Pennsylvania VAHCS

From: (name withheld)
Subject: Pennsylvania VAHCS
Date: January 17, 2024 at 2:59:37 PM MST

Mr. Weinstein, Good afternoon, for some reason the MRFF only works on behlaf of less than thirteen veterans. On behalf of over twenty veterans would you correct the egrigious error of MRFF? Would you instruct Director Russell Lloyd to keep the Bible on the POW/MIA table? Furthermore, inform the Patient Advocate Nicole Green, Director OMalia to not remove the Bible from the table. As a Air Force retiree, disabled veteran, and on behalf of fellow veterans KEEP the Bible on the table.

(name withheld)

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Response from MRFF Founder and President Mikey Weinstein

From: Michael L Weinstein
Subject: Re: Pennsylvania VAHCS
Date: January 17, 2024 at 3:09:44 PM MST
To: (name withheld)

…hi there, (name withheld)…..unfortunately keeping that illicit bible there violates not only the U.S. Constitution but the VA’s own very clear internal regulations precisely on the matter!!…maybe read the article actually, eh, bro??!!….facts are quite useful!!  :).  :)          ….Mikey

https://conta.cc/48Ydm6y

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Response from MRFF Founder and President Mikey Weinstein

…..oh, addendum, Tim: MRFF actually works for well over 86,000 active, reserve and national guard military and vets et al …..about 95% are Christians, buddy…..our paid and volunteer MRFF staff of well over 900 ‘round-the-world is about 84% Christian as well…..!!…next question, pal??….Mikey

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Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member James T. Currie

To (name withheld):

I have been asked by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) to respond to your recent email about the large Bible that was placed on a POW/MIA table at a VA facility. You seem to be questioning the legitimacy of MRFF’s request to the VA, though you give no particular reasons why the MRFF request is inappropriate. Let me start by telling you that MRFF has served over 86,000 clients since its founding, ninety-five percent of whom have self-identified as “Christian.” The other five percent identified themselves as Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, some other religion or of no religion. All of these categories of religious belief, I would remind you, are protected by the United States Constitution and are represented in the United States military. Second, I would remind you that our enemies never discriminate when they harm American servicemembers, either by taking them prisoner or by causing them to be missing in action. All the enemy sees is an American in uniform, and that is precisely what MRFF sees when it represents these men and women who come to it for assistance. As you identify as an Air Force retiree and disabled veteran, you, more than most people, should be able to grasp the enormity of placing a Bible—which is undeniably identified with the Christian religion—on the POW/MIA table at a US Government facility. Such a placement signals to veterans and military servicemembers of other faiths that they are not regarded as equal to Christians in the eyes of the Government and that their service and their sacrifice is not held in as high esteem as is the service and sacrifice of those who identify as members of the Christian faith. VA regulations forbid such discrimination, but more importantly, Amendment One to the US Constitution forbids such discrimination. The First Amendment, you may recall, forbids the Congress—and by extension, all US Government agencies—from “respecting an establishment of religion.” President Thomas Jefferson delivered perhaps the best explication of this phrase when he wrote to the Baptist congregation in Danbury, Conn., in 1802: “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people [that is, the First Amendment] which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” “Wall of separation” is the key phrase here.

I offer this response to you in anticipation that you are a reasonable man who wants to understand the facts about what MRFF does and the basis on which it takes action. I hope I am correct in my assumption. I thank you for your service in the Air Force—you should know that MRFF’s Founder, Mikey Weinstein, is also an Air Force veteran—and for your interest in veterans’ rights. In this particular case, however, you have missed the point and are advocating against the very Constitution you swore to protect and defend as a military servicemember. I hope this has enlightened you.

Col. James T. Currie, USA (Ret.), Ph.D.
Board of Advisors, Military Religious Freedom Foundation
Ordained Presbyterian Elder

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Response from MRFF Board Member John Compere

On Jan 17, 2024, at 6:28 PM, John Compere wrote:

“(name withheld)“,

The purpose for the POW/MIA dinner table display is and has always been about REMEMBRANCE (not religion). The REMEMBRANCE display was created in 1967 by the “River Rats”, a group of American combat pilots from the Vietnam War, to symbolize leaving a place at the dinner table for American prisoners of war and Americans missing in action for when they return and to never forget them. It did not include religious scripture. The American Legion has continued this REMEMBRANCE tradition since 1985 and without religious scripture. Our POWs and MIAS are Americans of all faiths and beliefs – not just one religion. Those who attempt to publicly promote their private religion on the REMEMBRANCE displays disregard the REMEMBRANCE purpose, disrespect the REMEMBRANCE tradition and distract from REMEMBRANCE of our POWs/MIAs.

John Compere
Brigadier General, US Army (Retired)
Disabled American Veteran (Vietnam Era)
Board Member, Military Religious Freedom Foundation (Composed of 85% Christians)

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Response from MRFF Supporter Rabbi Joel Schwartzman

On Jan 17, 2024, at 7:34 PM, Rabbi Joel Schwartzman wrote:

Yo (name withheld):

“Keep the Bible on the table.”  What, do you expect the table to rise?  Are you superstitious or is it that you just like pushing your religious beliefs on everyone else before deciding that honoring the Constitution of the United States might be more important and more patriotic?

You have you priorities and your values upside down even if you don’t understand why they are so.

It’s truly sad that someone who has reached the status of ‘veteran,’ can’t even distinguish between what is inclusive and what is not; what is in the interest of all vets; and what is not; what his or her country honors and what it does not.  Pushing one’s religious beliefs down the throats of other Americans isn’t decent, cool or wise.  We all have fought for the freedoms to worship as we choose, not to worship as you would have us do. Forced religion invites pushback and deservedly so.

Give us all a break, (name withheld).  Keep an open Bible in your room and let the rest of us freely exercise our own beliefs without having people like yourself compel us to do otherwise.

Ch Col USAF (Ret) Joel R. Schwartzman
Dillon, CO

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