MRFF Intervention Quickly Leads to Administrative Punishment of Unit’s Leadership for Blatant Religious Proselytizing via ‘Culture Warrior’ Catchphrases

November 18, 2022

MRFF President/Founder Mikey Weinstein was contacted by a group of 19 (…now up to 20) active duty U.S. Military members after their unit’s leadership apparently decided overt sectarian religious proselytizing to subordinates using vapid ‘Culture Warrior’ talking points was an appropriate command climate.  The situation was detailed in an email from one of MRFF’s 19 clients in this matter:

I want to state that I am one of the MRFF’s clients in this same matter and in that capacity I am also representing 18 other unit members who have requested the MRFF’s intervention.

I am a Protestant and most of our group are also Christians though not all of us are. We have Jews and Moslems and atheists with us as well. And maybe other non-Christians but I am not sure?  I am an NCO and am proud of my service to our country. I have been in numerous combat engagements downrange and have been both decorated and wounded in more than a few of them.

I was present at this very recent event and can confirm the following for the record:

-Our commander already had a pretty bad reputation for pushing his Christian faith on subordinates before what happened here.

-Our commander has often in the past said negative things about President Biden and Speaker Pelosi at military events and meetings. I have been in so many of them where he has done this. He has also promoted Trump and retired Lt. General Michael Flynn as well.

-Our commander has repeatedly said stuff in meetings like “I love everybody but it’s just a fact that America was founded by devout Christians to be a Christian nation.” And “I mean there is no record at all of Jews or Moslems helping to form this nation.” And many other things just the same. Totally divisive. But none of us did anything until what just happened last week.

-At the mandatory meeting last week with about 200 of us in attendance he actually said the following to all of us:

     “It’s not mandatory but my wife and I are hosting and sponsoring a gathering at our residence in a couple of weeks to study CRT”. Now he let that sink in a while everyone was confused that this man would have anything to do with what we thought he meant as “Critical Race Theory”?

-Then he said the following with a big smile: “No not the CRT you’re thinking about but “Christian Religion Truths”. In other words a bible study at his on installation house.

-He then glared at us and with a smirk said the following: “Hey I said it’s optional if you wanna come. No one has to be there but all are welcome to our CRT study session. Remember that Jesus loves you all even if you don’t love him.”—Then he paused again and yelled loudly “Yet!”. The meeting was then adjourned. Many of us were shocked.

-You could hear a pin drop.  

-A bunch of us were pissed by what happened. Me and a few others went to talk to the First Shirt but he just told us we were “overreacting woke wimps“. With that statement the fire was lit!

-Oh I forgot that the commander’s own boss was also at this mandatory meeting and sat on the speakers’ stage doing nothing at all about what our own commander had just done.

We contacted the MRFF shortly thereafter and Mr. Weinstein and they took our cause up immediately. Cannot thank the MRFF and Mr. Weinstein enough for what you all did to totally have our backs.  

Just hope that there is justice here for those of us who have been forced to live in our commander’s alternate Christian totalitarian reality. (Name, rank, title, unit and installation of Active Duty U. S. Military NCO/MRFF Client Withheld)

Mikey quickly contacted the installation’s commander in regards to this blatant ‘in-your-face’ violation of clear U.S. Military regulations requiring all military leaders strengthen unit cohesion by maintaining religious neutrality per U.S. Constitutional requirements of ‘no religious tests’ and ‘church/state separation’.  Mikey/MRFF received the following response to this blatant violation via email:

From: (Name, Rank and Title of Aid to the Superior Ranking Commander withheld)
Subject: Commander Religious Proselytizing Infraction
Date: November 16, 2022 at 10:13:49 AM MST
To: Information Weinstein <[email protected]>

Mr. Weinstein,

This e-mail is to confirm our several telephone conversations of this morning regarding the actions of a(n) (military branch name withheld) commander in our (name of military unit withheld) a few days ago at a mandatory unit formation here at (name and location of military installation withheld).

As accurately reported to you by a number of your MRFF organization’s clients, and now confirmed by our own chain of command, one of our subordinate commanders made unauthorized comments to his (or her) unit that involved proselytizing the Christian faith in a manner which violated (military branch name withheld) regulations and other standards.

Our commander,(name and rank of Superior Ranking Commander withheld), appreciates MRFF providing us the opportunity to handle this unfortunate matter internally. We have been aware of the MRFF for some time and support its mandate to enforce constitutional rights for military members to be free from enforced religious worship by their chains of command.

Although we cannot provide specifics to you or your clients due to the Privacy Act etc., please advise your clients that our senior leadership is taking swift actions of administrative punishment against this offending officer and others who also participated and bear responsibility.

The (military branch name withheld) is completely committed to equal rights and opportunities for all of its members and this most certainly includes the right not to have one’s commanding officer clearly proselytize their own faith at mandatory formations.

As agreed in our calls this morning, we thank the MRFF for not disclosing the names, ranks, units and installation names and location pertinent to the matter at hand.

V/R
(Name, Rank and Title of Aid to the Superior Ranking Commander withheld)

MRFF (…per our usual practice) will monitor the situation for any hint of retributions.  Additionally, as pointed out by MRFF Senior Research Director Chris Rodda in an article for the DailyKos on November 18, 2022, MRFF’s persistence and longevity continues to protect the religious freedom of many individuals within the U.S. Military (DoD/VA):

Now, with MRFF having been around as long as we have, we’ve had a number of incidents of second-generation clients — children of early MRFF clients who are now themselves in the military and running into the same kinds of issues that their parents did — but this was the first time that the officer who Mikey got on the phone to put a stop to some contemptible commander’s atrocious antics had been a MRFF client themselves early in their own career. Needless to say, this aide to the superior commander was very responsive to MRFF’s clients’ complaint, first verifying that the incident happened as reported, and then assuring MRFF in the following email that “senior leadership is taking swift actions of administrative punishment against this offending officer and others who also participated and bear responsibility.”