Commander ‘Melts-Down’ After MRFF Installation Representatives and Clients Object to History of Blatant Sectarian Religious Proselytizing at Annual Unit “Christmas Party”
December 1, 2023
Two MRFF Representatives at a U.S. military installation were approached by 47 active duty clients (36 Protestant or Catholic, 4 Jewish, 2 Islamic, 1 Buddhist, 1 Sikh, and 3 Atheist or Agnostic) requesting assistance in approaching their combat unit commander to request a more inclusive and non-sectarian holiday celebration. The commander of this combat unit is well known by his subordinates as an Evangelical Christian who belongs to a very active Christian proselytizing organization whose express mission is to spread The Gospel of Jesus Christ in the military community.
Rather than meet directly with concerned subordinates about past “Christmas Extravaganza” parties resembling more of a sectarian religious service than a party for all unit members, the commander had the MRFF Installation Reps meet with his event coordination team. During this lengthy and contentious meeting, MRFF Reps had to threaten the full involvement of MRFF President/Founder Mikey Weinstein before the event coordination team would agree to a more inclusive and less sectarian event. The MRFF Representatives provided an extraordinarily detailed account of this event’s history, their meeting with the event coordination team, and a resulting un-hinged melt-down by their commander regarding changes to his “Christmas Extravaganza” and sincere Christmas wish to destroy the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and apparently the religious freedom it stands for:
From: (MRFF Reps’/Clients’ e-mail address withheld)
Subject: Our Commander calls Mikey and MRFF “Anti-Christian Terrorists” after renaming of unit’s “Christmas Extravaganza Party”
Date: December 1, 2023 at 5:02:50 PM MST
To: Mikey Weinstein <[email protected]>Hello Mikey and all of our colleagues at the MRFF.
The undersigned are both MRFF representatives at a large U.S. military installation. We both happen to be practicing Christians however from different denominations.
Please keep any of our identity information redacted from this communication for the obvious reasons of avoiding retaliation.
We are not actually requesting Mikey or MRFF’s additional specific help on this matter at the moment as we have already been able to use our positions as MRFF reps on our military installation as a force multiplier to get our Commander to take the action we demanded from him. But we wanted you all to know what just went down anyway.
It’s just so disgraceful!
Our unit has a distinct combat mission and is fairly large and very diverse. Like most military units It is comprised of outstanding personnel from many different ethnicities, religions, cultures, theologies or lack thereof and related personal backgrounds.
Our Commander is a well known supporter of evangelical Christianity, especially never missing an opportunity to try to spread it in uniform and on duty using his rank and influence. He belongs to a well known Christian proselytizing organization whose express mission is to spread The Gospel of Jesus Christ in the military community.
In past years he has made it clear that he expected the unit’s “full participation” at “my Christmas Extravaganza Party”. Having been at the last 2 of these we can assure you that these gatherings are more like a solemn Christmas religious service and less like a party. There are chaplains who lead sectarian Christian prayers and New Testament bible readings at these events and the only Christmas carols on tap to be sung by all attendees are the most sectarian possible. No “Jingle Bells”, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” or “Frosty the Snowman”. Just “Joy to the World”, “Silent Night”, “Hark The Herald Angels Sing” and “Come All Ye Faithful” and the like. So much for morale, discipline good order and especially unit cohesion. So many attendees have felt badly alienated and ostracized. But what could we all do? It’s essentially mandatory to attend as per our Commander’s “full participation expectation”.
So this year we were asked by 47 active duty military members here at our installation to request that this agonizing event be renamed and reorganized IAW [in accordance with] all of the diversity, equity and inclusion principles of our service branch and DoD. As well as on-point service branch regulations and the Core Values of our service branch. 36 of our 47 MRFF clients are either Protestant or Catholic. 4 are Jewish, 2 are Islamic. 1 is Buddhist, 1 is Sikh and 3 self-identify as Atheist or Agnostic. At the top of our demand list to the Commander was to rename the event as our unit “Holiday Season Party” and to deep-six the name of “Christmas Extravaganza Party”.
We requested to meet with our Commander but somehow he was constantly “unavailable”. Instead he had us meet with his “Christmas Event Coordination Team”. After a pretty contentious 2 hour-plus meeting, including serious threats by us to bring in Mikey personally and the MRFF full force to achieve our goals, it was agreed to rename and reorganize the event to make it secular and inclusive for all unit attendees as per our demands. Clearly nobody from Command wanted the MRFF to roll in and engage any further which frankly we found to be delightful! We were so happy we had prevailed!
Our happiness was short-lived, however.
Several days later at a previously scheduled mandatory unit gathering, our Commander started the meeting off by getting all jacked about what had happened with our demands. He started loudly yelling about what had gone down with the new name change and other inclusive changes for “his” Christmas event and the new emphasis on inclusion and diversity. He said that the “globalist War on Christmas” had no place in his unit and that “Christmas is for everybody anyway”. He then said that he knew that many in our unit were as equally pissed off as he was. And that they should direct and vent their rage against “that anti-Christian terrorist Mikey Weinstein and the anti-Christian MRFF”. He then had the screen projector show a picture of Mikey with his 800 phone number at the MRFF plainly visible. Our Commander then additionally advised all attendees to contact their Members of Congress as Congress was “just this far away” (he held up his left thumb and left forefinger to indicate a very short distance) from finally accomplishing the banning of MRFF from even existing anymore. He even told everyone that this was his personal Christmas wish for this year.
Most people at this meeting seemed shocked by these rage antics by our Commander. People were looking around at each other with confusion, fear and even embarrassment by what he was screaming about. Needless to say no one is particularly looking forward to this mandatory “party” given the unjustified wrath displayed by our Commander towards Mikey and the MRFF. And we presume the two of us as installation MRFF reps as well.
We all want to thank Mikey and the whole of MRFF for always being there for us. Through the years the MRFF has intervened successfully many times at our particular military installation. Were it not for the MRFF we would never have had the resolve to stand up to our Commander in the first place on behalf of our 47 MRFF clients and comrades-in-arms. If any of us get any personal blowback from our Commander or his lackeys we will immediately ask for MRFF’s help in fighting back.
(Names, ranks, titles, unit, and installation of both MRFF Reps withheld)
Mikey and everyone at MRFF commends the extreme bravery of these MRFF clients and installation representatives in standing up for their (…and by extension everyone’s) religious freedom in the face of a commander serving in a position of public trust that is apparently intent on violation of the religious neutrality embodied in and required by the U.S. Constitution and their sworn oath to support and defend the same. Mikey/MRFF stands ready if further assistance is needed in responding to any negative blowback.
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