I am praying for you that you will hear the message of love.

Dear MRFF,

As a former Air Force Doctor and the father of children that have each spent a year in Israel to support the country of Israel I want to let you know that I am praying for you and your group.

I think you are taking advantage of your ring number to push your view of religious freedom or better, freedom from religion, at the Air Force Academy.

I was disappointed when my son did not apply to the Air Force Academy, now I am glad he went to secular school where he could express his religious thoughts without fear of repercussions.

I have visited Russia and am glad I live in a country that states we have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.

I am praying for you that you will hear the message of love and come to the same viewpoint.

(name withheld)

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Dear (name withheld),

As another “former Air Force Doctor”, I have been asked to respond to your email. Mr. Weinstein is more than busy protecting the religious rights of individuals in the military, and these days, that mostly means making sure one self-proclaimed Christian doesn’t use rank and office to tell others they are somehow less, including less Christian, for not making sure they push their Christianity in the faces of everyone else.

Did you, as an Air Force doctor, make all your patients pray with you? Did you refuse to care for patients who weren’t Christian, or those who weren’t the same sort of Christian as you? Did you require a religious test of your patients in the military, before deciding who got what care? And did you similarly treat the military and civilian personnel working around and with you?

Well, there are those who do. I am the direct victim of one, and I was one of many. My hospital commander went so far as to attend a Pentagon meeting, make a motion requiring all superiors to investigate the “spirituality” — his code word for religion — of all subordinates before writing up their annual evaluations, and made the motion pass.

It was clearly his intention that religion be part of the grade, and if one’s religion wasn’t up to his standard, he was going to make it reason for separation, one way or another. Would you really want your children serving in such a military? Really?

I, too, have been to Israel, and my family is from Russia/Ukraine. I am Jewish. He did not stop at ousting me from the military, and for that reason, I ask that you respect my anonymity, here. I am still a target, just as though this were the McCarthy era.

Before I go, though, allow me to make one more point: The religious extremists Mikey Weinstein finds himself up against have made it publicly clear that they put God and Jesus first, family second, Constitution — at best — third. To appreciate how extreme they are, google “seven mountains” and “Dominionist.” I fear that one day, one of these Dominionists will awaken from a dream, or his pastor/preacher will, saying he has been specially chosen to start Armageddon. What do you think he will do: Ask up the chain of command for permission, or reach out to other Dominionists in the ranks? Remember those live nuclear warheads “accidentally” flown from Minot AFB to Barksdale AFB, a couple short years after 9/11? Remember the nuclear detonators found in Taiwan, six months later? The detonators had been “accidentally” shipped there two years before — very shortly after 9/11. Are you putting this together? I am, and it concerns me greatly.

Just google “Jesus loves nukes.” I’m not kidding. I couldn’t be more serious.

Mikey is not only fighting to defend the religious rights of individuals in the military. He is fighting to protect the military members deployed to Muslim countries and handed “Jesus rifles” (google that, too), guaranteed to cause locals to see us as Crusaders and inspire terrorist retaliation. As an officer, you must know the important of appearances, and the appearance that we are a Christian force invading a Muslim country and training their military/police on Jesus rifles doesn’t look good. Add my concern, above, to make three aspects of this issue you might not have considered.

I could go on. You might not have personally noticed this issue in the military, but perhaps, now, you will. You can’t see the forest for the trees, if you don’t know the trees are the forest.

Signed,
A staunch MRFF supporter

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hear you loud and clear.
As a doctor at Ellsworth I was thrilled by the quality of the doctors I worked with, both medically and as people.
With friends and classmates that have served at other bases, they tell a similar story of excellent doctors and people.

I am very disappointed to hear that does not reflect your experience.

Working for a secular group now, I again work with some excellent people but not as consistently as in the AF.
I have also had the opportunity to work with groups in Belize, Honduras, Haiti, Togo, Kenya, Jordan, and India.

Having said that, in what ever location I work, secular, public/military, or humanitarian/religious, I appreciate the opportunity to discuss religious views and other issues.

I have found it interesting that Muslims in the different countries I have visited are more willing to sit down and discuss religion with me then people in the US.

I enjoy a good conversation, especially when we can agree to disagree.

The current debate at the AF Academy appears to be taking away people’s right to express their views.
It has nothing to do with imposing their viewpoint on others.

You might find it interesting that the context of the verse that started this issue was one Jew talking to another Jew. (Paul (Saul of Tarsus) confronting Peter)
(I have put the verse and the context at the end of the email.)

I do not know how long ago the events you mentioned from your AF career took place, but it sounds from the hurt, as if it was yesterday.

I like to ask people spiritual questions as it helps me know where they are coming from. (and also what dietary/living recommendations I should make)

I do ask people if they would like me to pray for them.
(In the US many of the people appreciate it, some say no, do not pray, and I honor their request. While recently in Jordan working with Syrian refugees, all of the patients (Muslims) wanted me, the christian, to pray with them. There was only one man in Jordan that I had established a relationship with, that said no, please do not pray with me.)

I have heard you. I hope we can continue the conversation even as we agree to disagree.

I have checked out some of the things you brought up in your email as I had never heard of them before.
I would like to encourage you that the views they expose are not the views of 99.999% of christians.
I also encourage all folks to go back to the source material and see what it states.

Jesus’ response when his follower tried to use a sword to fight for him was to heal the ear of the High Priest’s servant that had just been cut off. Jesus wants us to reflect his love.

Unfortunately christians are always imperfect reflectors of the Jewish man they say they follow and whose name they supposedly have taken.

(name withheld

Galatians 2 (The Message)

11-13 Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line. Here’s the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That’s how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that’s been pushing the old system of circumcision. Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade.
14 But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up to Peter in front of them all: “If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you’re not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem cronies?”

15-16 We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over “non-Jewish sinners.” We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.

17-18 Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.

19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

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Dear (name withheld),

Keep in mind: The vast majority of Germans, before and during WWII, were not, themselves, fervent Nazis. It took only a small percentage of the population to bully the rest. Similarly, there is a small, powerful, connected network of Dominionists in at the USAFA and, for that matter, in all branches of the military, and while you might think they are mere aberrations, they are quite, quite dangerous.

You wrote: “The current debate at the AF Academy appears to be taking away people’s right to express their views. It has nothing to do with imposing their viewpoint on others.”

If that were the case, the cadets who’ve written bible and, now, Koranic versus on their whiteboards, in the common hallways, next to name/rank listings including NCOs and other leadership positions, would have merely kept such writings inside their personal spaces, as appropriate. If you’ve never been bullied, you might not recognize their public religiosity as a form of intimidation and bullying. You could, however, read up on it.

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Thanks for writing back.
I would like to know what your definition of Dominionists is. ( I had googled this before.)
You have used it in each of your emails, first referring to christians in our military and now comparing them to Nazis in Germany.

I would also appreciate clarification on the last portion of the email.
Are you saying the cadets should or should not be allowed to write Bible and Koran verses?
I am also not clear as to what locations these boards are in. Are they common boards in the hallway? Are they on other people’s boards?

Thank you for clarifying these items for me.

(name withheld)

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Dear (name withheld),

Dominionists: Not all Christians are evangelicals, and not all evangelicals are dominionists. Therefore, I do not refer to all Christians in our military as Dominionists. Interestingly, while Dominionists refer to non-Dominionists as not real Christians, some of those other Christians refer to Dominionists as not real Christians. One live example of such a Dominionist, and quite the influential one, is Army Gen. (ret.) Jerry Boykin: http://www.stripes.com/news/former-general-forget-the-sword-jesus-will-return-with-an-ar-15-1.269142. Notice the venue of that article: Stars and Stripes, a periodical with military readers. The actual audio, so you may hear him speak in his own voice, is here: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/boykin-when-jesus-comes-back-hell-be-carrying-ar-15-assault-rifle.

Your claim that I compare “christians in our mlitary… to Nazis in Germany” is the same sort of deliberate lie used by Dominionists to rewrite history and claim they are in the right, having to lie to hide that they are in the wrong. Based on your lie, this will be my last response to any of your emails.

The whiteboards on which cadets wrote religious scripture were in the common hallways, as you would have known, had you bothered to read and research online or simply go to the MRFF website for clarification. They were next to leadership labels of occupants of dorm rooms, giving the implication that military leadership, by setting the standard, required belief in those verses. The writers may legally write and post such verses inside their rooms, as that is private area, but they may not do so outside, in the common hallway, and especially next to ranks, implying government sanction, much less next to leadership ranks.

We’re done, thanks to your deliberate insistence on both lies and ignorance.