideration.

Then the next paragraph plunges right on into the area of shameful self- embarrassment. You claim here to know, apparently by dint of some wisdom from on high, that the Weinsteins, the MRFF and all associated with this work are liars only intent on chasing religion – oh that damned religion – out of the military. That kind of access to hidden secrets, my man, must be a heavy burden to carry on your Lt. Colonel shoulders. I guess they don’t call them Light Colonel for nothing.

And what, pray tell, are “the foils of the human condition”?

Now we finally come to what it’s about, don’t we? Your sarcastic offer to establish a “Negativity Display” (a nice pun on Nativity, I’ll give you that) gets to your bottom line, doesn’t it. Oh, God, why do you all insist on being so obvious? Abortion, “unadulterated violence” (you ever wonder what adulterated violence would look like? Impure violence, there’s a thought.), pop culture, women’s issues (oh, God, those women!), and yes, our current president. Finally, we’re at the bottom line.

You know, if you’d have had the guts to say at the outset that you didn’t like what you assumed (wrongly) to be the politics of the MRFF you could have saved me a lot of time and trouble.

Oh, Lordy, as my mom used to say, you think we’re here to “defame Christianity”! Katie bar the door! The Lt. Colonel thinks we’re Christian defamers! The poor man doesn’t even understand that these pseudo-Christians defame themselves.

Colonel, Colonel, Colonel… Maybe I should just call you Joe, since it’s now clear you’re simply a self-important gas-bag. The fact is, you don’t have the slightest understanding of the work of our organization, the need to protect this nation from the ignorance and stupidity of those who want to shove their belief system down the throats of our servicemen and women, or the character of those who put themselves out in support of the U.S. Constitution because of their love of this country and their fear of what will happen to it if left in the care of hapless fools like yourself.

Oh, and should you care to know, the commanding officer of Shaw AFB understood the problem with the Nativity scene being put up by the base, as did the Pentagon, which suggested it should either be taken down or moved to the chapel grounds. It has now, per our members and supporters at Shaw, been reestablished on the chapel grounds, to everyone’s satisfaction. You see, unlike your characterization of the MRFF as anti-religious Christian defamers, we simply want things to be done appropriately, as our Constitution and the law demands.

Best,

Mike Farrell