You do not represent us

Dear Mikey

Your organization is on par with the Westboro baptists. As soldiers, we are free to pray, as we see fit, without your oversight, interference, or involvement. If you have sufficient resources, to interdict our right to gather, perhaps you should find something useful, to do with yourselves.

(name withheld)

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Dear (name withheld),

I’d like to address your concerns on behalf of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. MRFF’s position is grounded firmly in the ​US Constitution: in the No Religious Test Clause, the Establishment Clause, and the Free Exercise Clause. You remember the Constitution, right? That complete godless document that you swore to uphold and defend? Good.

The No Religious Test Clause in Article VI, para 3 declares that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

Therefore, MRFF is opposed to the religious test requirement for appointment to the chaplaincy. MRFF is opposed to “Spiritual Fitness” testing and required spiritual training. MRFF is opposed to commanders and supervisors judging the religious or spiritual beliefs of their subordinates in evaluations and counseling.

The First Amendment requires that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”

The Supreme Court has ruled that this prohibition is not limited to Congress, but to all bodies which exercise rule-making power delegated by Congress, including the military. This absolutely prohibits any official endorsement or favoritism toward any religious sect over others, or to religion over non-religion. Religious neutrality is an absolute requirement of all persons acting in their official capacity and exercising authority over others.

You have every right to pray. MRFF never said otherwise. What you DON’T have a Constitutional right to do is have the United States government establish any official recognition of your practices. The establishment of a “Day of Prayer” shows official government favoritism of religion over non-religion, and it is a violation of the Establishment Clause. I thought you swore to uphold the Constitution?

The First Amendment continues, “…or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”

Religious freedom means the right to believe whatever you wish, and free exercise means the right to voluntarily practice those beliefs, individually or in voluntary group settings. (And in the military, free exercise must occur within some limits imposed by military necessity.) The right to free exercise DOES NOT include a right to be given a captive audience, tax-funding, official resources, or endorsement. Free exercise, not assisted exercise! Not coercedexercise!

We oppose ceremonial prayer because it’s an abuse of power to force a captive audience to listen and stand in silent submission to your religious practices. If a Wiccan chaplain, for instance, cast a spell on a formation of Jewish and Christian soldiers while they were forced to stand in silent, submissive respect, perhaps you’d understand? Free exercise does not entitle you to impose your practices onto others.

MRFF will not be changing its stance on these issues. We will continue to advocate for religious freedom, as guaranteed in the US Constitution, and oppose the abuse of power that follows from the misguided notion that “freedom” means freedom to dominate your subordinates.

Sincerely,
Dustin Chalker
MRFF Non-Religious Affairs Advisor

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Good Day, (name withheld) —

Mikey Weinstein has read your email and asked me to respond. It’s important to him that everyone who contacts MRFF receives a reply — I’m a volunteer who provides support in several ways, including help with email correspondence. I’m also a Christian and an AF veteran.

First and most importantly, thank you for your service. I appreciate the efforts that both you and your family make as part of our military. As a veteran myself, I understand very well that military life asks a lot of both the service member and those who support him.

I also want to thank you for taking the time to write, because it gives me the opportunity to address what appears to be a misunderstanding about the mission of MRFF. Specifically, it seems that you believe our efforts are intended to prevent service members from exercising whatever religious belief they desire to hold, or to interfere with the individual prayer of service members. That is not the case.

MRFF is dedicated to ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. In my own words, that means that Christians, Jews, Muslims, Agnostics, Free-thinkers, and any other type of believer or non-believer are able to hold and follow their own desired dogma.

Your comparison of MRFF to the Westboro Baptist Church is very unfair and inaccurate, I think. The Westboro folks believes that anyone who doesn’t believe exactly what they believe is going to hell. MRFF supporters believe that every individual has a constitutionally protected right to believe (or not believe) whatever they wish, and that no specific religion or religious philosophy may be advanced by the United States Armed Forces over any other religion or religious philosophy. We are not anti-religion, nor anti-Christianity — we are pro-Constitution.

The recent news reports about the National Day of Prayer Task Force event have done a poor job of correctly characterizing the reason for the concern raised by MRFF.

The National Day of Prayer and the National Day of Prayer Task Force are NOT one and the same. The Task Force is a Christian group that is holding an event on the National Day of Prayer, but it is not the official face of the day. However, the private, sectarian nature of the Task Force may not be readily apparent. My impression is that the Task Force organizers want that line to be very blurry, even invisible – if you check out their website, you will find the words “Task Force” in incredibly tiny font, really almost unreadable, within their logo.

As a Christian myself, I personally don’t have any objections to the mission of the Task Force, which is described in this way at their website:

“Our Task Force is a privately funded organization whose purpose is to encourage participation on the National Day of Prayer. It exists to communicate with every individual the need for personal repentance and prayer, to create appropriate materials, and to mobilize the Christian community to intercede for America’s leaders and its families. The Task Force represents a Judeo Christian expression of the national observance, based on our understanding that this country was birthed in prayer and in reverence for the God of the Bible.”

However, because of the sectarian nature of the group and its event, it is inappropriate for the US military to provide support in the form of official participation by military units. I hope you can agree that such direct involvement could easily be construed as a form of endorsement of a particular religious affiliation, something which our military is not supposed to do.

That is the entire basis for the objection raised by MRFF, no more and no less, It is absolutely not about restricting the rights of any individual service members to pray as they see fit.

Finally, in your “subject” line you said, ‘You do not represent us.’ I assume that the ‘us’ means service members in general. The truth is that MRFF actually does advocate for specific service members who ask for assistance. You may be surprised to learn that the majority of clients and supporters of MRFF are people of faith, and the vast majority are Christians. Even a Christian can have concerns about perceived religious favoritism, even when it is a another brand of Christianity.. and as you know very well, I’m sure, sometimes a service member’s ability to raise an issue directly can be difficult. By contacting MRFF, those concerns can be aired without the service member putting his own career at risk in any way.

Hopefully, the perspective that I’ve offered here is helpful. I’d be happy to correspond with you further if you have any questions or comments that you’d like to discuss.

I pray that God will keep you and your fellow soldiers safe at all times.

Peace,

Mike Challman

Christian, AF veteran, MRFF supporter