Don’t be a dumbass!
Accessibility Notice
This post was created on the previous version of the MRFF website, and may not be fully accessible to users of assistive technology. If you need help accessing this content, please reach out via email.You have the right to disagree with, ignore, or even ridicule any person of any faith.
However, you do NOT have the right to openly harass a Chaplin talking about God. Oh-no… I used the ‘G’ word. Sorry (NOT!).
How about Jesus, Allah, Moses, or Mohamed. You gonna’ call for my arrest? You gonna’ sue me?, You gonna’ come beat me up?
Military Religious Freedom my ass.
That should mean FREEDOM for EVERYONE!
Fuckheads!
(yup. I stooped to that level because I doubt you give even the tiniest shit about anything else I said)
(name withheld)
Dear (name withheld),
You are one of the fortunate ones that got an initial response from Mikey. He must have had a free minute out of his busy schedule to take the time to send you a response.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) – due to its nature – is set up where Mikey deals directly with the soldiers and their complaints (which are overwhelming) and we answer the emails. All emails and responses are posted to our website and sent out in an email blast to almost every military bases around the world. They are then sent out to the soldiers and supporters in that area.
Where in the world do you get your information about Mikey and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF)?
You gonna’ call for my arrest? You gonna’ sue me?, You gonna’ come beat me up?
Are you serious? What nonsense have you read or listened to that has worked you up to fear Mikey to this degree?
Let me tell you what the media, clergy, websites and blogs omit in order to foment hate and anger such as you displayed in your email:
Mikey is Jewish (NOT an atheist) and prays to the same Father we do – 3 times a day. Christians make up 75% of the Board, Advisory Board, volunteers and supporters. We currently have 42,000+ soldier clients of which 96% of them are Christians…Catholics, Episcopalians, Methodist, Lutherans, Baptists, Evangelicals, etc. We fight for the rights of Christians more than any other religion or those of no faith.
https://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/about/our-mission/
We agree with you… That should mean FREEDOM for EVERYONE! …and that’s what we fight for.
It is our military that is under attack and it is from an extreme sect of Christianity better known as the Evangelical Fundamental Dominionists, sad to say. They make up 86% of the Chaplains in our military when the Dominionists solders make up less than ¼ of our soldiers. Not a fair balance is it?
US Army chaplain MAJ James Linzey, who, in a 1999 video, described mainstream Protestant churches as “demonic, dastardly creatures from the pit of hell “that should be “stomped out.”
This is the thinking of the military of today throughout the chain of command all the way to the Pentagon. They believe that the only “true” Christian is one that is “born-again” and has a spiritual birthday. All mainline Christians (see above) are destined to hell.
This thinking is destroying our military from the inside and it is being perpetrated from the Pentagon down to the lowest soldier in a leadership position. It has taken “morale”, “good order”, “and discipline” and “unit cohesion” and shredded it beyond recognition, all in the name of religion.
We have Chaplains that are fighting the Dominionists within the military:
As an active duty Air Force chaplain, I’m thankful for your work. I just pray I can make it to twenty years without the dominionists stepping on me, and pray that enough open-minded, constitutionally aware chaplains make it to higher ranks to reform the system from within.
Military Chaplains are in charge of the spiritual needs of their soldiers in each denomination and must have tolerance and acceptance for all faiths in deference to their own personal religious convictions.
To quote Mikey:
“When the religious beliefs, as publicly stated by military chaplains, cross the line between stating a theological position, on one hand, and giving the military congregation what could reasonably be perceived as ‘anti-LGB marching orders’, on the other hand.”
Imagine flag officers – who have outed themselves as gay – have to listen to a subordinate Chaplain tell them they are going to hell.
In addition to personal tolerance, military Chaplains must ensure religious freedom or lack thereof for all soldiers according to the 2nd 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)
Our military is a government entity and must remain secular. Any person that wants to don the uniform of a branch of our military is free to do so with the express admonition from the Constitution to not exalt one religion over another.
These Dominionists believe in obeying God above our Constitution. They practice in-your-face religious proselytization, harassment, give poor performance ratings, withhold advancements, have been put on “point” during war, and drummed out of the military on trumped up charges, any soldier who will not conform to their extreme religious beliefs – all in the name of Jesus. But, they advance those that adhere to the Dominionist belief at an alarming rate.
Parker v. Levy:
“This Court has long recognized that the military is, by necessity, a specialized society separate from civilian society… While the members of the military are not excluded from the protection granted by the First Amendment, the different character of the military community and of the military mission requires a different application of those protections. … The fundamental necessity for obedience, and the consequent necessity for imposition of discipline, may render permissible within the military that which would be constitutionally impermissible outside it… Speech [to include religious speech] that is protected in the civil population may nonetheless undermine the effectiveness of response to command. If it does, it is constitutionally unprotected.” (Emphasis added) Parker v. Levy, 417 U.S. 733, 1974
There are laws within the military, our Constitution and Supreme Court rulings that our military MUST obey.
Too bad you didn’t do just a little bit of research on your own to see that you have been used and lied to in order to promote and defend the agenda of the Dominionists.
Oh, and, nice language coming from a Christian.
You have now been added to OUR “Dumbass List” and the world is laughing.
Pastor Joan
Dear (name withheld),
You’re quite right. I care very little about what you’ve said. We receive countless emails each day with a similar incoherent rage. What chaplain do you feel we’ve harassed? I’m all ears. If you have me a coherent explanation of your issue I would be inclined to spend some time in a productive dialogue with you.
Cheers,
Blake A. Page
Military Religious Freedom Foundation
Special Assistant to the President
Director of US Army Affairs
Joan,
You are absolutely correct. I most certainly should have done my homework first (I usually do).
I wasn’t feeling myself this morning and clicked send far too quickly.
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting a reply. Glad I got one though.
Thank you for the detailed information.
I am ashamed of myself for not doing the research first.
And…
For what it’s worth, I just sent this reply to Mikey and Blake:
——————————————————————————-
Stumbled onto this online:
“Kenneth Reyes, a chaplain in the U.S. military, wrote an article that included a famous quote from Dwight Eisenhower. The quote reads, “I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives. In battle, they learned a great truth that there are no atheists in the foxholes.”
Apparently this quote upset the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which complained to Col. Brian Duffy that Reyes was using a “bigoted, religious supremacist phrase that defiled the dignity of service members.” The organization called for Reyes to be punished for his words of “hate.”
Is there is any truth to this?
If so, then I stand by my “incoherent rage”.
If not, or if your organizations comments were presented out of context, then I apologize for wasting your time.
(name withheld)
Dear (name withheld),
Don’t go beating yourself up over this. You’re not the first and won’t be the last one who has heard misinformation about us. Once we educate people they see that we aren’t the monster we’re made out to be.
You are most kind in sending this response and for that we are grateful.
May God bless your socks off!!!!
Pastor Joan
Of course we care about what you’ve said here. And when people misunderstand what we’re doing, as you have, we care enough to try to clarify things.
First of all, to address your message directly, while we disagree with some people and, after trying to reason and failing, finally have to ignore others, we do not make a practice of ridiculing people of faith.
We believe that everyone has the freedom to enjoy and practice his or her personal faith or, for that matter, lack of faith.
Our focus, however, is the military. And in the military, as you may or may not know, there are certain restrictions placed on expressions of faith. This is for two reasons. First, the military is part of our government and is thus subject to the constitutional understanding of the separation of church and state. Second, the military has a strict hierarchical structure and the interests, desires and preferences of a superior can, whether intentional or not, place a lot of pressure on those who are in positions subordinate to her or him.
Expressions of faith, then, the above being the case, are fine when done at the proper time, in the proper place, and in the appropriate manner. If a superior officer chooses to declare to his troops that his belief is the one true faith and that anyone who doesn’t believe as he does is condemned to hell, we’d have a problem with that. And you might be surprised at how many times and in how many ways something like that happens.
The freedom of religion is a powerful part of our nation’s character but it is also a complex one, in that it means, to those in the military, that even those who are most zealously committed to the belief that they own God’s truth are prevented from saying so to those in positions inferior to theirs, no matter how deeply they believe they are called to do so.
They can do so in church or mosque or temple or believer’s circle when those in attendance are there by choice, of course, but otherwise their belief systems are to be held privately and the U.S. Constitution is primary.
And that applies to chaplains as well. If someone comes to a chaplain for advice, he or she is free to give it, but no matter how fervent their beliefs, outside their place of practice they are subject to military and U.S. law.
Hi (name withheld) –
Mikey Weinstein has asked me to proffer a reply to your note. I’m a lifelong, committed Christian, a USAF Academy graduate, and an Air Force veteran…. in addition to being a staunch supporter of the MRFF.
Let me say right up front, I agree with you…. you and I, and every other human being, should make it a point to avoid dumbassery at all costs. So there is that.
But besides being unnecessarily nasty, your email is rife with misstatements about what the MRFF is about. So if you are even marginally interested in getting better information, I’m happy to do what I can to help clear things up… although I’m not overly confident that you are open to input, given the glorious manner in which you closed your email.
But let’s give it a shot.
MRFF is not about “disagreeing” with people of faith. And it’s not about “harassing” anyone. Nor is it about calling for your arrest, or suing you, or beating you up.
As to whether your ass is entitled to freedom, I’ll have to leave that determination to you…
But I will say that you and I, along with everyone else associated with the MRFF, can absolutely agree that “EVERYONE” is entitled to religious freedom.
The sole mission and purpose of the MRFF is to advocate on behalf of military members and to ensure 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. And to quote you — that means “FREEDOM for EVERYONE”.
I don’t know if you have a military background or not. If you do, then you know very well that the hierarchy of the military is unlike any other organization in this country. Leaders have a degree of power over subordinates that no civilian counterpart yields (with the possible selection of those in the police and fire professions). Along with this tremendous leadership power comes additional responsibility and obligations, one of which is to ensure that all of their subordinates are able to live and work in an environment that does not promote any particular sectarian religious belief.
Specific to the USAF, here is the exact requirement of leaders (this comes from AFI 1-1):
“2.12. Balance of Free Exercise of Religion and Establishment Clause — Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for their own free exercise of religion, including individual expressions of religious beliefs, and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion. They must ensure their words and actions cannot reasonably be construed to be officially endorsing or disapproving of, or extending preferential treatment for any faith, belief, or absence of belief.”
In other words, military leaders do not possess all of the same, unfettered rights of religious expression that the rest of us enjoy.
With regard to military chaplains, I’d ask you to consider this:
The role of a military chaplain is essentially to serve two bosses — one represents their obligation to their particular religious tradition, and the other represents their obligations as a military officer. Because it’s rare (virtually impossible, really) for a military installation to staff enough chaplains to represent every conceivable manner of belief, that means that the chaplains who are there need to do a sort of double duty. They need to minister to soldiers, sailors, and airmen of their own faith, and they also need to provide support to those of other beliefs… including those who don’t share all of the same beliefs. That requires a degree of discretion and appropriateness with regard to the time, place, and manner that a chaplain, just like any other military officer, shares his or her personal beliefs. It’s a thin line to walk, certainly… but everyone who enters the chaplaincy knows very well that they will need to live and work in that environment, so any who claims their own rights are violated is being disingenuous at best.
Hope this information helps. If you do decide to write back, how about you go easy on the profanity and nastiness? I’d sure appreciate that.
Peace,
Mike Challman
Christian, Veteran, MRFF Supporter
Recent Posts
- May 20, 2026 | No comments
- May 15, 2026 | No comments
One Comment
Comments are closed.
You say that Mikey is Jewish, yet he as admitted several times that he is an agnostic Jew and not even sure if what he does three times a day means anything or if God hears him. Let me ask, is he Torah observant, if he is then he would treat Christians a lot better than the way he does by calling us Christian Taliban and “losers” etc, etc. I can pretty much assure him that God does not hear his prayers, because his heart is not in them and he is doing them only out of tradition!