MRFF Assists Clients Expose Then Quickly End Commander’s “Crisis Christian Prayer Phone Tree” (Command Staff Responds with Naked anti-Semitism & Constitutional Ignorance)
July 29, 2026
MRFF President/Founder Mikey Weinstein was contacted by two active-duty enlisted members of the U.S. Military regarding a disturbing event that occurred during what should have been a normal onboarding process during a PCS (Permanent Change of Station). During the PCS process, these two MRFF clients were pressured by the administrative staff of the new command section to sign up for the “commander’s crisis prayer phone tree”. One MRFF client detailed what happened in the following email to Mikey:
From: (Active duty enlisted member/MRFF client’s email address withheld)
Subject: Commander’s crisis Christian prayer phone tree
Date: July 21, 2026 at 9:02:03 AM MDT
To: Information Weinstein [email protected]Mr. Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation,
Thank you for providing helpful advice when we called you yesterday. We are both active duty enlisted members of the United States (military branch withheld) newly stationed at (military installation withheld).
Having just PCS’ed there we were going through the normal in-processing and onboarding process at our new unit assignment here when this jacked up thing happened.
Administrative staff of our command section asked us each if we wanted to be placed on the “commander’s crisis prayer phone tree”. Even though both of us happen to be Christians but we were taken aback by this question as we in processed.
We asked what this “crisis prayer phone tree” thing was and we were told that “our commander is a man of the Lord”. And since the commander knows everything going on in the unit when something bad happens the commander goes to the phone tree “to ask for the Lord’s blessings and collective prayers to help those going through any sort of bad times”. It was more than obvious that the only religion associated with this so-called “crisis phone tree” was Christian by the many statements made by the command section administrative staff. (For instance they told us that our commander sponsors a weekly bible study open to all troops in his conference room during the lunch hour.) They were trying very hard to convince us to sign up for this phone tree.
Now this might sounds like it would be nice but both myself and my fellow (military branch member name withheld) were pissed and insulted as this was clearly an attempt just as we joined this unit to make sure we were Christians in synch with I guess our commander’s obvious Christian religious views.
I declined to sign up for this phone tree but my fellow (military branch member name withheld) did it because he said he “didn’t want any trouble on the first day” here in our unit. He was the one who actually suggested that we reach out to Mr. Weinstein and the MRFF for advice here. As he had done several years ago on another matter similar to this involving Christian religious views in his unit at that time.
We both very much want to thank the MRFF for fighting so hard for the rights of our military members not to have to face the burden of a commander’s influence on our personal religious views.
If there is any blowback for my decision not to sign up for this list I will contact Mr. Weinstein immediately.
Please do not reveal any of our identification or contact information. But we wanted to send in this note so that others can see what is happening in our military and it is just plain wrong!
(All ID information of active duty enlisted member/MRFF client withheld)
Mikey/MRFF quickly exposed this activity on behalf of our clients, pointing out the glaringly and blatantly unconstitutional nature of this Commander’s activities. Not only does this activity violate the 1st Amendment’s mandate of Church/State separation but also the Constitution’s prohibition against Religious Tests contained within Article VI, Clause 3. MRFF will closely monitor this situation with our clients for any blowback experienced by the client who chose not to participate in this Constitutionally obnoxious charade. Mikey succinctly described this Commander’s actions:
It’s wrong, it’s illegal, it’s immoral, it’s unconstitutional. It destroys good order, morale, discipline, and unit cohesion. And the fact that our clients could come to us to fight and expose this shows us we are different than any other outlet that they have.
Just over one week after helping MRFF’s clients expose this blatantly un-constitutional activity, our clients email Mikey with the following updated status on their Commander’s ‘Crisis Christian Phone Prayer Tree’:
From: (Active duty enlisted member/MRFF client’s email address withheld)
Subject: Update: commanders crisis Christian prayer phone tree stopped
Date: July 29, 2026 at 1:37:04 PM MDT
To: Information Weinstein [email protected]Mr. Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation,
We wanted to pass on some information and thank the MRFF again for intervening in the situation me and one of my fellow enlisted members brought to you all over a week ago.
This is referencing the “commander’s crisis Christian prayer tree” matter we brought to the MRFF.
In short we were advised by our (Senior enlisted briefer’s rank and title withheld) at a mandatory unit assembly earlier this week that this phone tree was no longer under the control of our commander. It has now been deactivated and moved to the management of the Chaplain’s office. Which makes perfect sense.
We view this as a big win and we thank the MRFF for making it happen. We wanted to make sure to let all of you be aware of it.
However on the downside when a question came to the (Senior enlisted briefer’s rank and title withheld) after we had already been dismissed as to why this change happened he said to the few of us still hanging around and I quote, “some people complained to an anti-Christian organization mostly run by Jews.” WTF? Most troops had already left but there were still a few dozen within earshot when this happened. That statement was just wild and I couldn’t believe it was said?
I cannot know with any sort of certainty as to whether any Jewish troops were there to hear it? And I guess it really doesn’t matter. No matter what it was completely fucked up! But it shows you what the command environment is here and in many other places in the (military branch name withheld). If anybody tries to register a formal complaint about it it’s hard not to believe that they are going to get jacked up stat for sure one way or the other.
Thank you again Mr. Weinstein for what the MRFF did here at (military installation name withheld) to cause the dismantling of our commander’s crisis Christian prayer phone tree.
(All ID information of Active duty enlisted member/MRFF client withheld)
MRFF will continue to monitor this obvious attempt at Command sponsored sectarian religious superiority via this obvious attempt to establish a clearly unconstitutional de facto religious test.