From: (name withheld)Subject: you will soon be dust
Date: November 28, 2018 at 1:38:03 PM MST
To: Information Weinstein <[email protected]militaryreligiousfreedom.org>
What is your MRFF’s problem with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?
What did He ever do to you all at the MRFF other than to die and sacrifice His life for your sinful and evil ways.
You all seem to want Jesus kicked out of the military and replaced with MRFF?
The MRFF wants to be God now?
May the MRFF and your ring leader the jewish Mr. Weinstein wilt as the autumn leaves.
Becoming simple dust in the wind.
Time is on our side not the MRFF’s.
You will all soon be but a forgotten memory.
Christ rules eternal.
His will be done.
On Nov 28, 2018, at 3:11 PM, Martin France wrote:
Dear Big Pig, thanks for your note. As a member of MRFF’s Advisory Board, let me answer your questions as clearly as possible:
What is your MRFF’s problem with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?We have no issue at all with Christianity or its symbols and saviors. We also have no issue with Islam, Buddhism, Atheism, Janism, the Sikhs, Hindus, and Confucians, nor any of the other thousands of religions and belief systems out there.
What did He ever do to you all at the MRFF other than to die and sacrifice His life for your sinful and evil ways.
I, for one, am unaware of anything Jesus has done to or for me. Others in the MRFF may disagree there, as many are practicing Christians. If we do get an e-mail from the Almighty, I hope I’m the first to read it!
You all seem to want Jesus kicked out of the military and replaced with MRFF?
Not at all. We value and respect the service of thousands of Christians in our military and support their right to believe as they see fit. We also support their right to practice their religion when they are not in the workplace. They can even proselytize outside of the workplace, but they cannot both support and defend the Constitution (they’re oath) AND proselytize during duty hours or discriminate against (or for) any of their fellow service members based upon religious beliefs (or lack thereof). For example, the MRFF would strongly oppose ANY military member that tried to convert you to Islam or Atheism if they did this in the workplace or even if they did it outside of the workplace if they outranked you or had any ability to negatively or positively affect your career path.
The MRFF wants to be God now?
Not at all. We simply want the Constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion to be observed. That means not only the 1st Amendment, but also Article 6. (Please read the latter).
May the MRFF and your ring leader the jewish Mr. Weinstein wilt as the autumn leaves.
Thank you for your kind wishes. I was always taught in Sunday School that wishing ill of someone was not a very Christian thing to do. I wish you a healthy and productive life, filled with joy.
Becoming simple dust in the wind.
I think, personally, that that is where we’re all headed, in addition to dirt, worm food, compost, soil, ash, etc. Because of that, I’m trying to make the very, very best of the few years I have left on this pale blue dot in the cosmos.
Time is on our side not the MRFF’s.
Probably not. The Constitution is on our side and its been around a long time. Read Air Force Instruction 1-1 (AFI1-1)s and read the parts restricting the rights of commanders and others to proselytize in uniform. We helped write those lines, believe it or not.
You will all soon be but a forgotten memory.
As will you, dear sir. We’re all equal in that respect. I’d rather be known for protecting and advancing the rights of others for the few generations that both follow and remember me. You may disagree, as is your right.
Christ rules eternal.
You’re entitled to your opinion. Billions disagree with you, as do I.Sincerely,A Retired Air Force Veteran of 35-plus Years
Dear (name withheld),
You wrote to Mikey Weinstein:
What did He ever do to you all at the MRFF other than to die and sacrifice His life for your sinful and evil ways.
You all seem to want Jesus kicked out of the military and replaced with MRFF?
The MRFF wants to be God now?
May the MRFF and your ring leader the jewish Mr. Weinstein wilt as the autumn leaves.
Becoming simple dust in the wind.
Time is on our side not the MRFF’s.
Christ rules eternal.
His will be done.
I’m replying (not as an official at MRFF, merely a supporter) because, despite the slightly anti-Semitic nature of your comment, it’s not the usual over-the-top screed Mikey usually gets so I thought that addressing you as one human to another might be beneficial. I do use a pseudonym since I don’t wish to be trolled. Your comment reveals a profound ignorance of what MRFF is about (which could be cleared up rapidly if you were to merely access the website [https://www.
Neither Mikey, nor the MRFF, ‘have a problem’ with your religion or its central character, nor do they wish Jesus ‘kicked out of the military’, replaced by the MRFF, and MRFF certainly doesn’t wish to be god or whatever passes for such.
What the MRFF does want is for religion to be confined, as directed by the Constitution, to the ‘proper time, place, and manner’ of observance. Since our government is specifically non-secular, any attempt to insert a religious character into it is UN-Constitutional and contrary to the oaths every service-member takes to support & defend the Constitution; not the bible or any other religious text. The reason MRFF is so often in conflict with Christian supremacists in the military is because there is a specific intent by them to make the U.S. military a ‘Christian’ military by inserting their beliefs into time, place, and in manner that are contrary to the regulations. This seems to be a unique issue to fundamentalist Christians who feel that following the ‘Great Commission’ supersedes all other considerations including their oaths of service (evidently sworn to falsely… isn’t that some kind of sin?).
As to Mikey’s, yours, and my fates… we’re all ultimately ‘dust’ (more accurately stardust) as will be your ‘god’ when your last brain cell gives up its ghost and the screen fades to black… forever.
Best,
Hi Big Hamster,
That’s the best I could do in terms of decoding your name. Hope it’s close.
Let me see if I can help. It appears you are one who believes he (I assume you’re a “he”, apologies if not. It’s just not my experience to receive messages from women who call themselves Big Hamster.) has a meaningful personal relationship with “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” That’s fine with us. Lots of people do, many of them friends, staff, clients and supporters of the MRFF.
I do wonder, I have to say, about the use of the word ‘our’ at the beginning of the phrase. Should I assume from its use that you speak for others beyond just yourself? Or are you suggesting with the word ‘our’ that Jesus is the Lord and Savior of everyone? If the latter, while I guess I understand the aspirational nature of the assumption, I think it’s a reach.
But OK.
Understand, Big H, that we get a lot of mail from people who claim to be Christians but really don’t seem to understand Christianity. Most of them don’t send messages in the kind of semi-poetic form you’ve apparently attempted here, but kudos for the try.
However, despite the difference in form, or perhaps meter, you, like other faux Christians, appear to be confused about what we do and why we do it. So let me walk through it with you, verse by verse.
1. We have no problem with your devotion to your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We think the U.S. Constitution supports people’s right to believe as they choose. Where we seem to run into problems is with what I’d call totalitarians, meaning people who believe they are so right in their personal belief that anyone who doesn’t share it is not only wrong but is a worthless scumbag condemned to hell.
That goes a bit far, don’t you think? Our reading of the constitution and military regulations based on it not only says people can believe as they’d like or not believe in anything at all and still be decent, productive American citizens and members of the military. More than that, it says the U.S. military, as part of the U.S. government, cannot promote one belief system over others. I hope that’s clear, because it seems to be a hard one for some people to get.
2. He didn’t do anything to us. As I said, many of the folks around us are Christians and many are not. We don’t have a problem either way. As for the “sinful and evil ways” you suggest he died and sacrificed himself to clear up, I trust you’re talking about yourself and others who ascribe to that teaching and are not accusing us of anything. As I’m sure you realize, accusing us of such a thing would not be a very Christian thing to do.
3. We don’t want to kick Jesus out of the military. We didn’t know Jesus was in the military.
4. The MRFF has no interest in being God. It is an organization dedicated to protecting the freedom of religious belief in the military. (It’s sort of stunning to me that someone could somehow come to a conclusion like that. Do you realize how silly you sound?)
5. “Wilt as the autumn leaves” is an interesting turn of phrase. It could be read as ‘everything has its time,” I suppose, but in the context you present it sounds like a death wish. That, among other aspects of this message of yours, leads me to conclude that you are exactly the kind of totalitarian I described above. That’s sad,
And of course your reference to “the jewish (sic) Mr. Weinstein identifies you as a bigot. That too, is sad.
6. Dust in the wind, 7. time on your side, 8. forgotten memory. Again, your attempts at poetic expression are deeply injured by the ugliness of your intention. You progress, I’m sorry to say, from sad to pathetic.
Per your ending salute, if the Christ I learned about were to meet you on the street, you wouldn’t know him. I suspect, bigot that you are, you’d fear and reject him.
Poetry, in order to be truly poetic, requires a capacity to appreciate beauty. It’s obviously a capacity you lack, making your words flatten and become self-satirizing. It’s very much like the Christianity you claim to embody and profess: flat and self-satirizing.
Mike Farrell
(MRFF Board of Advisors)
Well, he is right, whenever Mikey does die, his body will return to dust, but his soul will live for eternity in Hades.
Note Beth Zion’s comment above. It never stops does it?
I am an agnostic (please look it up, particularly its origin in the Greek). I am also the son of an Episcopalian priest, a former monastic (my choice to leave), and a retired soldier with 28 years service, including a war or two.
My father had no trouble accepting my beliefs. His only comment was that he was glad that I had found a solid belief system, even if it wasn’t his. I know one thing for sure, he never spouted the bile that “Hamster” and “Beth” are fond of.
If, however, Beth is right, I will welcome Mikey and all others in Hades (wherever and whatever that is) where I intend to be mayor.
Aloha y’all
After examining many religions, I chose Atheism. I’ll accept you and your beliefs just so long as you don’t try to annoy me with your beliefs in order to convert me. It isn’t Mikey and or the MRFF who generates the initial complaints, it’s troops stationed where they feel they are being harassed and or proselytized. If anything, the MRFF is merely the fulcrum to apply leverage.
Many years ago when I declared myself an Atheist, my adopted sister told me I was more of a Christian than many who declared themselves as such. It used to bother me, but not any more. I see Atheism from the viewpoint of one with a severe allergic reaction to religion. At the personal level, it appears to give great comfort, but at the national level, it’s high yield weapons grade. Go ahead and call me a monster. My Feline owners would disagree with you!
If those spewing this egregious negativity and hate are going to heaven, then I will be perfectly happy in hell, two undisclosed locations of which I have no belief in whatsoever. If they do exist, they’re quite possibly nothing they’ve been made out to be.
Mahalo nui loa for reading this far.