There is a jerk in every crowd and Mr Weinstein is it for this organization.

From: (name withheld)
Subject: There is a jerk in every crowd and Mr Weinstein is it for this organization. A wreath is not a Christian symbol.
Date: December 7, 2021 at 8:33:13 AM MST
To: [email protected]

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Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member James Currie

I have been asked by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to respond to your recent screed. I am a historian by education (Ph.D., University of Virginia), as well as a retired U.S. Army Colonel. I have researched the history of Christmas wreaths, and for your edification, here is what I found:

“Wreaths originally served as Christmas tree ornaments, and not as the standalone decorations we’re familiar with today. They were formed into a wheel-like shape partially for convenience’s sake — it was simple to hang a circle onto the branches of a tree — but the shape was also significant as a representation of divine perfection. It symbolized eternity, as the shape has no end. Together, the circular shape and the evergreen material make the wreath a representation of eternal life. It is also a representation of faith, as Christians in Europe often placed a candle on the wreath during Advent to symbolize the light that Jesus brought into the world. A German Lutheran pastor named Johann Hinrich Wichern is often given credit for turning the wreath into a symbol of the Advent, and lighting candles of various sizes and colors in a circle as Christmas approached.”

So, your assertion that a Christmas wreath is not a Christian symbol is simply wrong. So, I ask you, Mr. shad5reader, whoever or whatever you are, who is the jerk now?

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

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Response from MRFF Supporter Mike Challman

On Dec 7, 2021, at 10:01 AM, (name withheld) wrote:

Good Day – 
Mikey asked if I’d be interested in responding to your brief email.  Happy to do so, and while I won’t be so brief as to fit my entire response into the Subject line, I’ll be as concise as possible.
You don’t share much to indicate your personal beliefs, save the two things you do mention – first, that Mikey “is a jerk” and second, that “a wreath is not a Christian symbol”.
To your first belief, I can only say that I find Mikey to be a man of honor and integrity, absolutely steadfast and firm in his convictions, and completely fearless in his defense of the US Constitution (and in his defense of military members and dependents who reach out to the MRFF for help). Does his strident support of our Constitution and MRFF clients rub some people the wrong way?  Yes.  Does that make him a “jerk”?  Not in my book.  I’d want no one else fighting for me, if I were a military member or dependent whose Constitutional rights were being trashed by over-eager Christians.  And I say that as a Christian myself, a devout one to boot.  But I also recognize that the US is not a “Christian Nation” and that our Constitution demands everyone has the same rights and protections, regardless of belief (including non-belief).
To your second belief, I won’t bother to give you chapter-and-verse about the history of Christmas wreaths.  You have email, so I assume that you also have a browser that connects you to a virtual universe of relevant information.  I’ll leave that task to you and Google..  But I will point out that you are entirely incorrect.  For many centuries now, the wreath that is displayed at this time of year is absolutely a Christian symbol.  And as it relates to the current issue, re: Wreaths Across America, Mikey and the MRFF are entirely correct to speak on behalf of the survivors of American heroes who are not Christian.  And I say THAT as someone who has volunteered at these wreath placements in years past.  But I never placed a wreath on any grave that was not obviously a Christian’s place of rest, because I was not there to proselytize or, worse yet, to cause upset to any family that does not desire their loved ones grave to be so decorated desecrated. 
Hope this perspective is helpful to you.
Peace,
Mike Challman

Christian, Veteran, MRFF Supporter

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Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member Martin France

On Dec 7, 2021, at 11:42 AM, Martin France wrote:

Dear Shad,
Thanks for your erudite analysis.  It turns out that a wreath isn’t a Christian symbol–until it is.  Read the article to which I include a link in the email thread below (in which I answered another critics email) if you have any questions.  Once you’re read this thread AND the article (warning:  both contain big words not found in picture books), then please contact me with any further questions you might have. 

Sincerely,Marty France

MRFF Advisory Board Member

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Response from MRFF Board Member John Compere

On Dec 7, 2021, at 12:05 PM, John Compere wrote:

Your nonsensical name-calling reflects only on yourself & reveals your lack of knowledge regarding this religious freedom matter. For your information, the wreaths in question are Christian wreaths from a Christian organization proselytizing its version of Christianity & marketing its Christian organization. To become informed, it is recommended you see militaryreligiousfreedom.org.

Please be advised some families of deceased military veterans do not want a religious organization promoting itself & its version of religion by putting its religious symbols on the graves of their loved ones without permission. Those families believe it to be an uninvited intrusion on the personal burial site of their deceased family members.
When requested, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (composed of 85% Christians) represents the right of those families to object to & prevent thoughtless trespassing on the graves of their deceased military veterans because we respect & support the religious freedom of those families.

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

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Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member Mike Farrell

On Dec 7, 2021, at 1:53 PM, Mike wrote:

Hi (name withheld),
It’s amazing, isn’t it? Jerks pop up everywhere. You’d be amazed at the jerks we hear from and the nonsense they spout.
As to the question of whether the wreaths in question are meant as symbols of Chistianity, you might ask the people who make, sell and distribute them.
Apologies are always welcome.
Mike Farrell

(MRFF Board of Advisors)

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Response from MRFF Supporter Fr Steve Dundas

On Dec 7, 2021, at 8:54 PM, Steve wrote:
Dear (name withheld),
Only a jerk would send out an offensive and absolutely absurd heading to an email that he didn’t even bother to write. In fact, despite being a semi-retired Radiologist, you don’t think things through. Heck, even the most ignorant Jew-baiting antisemites who are too cowardly to use a real email address at least say to what they object about Mr. Weinstein.
First, you used a real email address, and yesterday the aol.com gave it away, and I looked you up. I’m not going to blast it out to the world, simply because that would be both unfair and uncalled for in this case. By looking up your email address I found out a bunch about you, and saw your Facebook page, which is so revealing as to who you are at heart. 
You are a racist, you hate immigrants, you post every out of context political meme that glorifies the ways of the pre-Civil Rights and Jim Crow South. Likewise you can be described as an all-in member of the Trump Cult and that you are completely ignorant of History. Yes, I am a recently retired combat veteran having served nearly 40 years in the Army and Navy, including 7 years assigned to the Marines. The untruths you posted about history, politics, and patriotism were so mind numbing and ill-informed that I doubt your mental and cognitive competency. I could write an academic essay on almost every historical quote or event that the memes you posted to turn them on their heads, and it would be so well documented that you could not refute it.
Since you began college in 1965 it looks as though you managed to avoid serving in Vietnam through college and medical school deferments. The fact that you listed no military service before or after college, nor is it shown on the report I obtained on you. If you began college in 1965 that would mean that you graduated high school sometime in 1964. Assuming that you were 18 in 1964 that would mean that you were born in 1945-46. Your father might have served in World War II but you were too young for Korea. You began high school, depending if your district started you as a 9th or 10th grade student in 1961 or 1962, before the big Vietnam build up, which started as you entered college, about the time of Lyndon Johnson’s election. Since you stared college in 1965, graduated medical school in 1972, and finished residency in 1976 you missed it all. You didn’t have even serve after medical school, even in the reserves. I guess you are a chicken hawk who likes to praise others for doing the dying for you.
You were probably a Democrat until Lyndon Johnson pushed the Voters Rights Act of 1964 and Civil Rights Act of 1965 through Congress, with the help of some moderate Northern and Western Republicans. This pissed off so many Southern Democrats led by Strom Thurmond, the Dixiecrats, that they jumped ship and became Republicans. You should read Jackie Robinson’s account of the 1964 GOP convention in San Francisco where this icon of service, baseball, and civil rights was horribly insulted and treated by the supporters of Barry Goldwater and the Republicans who refused to endorse the Voting Rights Act of 1964. Richard Nixon capitalized on this undisguised and unrequited racism to pursue the Southern Strategy which in the course of four decades turned the South into a Republican or should I say Dixiecrat stronghold, as determined to hold on to power by disenfranchising Blacks at every opportunity. As an interesting sidebar I find you have never lived outside the historic Confederacy. Fascinating, and you dare criticize those who live in non-Red states. 
You seem to be a proud father and grandfather to a daughter and granddaughter, but nowhere in anything is there a record or mention of you being married which I find odd. That could be an oversight on sites I found your records on, but you don’t even list one on your Facebook page. I don’t have the time to look you up on genealogy sites I have no way of knowing anything about your parents because you don’t mention them and they are not shown in public records.
You have not been on staff at a hospital since 2005, and your private practice records are quite sketchy, even the business that you identify yourself as a consultant for does not list anything about you. Also quite odd.
Like I said however, my point is not to say where you live, where you work, or anything else that would violate your privacy. It is meant to show what a jerk you are in sending this to Mr. Weinstein, who like his father before him served this country as a commissioned officer. I find it personally insulting to you calling Mr.Weinstein, a man who served his country and who fights for the religious rights of ALL who serve, a jerk over something that you are ignorant about. I also find your avoiding any form of military service in Vietnam as personally insulting. My dad, a career Navy Chief serve boots on the ground and at sea in Vietnam. Several of my friends dad’s didn’t come home.
The fact is you cannot even be bothered to look at facts that are inconvenient to you, especially what you referred to in your email header, that is your comment about the wreaths. No not all wreaths are Christian, but any put up in the Christmas season are Christian, and the ones being put on the graves of all without regard to whether they, their families, or survivors are Christian and do not approve is an ignorant and arrogant claim. The fact is, as my late father would have said, “you don’t know shit from Shinola.”
If you were a man of any integrity you would apologize to Mr. Weinstein and come clean as to who you are and what you really believe. Since I have done the investigatory and forensic work that any real historian would do, and which I am, you can own it or hide from it. I suspect that you will do that latter. It is far easier to be intellectually lazy and send out what you think are anonymous emails which lead any curious person to find out who you are. I have not mentioned your first name, where you have lived with the exception of a significantly large area of the country, where you live now, where your went to school or worked, and what it appears you do now, and I won’t, if you cease and desist from attacking my friend and a real American patriot, Mikey Weinstein.
Versehen Sie das? I figure since you were a radiologist that you had to read Dr. Roentgen and his research and invention of the X-Ray that you might know a couple of German words or Harasses, by the way I am fluent in it.
I say all of this to let you know that you are in notice and if you continue your malfeasant and probably antisemitic attacks on Mr. Weinstein, that we know enough about you to turn you in to the FBI for cross state line harassment and threats. Since you didn’t write out your complaints about him, as a reasonable person I have to assume that a threat is implied.
The ball is now in your court. It’s 4th and 15 and you have a full count in the bottom on the 9th and two outs, and you need to make a three pointer from your foul line to stay in the game. Do you feel lucky, Doctor? 
With no respect whatsoever, and feel free to call me a jerk or whatever you want to call me, because I am the Inglourious Padre Steve, and I just carved a Swastika into your internet profile. 
Fr. Steve Dundas, CDR, CHC, USN (Ret.) see I don’t hide who I am and I don’t need to. 

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