Don’t Let the Christian Nationalists in Congress Shut MRFF Down!!! Sign the Digital Petition and Send Letter to your Representative and Senators!

Digital Petition
Petition Letter for Representatives and Senators
Please, contact your representative and senators (see draft petition letter below), who can be identified by entering your home address at https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member); particularly if they are on their respective body’s Armed Services Committee (please see list below), and urge them to stop Rep. Turner’s amendment.
Please let us know if you hear back from your Senator/Representative at [email protected].
Petition for Removal of Rep. Mike Turner’s (R-OH) blatantly unconstitutional National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) amendment to make it ILLEGAL for members of the military to communicate with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF)
Dear (Senator or Representative) <insert name>
Recently, the U.S. House Armed Services Committee passed an amendment to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which bars the use of funds “to communicate with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation” (MRFF), or to “take any action or make any decision” regarding a matter raised by the MRFF “without the authority of the Secretary of Defense”.
The MRFF has but one goal… ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and No Religious Test Clause of Article VI. The MRFF provides invaluable assistance to U.S. military personnel seeking to protect their rights to religious freedom and avoid having to endure any imposed religious viewpoint over their own belief system. While providing this critical assistance to over 84,000 U.S. Military clients (active duty, reserve, veteran, national guard, civilian contractor) for almost two decades (since 2005), the MRFF received 7 Nobel Peace Prize nominations and recognition for its Founder/President Mikey Weinstein as one of the 2012 DefenseNews 100 Most Influential People in U.S. Defense.
The proposed amendment to the 2024 NDAA is a blatant assault on the ability of all U.S. service members to obtain crucial assistance and advocacy during their service. It is clearly an unconstitutional denial of the rights of free speech and governmental petition for all U.S. service members. Finally, this is a naked attack on any U.S. service member who observes a minority faith, an alternative denomination or tradition within the majority faith, or even no religious faith who may (and often do) suffer discrimination as a consequence during their service.
This proposed amendment clearly violates the Constitution in several ways and is a naked attempt to destroy religious freedom in the military by allowing commanding officers to ignore the military regulations and first amendment protections guaranteeing freedom of religion for members of our armed forces, without any consequences.
Please do not vote for the 2024 NDAA unless this vicious and un-American amendment is removed from the bill. Your consideration and appropriate action is greatly appreciated.
Respectfully,
<your name inserted>
Senate Armed Services Cmte:
- Jack Reed, Rhode Island, Chair
- Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire
- Kirsten Gillibrand, New York
- Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut
- Mazie Hirono, Hawaii
- Tim Kaine, Virginia
- Angus King, Maine
- Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts
- Gary Peters, Michigan
- Joe Manchin, West Virginia
- Tammy Duckworth, Illinois
- Jacky Rosen, Nevada
- Mark Kelly, Arizona
- Roger Wicker, Mississippi, Ranking Member
- Deb Fischer, Nebraska
- Tom Cotton, Arkansas
- Mike Rounds, South Dakota
- Joni Ernst, Iowa
- Dan Sullivan, Alaska
- Kevin Cramer, North Dakota
- Rick Scott, Florida
- Tommy Tuberville, Alabama
- Markwayne Mullin, Oklahoma
- Ted Budd, North Carolina
- Eric Schmitt, Missouri
House Armed Services Cmte:
- Mike Rogers, Alabama, Chair
- Joe Wilson, South Carolina
- Mike Turner, Ohio
- Doug Lamborn, Colorado
- Rob Wittman, Virginia
- Austin Scott, Georgia
- Sam Graves, Missouri
- Elise Stefanik, New York
- Scott DesJarlais, Tennessee
- Trent Kelly, Mississippi
- Mike Gallagher, Wisconsin
- Matt Gaetz, Florida
- Don Bacon, Nebraska
- Jim Banks, Indiana
- Jack Bergman, Michigan
- Michael Waltz, Florida
- Mike Johnson, Louisiana
- Lisa McClain, Michigan
- Ronny Jackson, Texas
- Pat Fallon, Texas
- Carlos A. Giménez, Florida
- Nancy Mace, South Carolina
- Brad Finstad, Minnesota
- Dale Strong, Alabama
- Morgan Luttrell, Texas
- Jen Kiggans, Virginia
- Nick LaLota, New York
- James Moylan, Guam
- Mark Alford, Missouri
- Cory Mills, Florida
- Rich McCormick, Georgia
- Adam Smith, Washington, Ranking Member
- Joe Courtney, Connecticut
- John Garamendi, California
- Donald Norcross, New Jersey
- Ruben Gallego, Arizona
- Seth Moulton, Massachusetts
- Salud Carbajal, California
- Ro Khanna, California
- Bill Keating, Massachusetts
- Andy Kim, New Jersey
- Chrissy Houlahan, Pennsylvania
- Jason Crow, Colorado (until February 27, 2023)
- Elissa Slotkin, Michigan
- Mikie Sherrill, New Jersey
- Veronica Escobar, Texas
- Jared Golden, Maine
- Sara Jacobs, California
- Marilyn Strickland, Washington
- Pat Ryan, New York
- Jeff Jackson, North Carolina
- Gabe Vasquez, New Mexico
- Chris Deluzio, Pennsylvania
- Jill Tokuda, Hawaii
- Don Davis, North Carolina
- Jennifer McClellan, Virginia (from March 8, 2023)
- Terri Sewell, Alabama
- Steven Horsford, Nevada
- Jimmy Panetta, California
- Marc Veasey, Texas
Why We Need Your Help
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has had plenty of run-ins with Christian nationalist GOP members of Congress over the years. There was MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein’s 2014 testimony before the House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Personnel that was crashed by members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus who weren’t members of the subcommittee to berate Mikey. (Watch video here.) And there have been a slew of letters written by GOP, and more recently MAGA, House members and senators to the Secretary of Defense or VA Secretary decrying this or that MRFF victory and demanding that these victories be reversed. (See here, here, here, here for a few examples.) Mainly consisting of ineffectual letter-writing and some bitching on Fox News and occasionally on the House floor, the GOP’s attacks on MRFF have been easily taken in stride — UNTIL NOW.
In an almost inconceivable action, a Christian nationalist GOP congressman, Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, has introduced actual legislation to shut MRFF down — to make it ILLEGAL for Department of Defense personnel to even communicate with MRFF!
Yes, this is how scared the Christian nationalists are of MRFF’s success in fighting for the religious freedom of our service members and against the spread of Christian nationalism in our military. They now see the only way to try to stop us is to make us illegal for military personnel!
Turner’s legislation comes in the form of an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2024 — an amendment that was PASSED last week in the GOP-led House Armed Services Committee’s markup of the NDAA.
This is the text of Turner’s unbelievable amendment:
LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS RELATED TO MILITARY RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FOUNDATION.
None of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2024 for the Department of Defense may be used—
(1) to communicate with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, its leadership, or its founder; or
(2) to take any action or make any decision as a result of any claim, objection, or protest made by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation without the authority of the Secretary of Defense.
If this amendment remains in the final bill, it will become LAW, specifically it will become part of Title 10 of the U.S. Code, also known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). This means that if a military commander even responds to an email from MRFF, or makes any decision as a result of being contacted by MRFF, that commander can be charged with violating the UCMJ and potentially face a court-martial!
In addition to obstructing MRFF’s crucial ability to communicate with commanders to advocate for the constitutionally-guaranteed rights of our service members, this amendment would also obliterate MRFF’s ability to get responses to or FOIA requests since it would be illegal for any FOIA officer to respond to our requests.
In other words, THE GOAL OF TURNER’S AMENDMENT IS TO SHUT MRFF DOWN!!!
This is nothing short of a completely unconstitutional bill of attainder, defined as “legislation that imposes punishment on a specific person or group of people without a judicial trial,” and explicitly prohibited by Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3 of the Constitution, which states: “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.”
This amendment was passed by the House Armed Services Committee as part of an en bloc package, meaning the committee members were voting on a list of numbers that was rattled off as a package. There was no reading of or debate on each individual amendment, allowing Turner to easily sneak in his reprehensible shut-MRFF-down amendment and get it passed. Turner even seems to be trying to hide this amendment from his constituents, omitting it from the list of NDAA amendments that he’s boasting on his website about getting passed.
We can’t let this horrifying and flagrantly unconstitutional amendment end up in the final NDAA!
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🤣Bye Felicia.
The Republicans/ Russians just shutdown Thom Hartmann’s Show @1:19 est. for talking about this, 7/6/23. Interesting. The show is back on but . . . sure , just a coincidence.
As a career soldier who retired over 20 yeares ago, and a non-Christian believer, this type of behaviour is scary at best. As a minority (religious), I am concerned whether I will be welcome in my country anymore after 2025, if one of these extremists gets into the white house. Is this what we can expect?
I just turned on Thom Hartmann’s show this morning and caught part of the discussion about MRFF. I signed the petition and now going to read more information about this very important organization.
Lmao, dipshit progressive liberals Unite! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤡🤡🤡🤡
I just signed the petition, but I can’t see how to send the letter to my representative and senators. can you fix the website to do this? thank you
How is this possible.. The GOP are Nazis.. plain and simple.. Hitler did this very thing..The Christian national are Domestic Terrorist hiding under the Name of Jesus.. violating the soldiers right to freedom of religion where are the civil liberty attorneys why aren’t they filing any action against this??🇺🇸
All religions are cults..ban their fairytale bible
The MRFF ship is sinking. Puts on MRFF.
You know, the book Josh Hawley put together about his interpretation of what manhood is was written for Ultra MAGA Republicans. Their jack-booted policy positions are nothing but representations of their own emasculation, you know, hold up a clenched fist to insurrectionists but run like a little pussy-ass-bitch on Jan 6.
I signed the petition and wrote to all my reps, but I don’t think the MRFF has anything to worry about. The MAGATs are beginning to eat themselves!
I suspect that the theocrat strategy to get around the constitutional violations of forbidding communication with MRFF is to put it into a fiscal appropriations bill and prohibit expenditures rather than communications.
Notice the first part of it: (emphasis added) “NONE OF THE FUNDS authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2024 for the Department of Defense
MAY BE USED—(1) to communicate with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, its leadership, or its founder; or” That means that a military person could still communicate with MRFF using their personal phone or computer while off duty.
This law would also create conflicting requirements for anyone in the military receiving an FOIA request from MRFF: the FOIA law requires some kind of response to an inquiry within 20 days, but this law would prohibit ANY response, even acknowledging receipt of the request.
Maybe Sec Def Austin could announce that if this law passes he will immediately give blanket permission for anyone in the US military to communicate with MRFF.
The Christian Taliban wants women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, young people, old people, black people and all people of color to “know their place” and defer to their white “superiors,” disabled people, non-heterosexual people or gender fluid people to get back in the closet. They want a uniformly extremist Evangelical Christian ruling party who will dictate to the rest of us how we are to live, what we are to believe, what we are allowed to say and think. They have no ability to imagine how enriched our lives are by respecting and learning from each others cultural and religious views. To them, diversity is a threat and people who are culturally or religiously different than them must be at least controlled and at most eliminated if they will not submit. Sound like Germany in the 1930’s-46?
God will ALWAYS triumph over the godless.
“God will always triumph over the Godless?” Is this the same God that allows little babies to get their faces shot off in school classrooms by Trump cultists? The Ultra MAGAT dredges of society? By far, the majority of mass shooter are Christian white males. Social miscreants, flotsam, living in the Trump cesspool.
How ‘bout, “ You can shove your Christian God right up your ass!”
Good comments here by all except the ass-licking anonymous Trump cretin.
Good points Tom O – I think there will be legal challenges if passed.
Anyone voting Republican in 24 is voting against this country, against “The People,” in favor of more mass shootings, more inequality, less healthcare, poor educational systems, less democracy, et al.
Republicans – Out the Door in 24!
Are you a fucking moron? Name the mass shooters that were known Christians? Gotta be the dumbest fucking thing youve written on here thus far.
Rave on bat shit.
Tell us the ones that weren’t!
I’m not playing that asinine leftist game. You made the claim, now substantiate it big guy. Ill give you a hint, its not in the Tranny manifesto.
The troll posting here doesn’t sound very Christian. No wonder people are leaving the church in droves.
Cool name, Jojo… for a fucking zoo animal.
Answer to a comment:
Took a swim in the interwebz to see if a correlation between faith and shooter exists. Even asking for that specific qualifier I didn’t find any data supporting my hypothesis.
So I asked a different question, what do the shooters have in common which provided a metric ton of data. A couple of items struck me, specifically the shooter felt aggrieved, trapped by their societal norms, and had ready access to firearms.
As our trolls are quick to point out, liberals and progressives are too free, mocking the traditional roles conservatives hold near and dear to their heart. We advocate for red flag laws and logical legislation when it comes to firearm ownership. And most damning, it’s the Nationalist Christians preaching every week about evil libruls and how they want to take their guns and end their way of life. Anyone on the edge can’t help but become radicalized.
The last point I found (which broke my heart) is many of the shooters viewed their attacks as a way to commit suicide – that they’d rather be dead than alive and they were going to take a few with them. Selfish of the shooter but still, empathy doesn’t differentiate.
I’m with Thom H. We need to shame those Democrats on the House Armed Services Comm. for letting this slip by. This is their job for heaven’s sake. And they do have ample staff to assist them.
MRFFDaysAreNumbered – we already know you don’t have manners. So you are insulting facts now?
Jojo is correct, IFB (Independent Fundamentalist Baptists) and other Nationalist Christian churches are leaking humans in droves. As a whole the number loss isn’t so apparent as parishioners move from church to church, always seeking that one pastor who fluffs their ego just right and hates the same humans they hate. That said, the slow attrition means numbers continue to dwindle until poof, the community implodes in a fury of purity testing and shoving each other off the bridge (see Emo Phillips greatest joke ever told for reference).
When all religions are banned from the public square it will be due to Nationalist Christians doing their best to turn the USA into a theocracy.
Thanks for doing Ironmoped’s research for him. He lost a good amount of credibility on that bullshit.
4500 Protestant church closures in 2019, with only 67% attending church at least once a year in 2022. 30% of the US population is religiously unaffiliated and growing…..exponentially!
I suspect the rate of closures will increase given the MAGAT obsession of forcing their religion having just the opposite effect. They’re eating their own! Drowning in their own “do as I say” religiosity while the younger generations call bullshit on the mythical magic of their all-seeing, all-knowing gun loving God as he let’s little babies get their faces blown off!
Good comment Jojo!
MRFFDaysAreNumbered The ONLY person losing credibility is you for making stuff up and spewing as if it’s factual.
It took me less than five minutes to do my research. You’ve yet to produce one verifiable fact. You have the right speech, just not any ability or talent.
Nice troll.
I signed the petition and Its obvious that religious fanatics are a big national problem. MRFF does great work!!
Praise the Lord, let this happen, that MRFF is shut down. I will be sure to contact the congress people from my state to vote for this to happen.
These people are doing more harm to the outreach of Christianity then they know. They are turning so many against the teachings of Jesus that it harms a true chance express love and to reach out to others.
What are you on about GreyBeard. Your buddy just spouted a bunch of lies about how most mass shooters were Christian that you debunked in 5 minutes. He Just pulled it right out of his arse in true Liberal fashion. But somehow Im the one making stuff up? You idiots will protect your own till the end. Get real.
James Chamberlain, I feel the need to make a distinction here; Nationalist Christians have nothing in common (except the name Christian) with any human who follows the very specific instructions stated by Jesus in the Christian holy book.
How to tell the difference? Cruelty is the defining characteristic. Nationalist Christians ooze cruelty, they can’t help it.
MRFFDaysAreNumbered, please review your reading for comprehension skills.
In the data I posted there were a couple of signifiers, specifically a feeling of being aggrieved or persecuted. There is no other classification of humans other than Nationalist Christians who have cornered the market on self-identified persecution.
None of the data I found listed religion but that tracks with the media in the USA’s inability to call out Nationalist Christians as a threat to our Democracy.
Ironmoped said what they said. I’ve no problem with them.
You though, MRFFDaysAreNumbered, have yet to provide one fact. Ever. In the ‘game’ you seem to be playing in your little head it appears you are losing.
When your opponent is in the middle of owning themselves, stay out of their way. Sun Tzu for the current epoch.
Looks like I hit a MAGAT nerve!
He must have pulled his head out of his ass long enough to feel his MAGAT lips pucker up to kiss the Orange Man’s ass. Reflexive on the right, they can’t help it!
Get a little feeling back in your face Jism. I know you said you don’t support Trump but you’re a MAGAT through and through!
I’d give you some Christian Mass-Shooter references but kind of hard to read with your head up your ass!
I think you figured it out though, all those mass shootings were done by black people in White Face! Kind of like the BLM folks that stormed the Capital! They had me fooled for a while! Glad you straightened us all out!
Pucker Up! Kissy Kissy!
It really doesnt get any more clowny than this. You somehow did enough mental gymnastics to extrapolate Christian Nationalist from “aggrieved and persecuted”?
You really are a special type of retarded. My reading comprehension skills are fine, your analytical reasoning skills are dogshit.
Theres no Christian Nationalist mass shooter dipshit. Not a single one.
Hit another nerve! OK, breaks over – deep breath, in you go!
You just worry about your dis/misinformation campaign.
MRFFDaysAreNumbered just wrote “You just worry about your dis/misinformation campaign.”
I’m sure NumberedDays believes they are accurately relaying the message delivered to them by their Voices of Authority. The confidence exhibited as they dismiss historical documentation leads me to believe they are a follower of the Barton boys. The Bartons (father and son I believe) are two of the largest spreaders of false founding father quotes and misinterpretation of the Constitution. They are who most IFB preachers quote when they say they have proof the USA was founded as a Christian Nation.
Masterful job of trolling if MRFFDaysAreNumbered is just out for clicks and laughs as they poke sleeping giants. Scary beyond words if MRFFDaysAreNumbered actually believes the crap they spew because I can tell you (as you also well know) there are millions of humans exactly like MRFFDaysAreNumbered.
The only thing that provides hope for me (aside from the heroes share of work completed by the MRFF) is the knowledge that when one’s opponent is freaking out and tearing itself apart to the level I’ve witnessed in the past month, then there are other factors at work aside from the battles we fight every day. Our opponent appears very powerful and scary but please, We Are Americans. We take nothing and turn it into something and have been doing so for a very long time. Are we perfect? No, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Perfect is boring. Having something to work on keeps me (and others too I presume) out of trouble.
I finally figured it out, this is a joke website like the Onion or something similar. Had me goin for a while.
Republicans – Out the Door in 24!
wont happen, in the fact the opposite will.
The commonly repeated trope that the founders were Christian is false. Some were Christian, others were Deists, the US Constitution was founded on Enlightenment theories.
The constitution was guided by Christian beliefs and morals whether or not consciously, by our founding fathers. Deal with it
“The constitution was guided by Christian beliefs and morals” Which specific Christian “beliefs and morals” are those? The Constitution does NOT mention God, and its ONLY references to religion are in Article 6 “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States” and the first words of the Bill of Rights “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”
Here’s a comparison between “Christian principles” and the principles on which the US constitution was actually based, which were an attempt to prevent the repression prevalent in European monarchies.
MONARCHY
All power comes from above: God > king, king > subjects, and it’s unlimited
Some people are inherently superior to others
Everyone has to follow the religion the authorities impose on them
Truth is what the authorities say it is, and no one is allowed to question that
The people exist to serve their “superiors”
US CONSTITUTION
Government derives its power from the consent of the governed
Everyone has equal rights: no one is inherently “better” than anyone else
Anyone can believe in whatever religion (or none) they choose, and government can’t favor any religion over another
Truth is best found by free debate, where anyone can question any belief
Government exists to serve the people
Which of those two sets of “principles” is more similar to those of Christianity, or organized religion in general?
Remember how embarrassing it was when Biden said “God Save the Queen”, like some loyal British subject like in the Monarchy you mentioned. I do.
Troll with the changing name insists the Founding Fathers used religion when writing the Constitution. In a way they are correct as the creators of the USA had just lived through a horrible dragged out war over religion (Christian vs Christian) and wanted to be sure their new creation would never ever have to face the same as themselves.
It’s too bad historians with an agenda (looking at you, Barton boys) were allowed to spew their nonsense unchallenged. It’s given rise to the stupid we have thrown at this site. And it’s also too bad the Barton’s audience have a lack of curiosity which might have led them to documents written by actual founding fathers rather than an interpretation of a review of someone who read a book once.
And, as Tom O has repeatedly requested, where exactly is this influence the Nationalist Christians claim? Shouldn’t be hard to present one’s findings, unless there isn’t anything to find (which those on this site have been saying for years!)
Sigh. Lalalala.
It took me two minutes to discover President Biden was talking to someone in the audience, not to you boo.
See, when adulting most humans understand not everything is about them. Apparently Lalalala missed that lesson.
Embarrassing. Really.
what difference does it make? what US president would ever utter the words in public? only dementia Joe.
MRFF needs to exist. Christofascists have no place in our constitutional republic.
We been running shit for years Darling.
Gsst says “We been running shit for years Darling.”
Yes, yes you have ‘run things’ which is why the nation is in such trouble. Had you followed the clear instructions contained in the owners manual (aka US Constitution and Bill of Rights) the nation wouldn’t be in such bad shape.
But noooo – you Christian nationalists always think you alone have all the answers when in truth you barely have enough knowledge to guide yourselves out of a paper bag. Now y’all are whining about how you want to go back so you can do what you’ve always done.
Gsst, time moves one way in the here/now. The track record of you and your fellow Christian nationalists is clear.
We are never going back. Buckle up buttercup. An inclusive future is now whether you’re ready for it or not.