MRFF Assists Clients in Immediately Ending OIC’s Attempt to Subvert and Denigrate Independence Day Observance with Naked Sectarian Religious Proselytizing
July 1, 2024
MRFF has a significant history in responding to blatantly divisive actions by some military officers during holiday observances, who routinely undermine their oath to defend & support the U.S. Constitution in the name of their chosen religious belief. MRFF’s Senior Research Director Chris Rodda provides a concise summary of this history:
One thing we know all too well here at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is that fundamentalist Christian officers and NCOs intent on proselytizing will exploit any holiday in their attempts to bring their subordinates to Jesus. Just in the past year we’ve been called upon by junior enlisted service members to stop events such as a “Jesus Wants You To Be His Valentine” duty hours sermon and altar call and a commander’s Halloween Bible knowledge contest for soldiers “who do not wish to honor Satan.” (source: Daily Kos, 7/1/2024)
42 active duty service members (27 Christians along with Jews, Muslims, Shinto and non-religious) contacted the MRFF Installation Representatives at a large military training base on advice of their unit’s First Shirt (highest ranking NCO in the unit) after their OIC (Officer In Charge) proposed a Military Fourth of July Week ‘Protestant Chapel Attendance Competition’. The OIC’s extremely unconstitutional plans, and MRFF’s rapid response were summarized in an email from one of our clients in this matter:
[The OIC] said that our (military organization unit name withheld) would compete to see which unit would have the highest attendance at this Sunday’s on base chapel services and the winning unit would get a bunch of rewards like extra duty time off, free pizza and soda and other cool stuff…. The OIC said that it only counted if we attended the Sunday Protestant service that [the OIC] and their family go to at 1000 hours at the main base chapel. When we asked why [the OIC] said that “since most of us are Christians and Protestants that will be the one chapel service that will be counted for the attendance competition here”. [The OIC] further said that if “you aren’t Protestant you will learn a little about our Lord while you try to help your unit win the competition.” This was totally fucked up and we all knew it. I happen to be Protestant but many in our unit are not. Our First Shirt knew this was wrong but did not want to directly engage the OIC here. He sent us to (name and rank withheld) and (name and rank withheld) who are 2 of our base MRFF Reps.They were freakin great and put us in touch on a phone call late at night with Mikey Weinstein himself. Everyone was on edge but Mikey told us that our identities would stay secret and that the MRFF would roll in here hard immediately. Just 24 hours later our First Shirt announced that the “Chapel Attendance Competition” for the 4th of July had just been canceled. Instead there will be a unit picnic on base for all.
Our MRFF Reps told us they had given Mikey the contact info for our OIC’s commander 2 levels up and that Mikey had personally spoken on the phone with (senior military rank, title and name withheld) who apologized for our OIC’s actions and promised to fix them immediately.
We don’t know what exactly happened besides the “competition” being cancelled but our OIC has just this morning been removed and is now reassigned to some dogshit position reporting to a low level civilian at our transpo/motor pool unit!
We all wish to thank the MRFF for totally having our backs for the WIN! And we also want to wish the MRFF a fantastic July 4th!
MRFF commends the quick actions of the chain-of-command in this matter that resulted in the OIC’s immediate reassignment.
MRFF also commends the courage of our clients in defending their rights and the U.S. Constitution and wants to wish a happy 4th of July to all of our allies, supporters, clients, and volunteers — especially our army of Base Reps, the often unsung heroes in many of MRFF’s victories!
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Have you ever driven a car on a gravel road?
When I was in my teens, I was told to drive on the right side of the road. I assumed that meant far enough to the right to allow a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction to pass the one I was driving without the driver of either vehicle needing to move over when the vehicles meet.
That, of course, was before I actually drove a vehicle on a road that was too narrow to do that. In the meantime, however, my efforts to stay far enough to the right resulted in the right wheels of “my” vehicle sinking into the gravel enough to pull the vehicle farther to the right.
Fortunately, the first few times that happened, I was driving slow enough that it didn’t cause any serious problems but I quickly realized that either of two problems could result. 1: The vehicle could be pulled far enough to the right that, depending on the size and nature of the ditch, the car could become stuck in the ditch on the right side of the road. 2: If I were to overcorrect at higher speeds, I could wind up in the ditch on the other side of the road. Or have a head-on collision with a vehicle headed in the opposite direction.
I don’t agree with the Jehovah’s Witness doctrine that believers shouldn’t vote and shouldn’t be involved with political questions.
On the other hand, I wish more of my friends would spend enough time driving on gravel roads to understand the danger of over-correcting – and then apply that same principle in the political arena. I believe it is just as easy to lose our liberty by going too far in either direction politically. And I believe one of the dangers of political extremism is that the country as a whole might over-correct and wind up in the ditch on the other side of the road.
In either case, it is easier to stay on the road than to extract the vehicle – or the country – from the ditch after the mistakes have been made.