You need the Lord

– August 14, 2018
From: (name withheld)
Date: August 14, 2018 at 1:55:32 PM MDT
To: [email protected]org
Subject: You need the Lord
I have compassion for the lost and pray that you will find the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior and stop attacking OUR Country. Isaiah 53:6 tells us We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way; God is a forgiving God. Repent and turn from your wicked waysThank You!(name withheld)“We are all better than we deserve”

Romans 3:23 & 6:23

Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member John Compere
On Aug 14, 2018, at 4:26 PM, John Compere  wrote:

 

Dear (name withheld),
 
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is an American non-profit constitutional rights organization (composed of more than 80% Christians) dedicated solely to ensuring the right of military members to freedom of religion to which all Americans are entitled under our US Constitution. MRFF represents over 57,000 military men & women (96% of whom are Christians) who requested their right to determine, enjoy & practice their own beliefs be respected & protected without coercive interference from others, especially superiors. MRFF represents them with patriotic pride & will continue to do so.
 
The US Constitution prohibits the government or its representatives (which includes the military) from promoting or endorsing a religion. US Armed Forces regulations also prohibit the promoting or endorsing of a religion. The military mission is to defend our nation against its enemies – not promote or endorse a religion. The military sworn service oath is to bear true faith & allegiance to the US Constitution – not to a religion. Those who do not respect & refuse to obey the Constitution, military regulations & military service oath have the right to seek a civilian career.
 
Like our diverse Country, the military consists of men & women of many different faiths & beliefs – not just Christians. The US Department of Defense even acknowledges our belief diversity by publishing an official lists of 221 different belief groups for the military alone.
 
It is obvious from your email that you value your American constitutional right to determine, enjoy & practice your own beliefs. 57,000+ military men & women want the same right. It is the height of human hypocrisy to believe that your fellow Americans are entitled to this American constitutional right only if they have the same beliefs as you. Please you read & reflect on Matthew 7:12 & Luke 6:31.
 
Most Sincerely,
Brigadier General John Compere, US Army (Retired)
Disabled American Veteran (Vietnam)
MRFF Advisory Board Member
Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member Joan Slish
On Aug 14, 2018, at 4:54 PM, Joan Slish wrote:

 

Dear (name withheld),
I’m sorry that you have been misinformed about Mikey and MRFF by omissions, distortions and outright lies.
Mikey and MRFFare neither an atheist organization nor are we anti-Christian. Mikey is Jewish (and prays to the same Father we do 3 times a day) and 80% of the Board, Advisory Board, volunteers and supporters (420 in total) of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) are Christians. In fact, 96% of our 57,000+ soldier clients are mainline Christians and we fight for them more than any other belief or non-belief.
We also have many distinguished and honorable military members (including Christian Chaplains and religious leaders) on our Board and Advisory Board whom we rely on for their expertise on religion in the military.
Check out our mission statement.
As defenders of the Constitution we fight for the separation of church and state.
“…but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” (Article I, III)
This means that from the President to Congress to the military – no one’s job is based on their religion.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion (Establishment Clause), or prohibiting the free exercise thereof(Free Exercise Clause).”(First Amendment)
TheEstablishment Clausemeans that you cannot favor one religion over another even though it is in the majority. This clause respects the RIGHTS of all religions. Our military is SECULAR and there are people of other faiths that don the uniform that love this country.
TheFree Exercise Clause(which is subservient to theEstablishment Clause) means that our soldiers are free to exercise any religion they want or no religion at all but cannot elevate one God above others.
“Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual. Religious institutions that use government power in support ofthemselvesand force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the “wall of separation between church and state,” therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.”Thomas Jefferson, to the Virginia Baptists (1808) ME 16:320.
This is his second known use of the term “wall of separation,” here quoting his own use in the Danbury Baptist letter.
This wording of the original was several times upheld by the Supreme Court as an accurate description of the Establishment Clause.
“Jefferson’s concept of “separation of church and state” first became a part of Establishment ClausejurisprudenceinReynolds v. U.S.,98 U.S. 145 (1878). In that case, thecourtexamined the history of religious liberty in the US, determining that while the constitution guarantees religious freedom, “The word ‘religion’ is not defined in the Constitution. We must go elsewhere, therefore, to ascertain its meaning and nowhere more appropriately,we think, than to the history of the times in the midst of which the provision was adopted.” The court found that the leaders in advocating and formulating the constitutional guarantee of religious liberty were James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.Quoting the “separation” paragraph from Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists, the court concluded that, “coming as this does from an acknowledged leader of the advocates of the measure, it may be accepted almost as an authoritative declaration of the scope and effect of the amendment thus secured.
In 1878 “separation of church and state” became part of the Establishment Clauseby law.
The Supreme Court heard theLemon v. Kurtzmancase in 1971 and ruled in favor of theEstablishment Clause.
Subsequent to this decision, the Supreme Court has applied a three-pronged test to determine whether government action comports with theEstablishment Clause, known as theLemon Test:
Government action violates the Establishment Clause unless it:
1. has a significant secular (i.e., non-religious) purpose,
2. does not have the primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion
3.does not foster excessive entanglement between government and religion
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[in any form]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
AFI (Air Force Instruction) 1-1, Section 2.12:
 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.
To place the Christian god above all others is in violation of the Separation of Church and State codified in the First Amendment by Reynolds v. U.S.; Lemon v. Kurtzman; the Lemon Test; Parker v. Levy and AFI 1-1, Section 2.12.
I have attached the in-depth formal complaint with more rules and regulations that have been broken, by our lawyer Donald G. Rehkopf.
Mikey’s eternal salvation has already been sealed by god. Paul says in Romans 11:25-29:

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

For thisismy covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

As concerning the gospel,they areenemies for your sakes: but as touching the election,they arebeloved for the fathers’ sakes.

For the gifts and calling of Godarewithout repentance.”

You’re welcome!

Joan Slish
MRFF Advisory Board Member
Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member Mike Farrell
From: Mike
To: Mikey Weinstein <[email protected]m.org>, [email protected]
Subject: Re: You need the Lord
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2018 17:30:09 -0700

Hi (name withheld)

I think it’s great that you have compassion and pray for the lost. It becomes a bit judgmental, though, don’t you

think, when you decide that anyone who doesn’t believe exactly as you do is “lost”?

You might want to give that some thought.

What is it we have done, may I ask, that makes you think we have attacked what you call “OUR country”?

Is it not our country as well? Are not the Americans associated with the MRFF, be they staff, clients, members of

the military or civilian, every bit as American as you?

Perhaps Isaiah was talking to you about going astray from the embrace of a loving God and slipping into

arrogance and self-satisfaction. Something to consider, no?

What we do, contrary to your assumption, is protect the right of every woman and man in the military to believe as

she or he chooses. We don’t believe it appropriate to insist one must believe in a certain way; as Americans we

believe everyone has the right to believe or not believe as she or he decides.

It strikes me as the height of arrogance to suggest that those who do not believe as you would have them do are

“lost.” It’s not only arrogance, which doesn’t fit well on one who claims to be a Christian, but it is also profoundly

unAmerican.

And, by the way, we are not “all better than we deserve.” We are all exactly as beautiful, talented, intelligent, blessed,
spiritual, important, meaningful, tolerant and loving as we deserve to be. Some just don’t recognize it.

I wish you well.

Mike Farrell

(MRFF Board of Advisors)

On Thu, Aug 16, 2018 at 7:04 PM,  (name withheld) wrote:

You have read it wrong sir. Please read your internet propaganda says . We believe that anyone can have any higher power as their God as they want to. Does not matter if you are Jewish, Muslim, Catholic Methodist, Baptist, Hindu or even a Atheist.  What ever you believe is up to you but not to dump that on other people. Americans are smarter that you think and God owns the cattle on a 1000 hills and his will will be done not OURS. Everyone  has a right to their believes but no one has a right to stop them. There is something that the for fathers wrote about that (somewhere)? You are very narrow minded in what you believe and think. Like I say there is always hope for the lost. “God wishes that none should parish”. You must be atheists and you have a right to whatever you want but i will pray for you and your organization, your members and you families to find Jesus as their savior. .Because that is the RIGHT thing to do.  
We are all better than we deserve. Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fallen short off the glory of God no one is righteous not one. Romans 6:23 says “for the penalty for sin is death, but the  gift of eternal life is in Jesus Christ our Lord. We are all sinners, we deserve to go to hell as the scripture says. But by his blood we live and HIS conquers all.
Please pass this along to all your other members that sent me hate mail. 
God Bless You! 
(name withheld)
Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member Mike Farrell
On Aug 18, 2018, at 1:05 AM, Mike  wrote:


Well, my dear man, your response is a bit difficult to understand. So let me try to state things as clearly as possible.

We are not attacking your country. Your country is our country.

We think Americans are smart enough to understand that freedom means people don’t always have to agree.
 

We believe that everyone is free to believe as she or he chooses.

Because our government is based on freedom of belief, no one belief system can be promoted as the “correct one” by any part

of our government.

No one here is trying to stop anyone from believing what he or she chooses to believe, but we do have the right to stop people

in the military from forcing their belief on others, especially those below them in rank. That’s the way we protect everyone’s freedom

to believe as they choose.

When you say “you must be atheists,” you are making a judgment that is not correct. We are people of all faiths and belief systems.

When you say you want our organization, our members and our families to find Jesus because “that is the RIGHT thing to do,” you

are stating your belief. Because that is your belief you are welcome to it, but it may not be right for everyone in our organization, or for our members or our families. I get that that is a hard thing for you to understand, but that’s what freedom of belief is about.

And it’s a perfect example of why we exist. You believe you have the answer for everyone. You are welcome to your belief, but it’s not right. In America, you don’t have the right to force your belief on us or anyone else.

I hope that helps.

Mike Farrell

(MRFF Board of Advisors)

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4 Comments

  1. Mark
    Posted August 14, 2018 at 3:50 PM

    What’s sad is that they claim to be for Religious Freedom when, in fact, they are actually for just the opposite!

  2. Michael
    Posted August 14, 2018 at 4:05 PM

    Yes trolls running around trying to make people ashamed of the beliefs that founded our great nation.

  3. Grey One talks sass
    Posted August 15, 2018 at 5:16 PM

    When all I want to do is play whack a theocrat it’s time for me to step away from the internets. There is no arguing logic for the theocrat has none. So how to do battle with an enemy who refuses to acknowledge anyone else’s Rights but their own?

    I’m in favor of whacking folk but I’m not the person in charge.

  4. Tom O
    Posted August 15, 2018 at 9:53 PM

    Does Michael believe that MRFF members are “trolls running around trying to make people ashamed of the beliefs that founded our great nation”? If so can he tell us what are the specific “beliefs that founded our great nation” that MRFF is supposedly “trying to make people ashamed of”?

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