FEATURED INBOX POSTING – Thank you from a grateful MRFF supporter

Mikey,

I would like to thank you and your team at the MRFF for once again standing up to the odious influence wielded over the military by the evangelical Christian elite.  Monday afternoon we received an email through our Commander’s orgbox with an attachment listing a wide array of upcoming volunteer opportunities in the local community.  Amongst the usual solicitations to assist with such worthwhile endeavors as Habitat for Humanity and animal shelters was one seeking volunteers for a local 10-mile race.  This would not have been an issue except that the advertisement stated race organizers were requesting volunteers wear their Dress blues as representatives of the USAF and that the proceeds from the race were destined for an organization called Operation Heal our Patriots.  Never before having heard of this organization, I went to the website link provided and found that Operation Heal our Patriots is run by Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse and that “Operation Heal Our Patriots gives wounded veterans and their spouses the opportunity for spiritual refreshment, physical renewal, and marriage enrichment. Couples participate in Biblically-based seminars that help strengthen their relationships with God and others and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation with outdoor activities at our Alaskan wilderness lodge. We continue to support these men and women after their initial stay, keeping their spiritual needs and marriages a priority” (from the Samaritan’s Purse website).

I could not believe it, after the embarrassing debacle at Dover AFB a few weeks ago when an email was sent from a Commander’s orgbox soliciting volunteers for Operation Christmas Child, also of Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse, the EXACT same  pushing-our-brand-of-hateful-Dominionist-Christian-crap-down-your-throat-through-official-governement-email antics was happening at my own base!   It makes me wonder if AF leadership has their collective head in the sand or that they simply do not care about stomping on our religious freedom and the Constitution until caught red-handed.  But caught they were, because no sooner had I digested the email and forwarded it on to MRFF than I was contacted by you and it was game on.  You and your team immediately got in touch with our Wing leadership and within a matter of hours the JAG, Chaplain Corps, and Wing representatives were forced to not only recant this abhorrent email but also to remind our entire AFB and military community that wear of a military uniform to such events is against regulations.

I do indeed feel satisfied that this grievous wrong has been corrected, and swiftly at that, but such satisfaction is tempered by the fact that this same Wing Commander had sent a base-wide email from their Command orgbox earlier in the year seeking support for the National Prayer Luncheon.  After being called on the carpet for that misdeed, the Wing Commander promised to be more cognizant of the emails coming out of the Command  orgbox and to conduct training sessions ensuring any and all future emails religious in nature would only come from the Chaplain’s office so as not to imply Command endorsement.  Apparently my Wing Commander has a short memory, did not follow through with the promised training, or perhaps is actually in tacit agreement with the evangelical Christian agenda, because this second religion-endorsing email appeared in our inbox in less than a year from the first one.  Examples such as these from my base, and the email that came out of Dover, serve as a warning to us all that we must remain vigilant in the face of even innocuous-seeming coercion and recognize that religious ideology can be forced upon us in the most legitimate-appearing of ways (Please help starving children receive a box of goodies, wont you?! Can you find it in your heart to help our valiant wounded heroes receive a much-deserved retreat with their long-suffering spouses?!).   Against all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC takes on new shades of meaning when it’s your own chain of command….  

Again, thank you Mikey for all you and your team do to keep these evangelical hordes from swallowing us all.

A longtime and grateful supporter,

(USAF/MRFF Client’s name, rank, unit, USAF installation all withheld)