Transcript of 2023 Midyear MRFF Appeal Video by MRFF Advisory Board Member Mike Farrell

“Hello there. My name is Mike Farrell. I’m an actor and producer and writer. And I’m also a friend of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. I was first introduced to the MRFF, by the good offices of my late friend, Ambassador Joe Wilson, who was a big fan of their work. And he introduced me to the work and ultimately to Mikey Weinstein and his wife, Bonnie, who would become dear friends. Joe said, and I have found to be the case that Mikey and Bonnie, through their personal experience came into a situation where they had found themselves forming an organization to fight the imposition of certain belief systems, on people in our military.

Now that, of course, doesn’t square with the United States of America and our constitutionally provided separation of church and state. So, in looking at what’s going on in the military, and not only in the military, we find it around the country where there’s a great surge and support for something called Christian Nationalism. Without saying so, it’s a—generally speaking—it’s a white Christian Nationalism, all of which is an example of the overzealous approach to religious belief of certain people. And as a result of that, the MRFF was founded to ensure that the separation of church and state was honored in the U.S. military. What we’re finding, of course, unfortunately, is through leadership, through people in leadership and through the insinuation of others. There’s a sense that they want the United States military to be a Christian military and, in the words of some, Jesus’s army.

Now, I was raised a Christian. Most of the people in our country, I suppose, arguably, are Christians. But I was also raised to believe that everybody else had the right to believe as they chose or not to believe. That’s one of the great things about the United States of America. And it’s one of the things I most treasure about our country. So, I began working with MRFF. Because of the attacks on the organization, the attacks on Mikey, the attacks on his wife, Bonnie, the attacks on any of us who have associated ourselves with this work. And the MRFF, a small organization, I think, is the premier organization, working to support the separation of church and state.

So, there is a new documentary coming out. It’s called Praying for Armageddon that I would urge you to see, it’ll explain a lot more, in very dramatic ways, a lot more about what I’m talking about here. It features two of my heroes, Mikey Weinstein, and advisory board member colleague, I’m happy to say, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. I find some of the really finest people I’ve ever run across, who have stepped up to support the work of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, because they understand this work is at the core of defining who we as Americans are.

Everyone has the right to believe as he or she chooses, everyone has the right to not believe if she or he chooses. That’s what America is about. And that’s what the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is defending in the courts and personally, in lawsuits that have been filed against them. It’s quite extraordinary, and the work they do to defend themselves in the media where attacks are coming to define Mikey and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is anti-Christian, which is of course not true. That’s a blatant falsehood, but it’s one that is often used by people who claim to be Christians, but don’t really understand what Christianity is about.

So, I urge you to support the work of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. It is urgently necessary. It’s wonderful work. It’s being done by extraordinary heroic women and men in our country. Some of them in the military, most of them, many of them veterans of the military as I am, and that you will be proud to know that you are associated with the work of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation when you see the work they’re doing.

So again, watch for Praying for Armageddon. Look up the MRFF on the on the internet. Get to know the work of Mikey and Bonnie Weinstein and all of us on the advisory board. Thanks very much for paying attention.

This is an important mission at an important time in our country.”

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This transcription is from MRFF Advisory Board Member Mike Farrell’s video which may be viewed at:
MRFF.org/MidyearAppeal2023/

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