Culture

Published On: May 13, 2019|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|0 Comments|

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From: (name withheld)
Subject: Culture
Date: May 13, 2019 at 4:10:08 PM MDT

 


Hillary missed the mark so badly.  It’s YOU, “Mikey”, who are one of the true “deplorables”.  Sadly, America produces citizens like you it CANNOT ever be proud of.  If a man carries a Bible in combat, and that Bible goes on display somewhere, it’s a simple, humble, statement of something important to him, and many like him, not a call, and certainly (and to most with a brain cell to spare, obviously) not a demand, for everyone else to join him in his particular faith.  Its display is intended as an inspiration, not an indoctrination. Your self-obsessed refusal to understand and accept the difference between personal expression and state-imposed duress is as loathsome & repugnant as it is ignorant.  You and others like you who abuse the Constitution with your peevish yammering are wholly unworthy of your heritage and utterly pathetic Americans.  You are so fortunate to have been blessed with, and yet so undeserving of, your hard-won freedoms.
(name withheld)

Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member Martin France

On May 13, 2019, at 4:40 PM, Martin France  wrote:

Dear (name withheld),
Thanks for your email to the MRFF.  Occasionally, as a member of the MRFF’s Advisory Board, I answer some of these emails and I decided to take this one.  Let’s look at your statements–apart from the ad hominem attacks which I won’t dignify with a response.
If a man carries a Bible in combat, and that Bible goes on display somewhere, it’s a simple, humble, statement of something important to him, and many like him, not a call, and certainly (and to most with a brain cell to spare, obviously) not a demand, for everyone else to join him in his particular faith.  Its display is intended as an inspiration, not an indoctrination. 
I actually agree with you here–and I think that Mikey and most MRFF supporters would, too.  Every soldier is free to carry a Bible with them in a pocket or somewhere else if they want the weight and they find it important to them personally.  If they end up having a museum display about them and the curator or family thinks that Bible would be an important part of the display commemorating this individual, that would be fine–as would be a Torah, Koran, or any other text of spiritual or non-spiritual value, so long as it’s representing that ONE person.
Here’s where you miss the point.  Just because some, many, or even a MAJORITY of soldiers are Christian and carry a Bible, it’s not appropriate, according to our Constitution, for a government agency to use a Bible or any specific religious token, text, or symbol to represent the service of ALL that serve.
That’s what the MRFF is complaining about and why they representing Christian and non-Christian veterans and active duty members that rightfully do not think that a single Bible is an appropriate representation of the spiritual values of ALL who serve.  And, they argue, that by displaying only a Bible, they demean, degrade, ignore, and marginalize all those others who have served and sacrificed but just don’t believe that the Bible is all that important.
And, Mikey’s not just fortunate to be blessed with hard-won freedoms, almost his entire family (including him) has served to help protect those freedoms.  Same for me and my family.
Again, thanks for your email,
Marty France
Retired AF Veteran with Over 35 Years of Active Duty Service

Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member John Compere

On May 13, 2019, at 5:19 PM, John Compere  wrote:

(name withheld),
 
Your asinine attack on a fellow American & American military veteran you do not even know reflects only on yourself & reveals incredible ignorance about secular POW/MIA displays that are about remembrance – not religion.
 
Originated in 1967 by a group of our Vietnam War combat pilots, the River Rats, without religious scripture and continued for years thereafter by the American Legion without religious scripture, the POW/MIA display purpose was and is to leave a place at the dinner table for those military comrades and not forget them. It has always been about their remembrance and never about religious scripture or religious beliefs.
 
It does not take a PhD in Psychology or Government to know that all POWS, MIAs, military veterans & Americans are not Christians & putting a Christian religious scripture in the middle of a secular POW/MIA remembrance display in a government facility is a clear violation of the US Constitution 1st Amendment.
“It has been suggested that [the military chaplaincy] has a tendency to introduce religious disputes into the Army, which above all things should be avoided, and in many instances would compel men to a mode of Worship which they do not profess.” – 1st President & Commander-in-Chief GEORGE WASHINGTON
 
Brigadier General John Compere, US Army (Retired)
Disabled American Veteran (Vietnam Era)
Advisory Board Member, Military Religious Freedom Foundation (over 80% of whom are Christians)

Response from MRFF Supporter

On May 14, 2019, at 8:45 AM, Marshalldoc wrote:

Dear (name withheld) (the ‘haugenator’? Is that like… a device that produces haugs?);

Your self-centered, dominionist Christian-centric screed was forwarded to me by Mikey as he was preoccupied protecting MRFF clients (95+% Christians) from the likes of you and your fellow travelers (and you have the temerity to call him ‘deplorable’!).

I apologize for writing under a pseudonym but I have no desire to be trolled.

Your  “I’m a Christian so I can walk through this world insuring everything revolves around ME without a care towards my fellow citizens (like Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, Jains, and Christians who support our secular democracy, among others) and those who dissent in support of the Constitution are ‘deplorable’ ” attitude is just about the most un-Christian attitude I can imagine aside from so-called ‘Christians’ (actually dominionist extremists – kind of like American ISIS) in our government deciding they can apply that same attitude to the world at large… more a matter of degree than of kind.  The fact that it’s common does not make it acceptable, kind of like cancer, if you get my point.

You state: 

” If a man carries a Bible in combat, and that Bible goes on display somewhere, it’s a simple, humble, statement of something important to him, and many like him, not a call, and certainly (and to most with a brain cell to spare, obviously) not a demand, for everyone else to join him in his particular faith.”  

That’s entirely true, up to the point at which that bible ends up in a position where it represents the U.S. government (E.g.; on an officially approved display in a U.S. government V.A. hospital) which is constitutionally disallowed from imposing a state religion which, as you cite the Constitution, you should be well aware of.  But, in truth, your allegiance to the Constitution (which if you were in the service you swore an oath to defend & protect) is secondary to your allegiance to the so-called ‘sacred scriptures’ you venerate.  So, what… did you have your fingers crossed when you made that oath?  Isn’t that some kind of sin listed in your Decalogue (that sticky ‘bearing false witness’ thingy)?

So, the “…self-obsessed refusal to understand and accept the difference between personal expression and state-imposed duress” is actually you stating the obvious except that you are oblivious to the fact that it is your own “…peevish yammering” which makes you “…wholly unworthy of your heritage and [an] utterly pathetic American”.

You state:  “You are so fortunate to have been blessed with, and yet so undeserving of, your hard-won freedoms.”  Indeed!! Those freedoms have been protected by Americans of all faiths to insure, among other reasons, that no one religion becomes the ‘state religion’ (remember; our country was founded by refugees fleeing state Christian persecution in Europe – a lesson ‘Christian Nation’ adherents conveniently forget).  Your self-centered Christo-centric screed obviates all their sacrifices. Why has your religion fostered this bizarre degree of exceptionalism that disregards the rights & feeling of others? Why are you so willing to embrace the ‘tyranny of the majority’ which is widely seen as utterly anti-democratic?

For shame!

Marshalldoc.


 

 

 

 

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