I am appalled

Mr. Weinstein,     I just read a recent article on the Navy Seals and their ongoing battle for religious exemption. I was appalled to hear your stance on the mandate of COVID-19 vaccines and I quote your own words ” Members of the military are required to get numerous other vaccines and the COVID vaccine should be absolutely no different”   How, dare you compare other vaccines to this one. You went on to say ” The very first thing we ask them is if they objected to the other numerous vaccines they were required by their chains of command to get. If their answer is ‘no’ we’re not buying that sudden ‘religious objection’ to this COVID vaccine has anything to do with a ‘sincerely held belief’ and will most assuredly NOT take them on as a client”     If this article misquoted you in anyway then you need to find it and rebuttal it. However, if this is your stance on the matter then you need to change your name of your organization, especially ‘religious freedoms’. Mr. Weinstein according to the above quote, your firm would not take me on as a client. Yes I have taken other mandated vaccines, but that doesn’t mean I really knew what I was getting.    Your bio states you served in the Air Force. I served for 10 years Active Duty Air Force. I then got out under the drawdown of forces in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I then went to the Army Guard and currently serve with the Army Reserves.   I have been on 3 deployments and 1 mobilization  taking many of the ‘mandatory shots’. Did you ever have to take Anthrax? If so how many of the series did you take? If you took less than five good, you should be okay. If you never took any then you don’t understand. You see there are 7 shots in the series and then boosters. Sound familiar. I have talked to several veterans and out of those I have spoken with, the ones who have taken 5 or more shots have experienced short term memory loss.     Oh, but the VA has yet to do a study on this, so from a lawyer’s stand point of view you would say the short term memory loss cannot be attributed to the Anthrax vaccine because it has not been ‘proven’ to have any connection.    Now, back to the COVID vaccine. As I stated I have taken previous mandated vaccines and for the most part the majority of them have went through the proper process with the correct time frame to conduct proper studies before being introduced to the public.    However, there are many people both in the military and outside the military that are raising flags on this vaccine. Not just conspiracy theorist but well seasoned professionals.      Tell me, when you went through basic. Did you question every shot you were given? No, you did like all of us. You were young and was eager to serve your country and if the truth were to be known you believed all of the threats your drill instructor gave you.    Take a closer look at what you are saying. How can you call yourself a fighter for Religious Freedoms and deny those who are Christians that want to make a stand on a vaccine that has been proven to have serious side effects?  How can you judge anyone based on the fact they have taken mandatory shots in the past?    Are you a Christian or just a lawyer using ‘Religious Freedoms’ as your platform?  Sir, if you are a Christian then you should really chew on this scripture.2 Corinthian 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.    I am a Christian and just because I have taken previous mandated vaccines does not mean I do not have convictions on this one. I am not baseing my religious exemption on aborted fetus stem cells, like I am sure some are. No, I am convicted by my beliefs that this vaccine will be harmful to my body and if I simply take it because it is mandated then I will have sacrificed not only my beliefs, but I would being putting a riff in my relationship with God.  People of different faiths have different beliefs. I don’t understand how you can lump everyone in the same category just because they have taken mandatory vaccines in the past?  As stated in 2 Corinthians, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature”.  I don’t know about you, but as for me because I am a new creature in Christ, He has made me new and convicts me everyday on things I should and shouldn’t do. I regret taking Anthrax and many other mandated vaccines I should have questioned in my youth.    However, I will not go along blindly anymore nor will I be led like a lamb to the slaughter. You also stated ” service members not taking the vaccine should not simply receive an administrative separation, but should be court-martialed and receive a less than Honorable discharge”. Are you including everyone in this statement or just the ones who flat out refuse?  Once again if you are counting those of us who are seeking religious exemption please remove “religious freedoms” from you organization.     One last thing. Because I am a Christian and because my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ commands me to do so.  I will be praying for you. I am sure you do have those that are requesting your service who are very flippant in requesting ‘religious exemption’ and do not have any true religious convictions, but don’t throw all of us under the same bus because we have taken mandatory vaccines before. Our relationship with Christ is supposed to be a real intimate, personal and passionate one. It is also an individual one. He convicts and guides each of us whom He calls His own in different ways.May God Guide you in your journey with Him.Sincerely and with much prayer

(name withheld)

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Response from MRFF Board Member John Compere

On Feb 5, 2022, at 10:05 AM, John Compere wrote:

First & foremost, thank you for your military service & the civility of your communication.This will also acknowledge receipt of your lay comments & concerns regarding this medical matter for the military as well as your right to express them. However, please be advised the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (composed of 85% Christians) does not agree that you, as a member of the military, have the right to refuse to obey a lawful order for immunization against a contagious & deadly disease.As you should know, all members of our United States Armed Forces are required to obey lawful orders. When you joined the military, you took the sworn oath required by Title 10 United States Code Section 502 which included “…I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me…”. Disobedience of a lawful order is an offense & punishable under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. We hope you will reconsider & obey lawful orders given you.

“Government is not mere advice: it is authority, with power to enforce its laws.” – George Washington (Founder, 1st President & Commander-in-Chief).”Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.” – Romans 13:1Sincerely,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 Founder and President Mikey Weinstein

From: Michael L Weinstein
Date: February 5, 2022 at 10:46:44 AM MST
To: (name withheld)

Subject:Military COVID vaccine “religious” refusniks:

(name withheld), you really do need to keep an open mind here, brother… The mandate to get this vaccine for Covid is a lawful order under the uniform code of military justice… Refusing this order violates a number of articles of the UCMJ…  I appreciate your service to this nation but your current stance is in violation of your oath as a member of the US military to support and defend the Constitution… Again, please try to keep an open mind… Mikey Weinstein… Founder and President, Military Religious Freedom Foundation…

The author is a retired 25 year Army Reserve JAG, Blue Star Mother, civilian civil rights lawyer, and longtime supporter of MRFF.

                                                                        Military COVID vaccine “religious” refusniks:

 In the 1990s, some Reserve and National Guard Officers, including some JAGs like me, and government and private physicians researching anthrax, formed a working group to oppose DoD’s first anthrax vaccine. We stood on science, fact, law, not “religion” and fetus fetishes with the goal of positive impact for individual Servicemembers and their families, and the military mission. A comparison of our motive and tactics with the baseless “religious infringement” and “constitutional” claims of some current COVID military refusniks reveals how insidious, cynical, politicized, and dangerous to our national security their tactics are.

Unlike COVID’s dramatic entry to world stage, anthrax emerged as a DoD focus during Gulf I for no apparent reason except anthrax and MidEast terrorists exist in arid soil. Anthrax is not a contagious bacteria or virus like small pox and COVID, it is spores spread by direct contact, most commonly through the skin of workers who handle hides and wool of animals living in spore-infected soil, and possibly by eating their meat. Anthrax has been used as a bioweapon; in WWII the British dropped infected cow carcasses to starving Germans. The sole documented lethal modern anthrax attack was in the U.S. Northeast, at one point attributed to a researcher in a U.S. Army laboratory mailing a stable powdered anthrax through the U.S. Postal Service. To be effective against our military, it would have to infect many people at once, which requires aerosol delivery. To make such a delivery system from wild anthrax that would not also contaminate those who used it would require sophisticated engineering (the Russians famously failed at it a 1978 68 fatality lab spill). So far, no such system is known to exist, and no anthrax attack occurred in the ensuing 20 years fighting terrorists on MidEast soil.

Anthrax has harmed our military through DoD’s vaccine. First, DoD committed to en masse vaccination without any clear threat and before it had a vaccine, much less safe and effective against a hypothetical method for an anthrax attack. To date DoD does not have a vaccine proven efficacious against inhaled anthrax. No willing reputable manufacturer would invest in research and development because the civilian market is the tiny number of people who work with animal hides/wool. DoD found an almost defunct manufacturer in MI who said it had such an anthrax vaccine in stock. It had something manufactured by a predecessor in the 1970s with a 1950s formula – a 40 year old formula predating modern trials and federal review, without proper storage for 20 years. The company was not a researcher. They cranked up the old stuff with adjuvants and gave it to us with no transparency on the risk.

Second, the rollout was years of confusion on dose and boosters. It started with 4-6 jabs the first year then every six months forever with dire warnings of health issues and having to start over if any were missed or late, impossible to administer in the transient military. Predictably, young healthy people were injured and losses to the military. Especially for the Active Duty and junior ranks without private care before Obamacare, reporting of adverse reactions was spotty. People could not get it on time because of duty locations and had to start over, ending up double dosed. Others left the military before completing, with the vaccine unavailable privately. It especially affected the country’s large Reserve where troop strength is transient but more vital to national security than most Americans know. Contrast with COVID vaccines, among the most monitored ever in part because they employ new technology still in active competitive research. Global vaccine companies are sharing efficacy and safety data with all levels of government, private physicians, researchers and the public. Private physicians are watching efficacy and adverse reactions in their patients who include most of the military (Reservists who do not get military healthcare). The adjustments in doses and boosters is warranted given our massive diverse population, the new technology and urgency of this virus – while the nation was still at war against MidEast terrorists when it began. The overall success of the COVID vaccines is despite unprecedented interference by political operatives and grifters driving panic, insane lies and conspiracy theories.

Thirty years later, despite no documented aerosolized anthrax attack, hundreds of thousands of adherents to the “religion” pastiche have taken the troubled anthrax vaccine against a farfetched threat of an Arabic terrorist anthrax attack, without “fetus” objections. They raise “religion” against only this vaccine that has scientifically unassailable high efficacy against rampant human-to-human spread, long-term debilitation, mass death, and crippling our health care systems, offering cult talk, conspiracy theories and grifts. They ignore the facts that most vaccines and even over-the-counter medicines were developed with human fetal tissue and DNA, and that the COVID vaccine was not developed only with aborted fetuses and does not put fetus parts (and microchips) into arms.

If ever there were a basis for conspiracy theories, it is the lurid and terrifying real and related facts of the only anthrax attack on Americans and connections to our anthrax objectors group. But we still stood on science and law. Those anthrax attacks occurred in 2001, shortly after 9/11, by mailed envelopes containing powdered anthrax. It killed a random elderly woman in Connecticut. I and the two most publicized anthrax vaccine refusers in our objectors group, two Connecticut National Guard pilots, lived and served in Connecticut. The federal government attributed the attacks to an Army anthrax research doctor who was a member of our group. Another anthrax research doctor in the group was close with him and claimed the government started a fire on her property to threaten her work. The Army anthrax researcher killed himself when he learned he was to be charged. It shocked our group who certainly did not foresee such a distinguished member accused. The media had covered the problems with the DoD anthrax vaccinations supposedly needed for a terrorist attack. All roads pointed to DoD, until DOJ said they were wrong about the anthrax coming from Army. Today, anything similar with COVID  would generate mass media and mob conspiracy theories and lies, sadly, apparently even in the military.

Staying the course with science and law, two years later a JAG in our group (in his private practice) with the now renowned national security attorney Mark Zaid succeeded in getting a ruling against DoD from the esteemed U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan that Servicemembers have right to informed consent for vaccines – disclosure of risks and right to refuse. That temporarily stopped the DoD anthrax vaccine and forced DoD to address some issues. By then the old shelf vaccine was gone. Contrast with COVID vaccine cases spewing conspiracies and religious exemptions which no court has upheld. There have only been limits to some regulatory powers over workplaces, and the Supreme Court upheld mandatory vaccinations of health care workers.

In sum, we will not hear science and law from military COVID refusniks because there is none upon which they can prevail. When you don’t have the law on your side, argue the facts. If no facts, argue your personal “religious beliefs” about science and the Constitution. DoD cannot bend to fabrications, mob rule, and unbecoming conduct wrapped in “religious” cloth. The best way DoD can stand for good order, discipline, cohesion, and morale is to ensure the discharges proceed only on provable facts and law.

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Response from MRFF Supporter Fr. Steven Dundas

Dear (name withheld),
To quote my training sergeant at the UCLA Army ROTC program in 1981 “The kill radius of an excuse is zero point zero meters.” 
Your email to Mr. Weinstein was an excuse, wrapped in false comparisons, and surrounded by religious platitudes.
I am a retired Navy Christian Chaplain who also served in the Army and it’s Reserve components for 17 1/2 years. I served over 39 years total, in peace and war, in combat and supporting it. I served as a Medical Service Corps Officer, including an assignment as a Company Commander on active duty, an Armor Officer, and as a Chaplain in the Army Guard and Army Reserve, and Navy Chaplain, where I reduced in rank to come back on Active Duty. As critical care ICU and ER hospital Chaplain in the civilian world and active duty I have worked two pandemics. I have seen too many people die from airborne viruses to brush this off. 
Your labored comparisons of this to Anthrax were so off base. Anthrax was not mandated for the entire military, only those going into combat zones were required to get it, and the vast majority never completed the full battery of shots. Likewise, it was not the same kind of vaccine or the same kind of disease. Anthrax is a biological agent that one had to have physical contact with, and COVID an airborne virus.
Likewise your yarns about required vaccines as we went through basic training or mobilizations were off mark. Those were not for airborne viruses. The Flu shots are, but the rest no. Viruses are completely different than things like Tetanus, Yellow Fever, or Malaria. Those don’t mutate and thus do not become pandemics. So before you launch into that argument you should do some reading I recommend John Barry’s book on the Spanish Flu “The Great Influenza”, and Michael Lewis’s new book “The Premonition: A Pandemic Story.” Ignorance is no excuse. 
There is no military or religious reason to refuse this vaccine. This is about readiness and protecting the lives of those we serve alongside, period. I dare you to cite any scripture, church tradition, or writing of any Christian theologian to support your claims that Mr. Weinstein’s organization should take people who invent religious reasons not to take a vaccine as clients. These SEALS and the people advising them know better. This is a political stunt, and even former President Trump has attracted their ire by telling people to get vaccinated. Mr. Weinstein and his organization only deals with the religious claims but he believes that everyone should be vaccinated, and that military personnel need to obey orders. Period.
One other thing. You basically state that you are ignorant about who Mr. Weinstein is and what his organization does in protecting the Constitutional liberties of all Americans serving in the military. You should take the time to find those things out before you write such a letter. Ignorance is no excuse. 
Finally, as a Christian, I am tired of other Christians using their faith and recklessly citing scripture to try to shame others, Christian or not into agreeing with them. The pious statement “I will pray for you,” has been so cheapened as to be meaningless. No wonder people are fleeing the Christian faith and churches in record numbers. 
Sincerely,
Fr. Steven Dundas, Commander, Chaplain Corps, U.S. Navy (Retired) 

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Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member Mike Farrell

(name withheld),
You do go on. It took me a while to figure out just what your concern actually was.
We won’t be removing any reference to religious freedom from our name, since our mission is the protection of that very thing. We will continue our dedication to seeing to it that the legitimate beliefs, whether religious or non-religious, of the women and men in the military are respected and protected.

And, of course, in the case of some who have recently decided that they have a sudden, convenient and spurious religious conviction that requires them to refuse to take the vaccine against Covid-19, we will continue to agree with their political and military superiors that they follow orders or leave the service.
Since you thought to bring Christ into the discussion, we know of no Christian teaching that promotes disease. In fact, since the many Christians among us worship a Jesus who wants his followers to be healthy and happy as well as respectful of the health and happiness of others, we think it is perfectly consistent with Christian principles and practices to assume that Jesus smiles beatifically on the scientific progress medical science has made with an eye toward promoting and protecting human health among his followers, and, one may assume, those of other belief systems as well.
Personnel who have come up through the ranks and unquestioningly accepted the medical requirements of service, which involve taking any number of vaccinations and medications, without claiming a religious exception, and who suddenly discover a religious prohibition based, quite obviously, on a nonsensical political campaign, are hypocrites of the first order. If you’ll read a bit more in the pages you’re so quick to cite, you’ll find that Jesus wasn’t too fond of hypocrites either.
Just as sincerely,
Mike Farrell (MRFF Board of Advisors)

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Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member James Currie

(name withheld):

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has asked me to respond to your recent email, and I am glad to do so.

Your objection to taking the Covid vaccine seems to be based on a misunderstanding of the effects of the vaccine, and not on any objection to it on any deeply-held religious grounds. The fact is that this vaccine was developed over a period of years and was placed in mass production because the world needed a defense against what has become known as “Covid 19.” I just heard on the local news radio station this morning that over 900,000 Americans have died of this disease since we first encountered it in 2019. To put that number in perspective, that’s more people than our country has lost in all the wars we have ever fought and far more than we ever lost in combat. You must concede, as a serving soldier, that any disease that virulent and deadly must be combatted in the best possible way in order to preserve military readiness.

You say that you served on active duty, then in the Army Guard, and now in the Army Reserve. We at MRFF salute you for your service. Your volunteering to continue to serve our great country indicates that you understand the value and necessity of military service. Without men and women like you who volunteer to put their lives on the line and do whatever their superiors direct, we would not exist as the United States and we would not be militarily strong. In order to be fully ready and capable, however, you must be healthy. The Army—indeed, all the military services—has strict physical standards which all of its soldiers are required to meet. These include standards for height and weight and standards for physical fitness. These standards also require that all soldiers be vaccinated against diseases they might encounter so that they will be ready to deploy as ordered. You mentioned the vaccinations you received when you first joined the Army. I also was given those vaccinations as a new Army lieutenant. I distinctly remember lining up and being inoculated against everything from smallpox to plague to yellow fever. Some of these vaccinations made my arm sore. But, I knew that the medical personnel in the Army had determined that my wellbeing and the readiness of my unit and everyone in it required that I be vaccinated against these diseases, and I was.

It is no different today. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have studied the various Covid vaccines and have determined that they are both safe and effective. Professional Army medical personnel have studied these vaccines and have reached the same conclusion. Whatever you read online to the contrary is simply incorrect. Your superiors in the military chain of command have directed that you and all other soldiers take the vaccine. There is no discussion of this directive. It is an order, and it applies to you just as much as it does to any Navy SEAL or Army Ranger or Marine or Airman. Yes, these vaccines have side effects, as all vaccines do. But over 900,000 of our fellow citizens, most of whom were not vaccinated, have died of this disease, and countless others who survived have been left permanently impaired. All because they did not accept the free vaccinations. The Army simply cannot afford this result. You are occupying a position as a sergeant first class that the Army has decided it needs you—or someone like you—to fill. If you were to come down with Covid, the Army would be the weaker. If many of your fellow soldiers were to decide, for whatever reason, that they do not want to take the vaccine, then the Army is just that much weaker, and the country’s national security is impaired.

Taking the vaccination or not taking it should not be influenced in any manner by your religious beliefs. Such rationalization is not recognized as legitimate by any major religious bodies, and even the Roman Catholic Pope says that it is religiously acceptable to take the Covid vaccine. The Covid vaccine was unfortunately politicized by someone whose name I will not mention. This politicization has led to the unnecessary death of over 900,000 of our fellow Americans. You, SFC Minton, are not out of the woods yet with regard to Covid 19, but you can do the responsible thing and agree to take the vaccine, as you have been ordered to do by your military superiors.

You have a choice to make, (name withheld). You can do your job, take the vaccine, and continue to serve our country in uniform as a citizen soldier. Or, you can be stubborn, believe all the BS and misinformation you read online, and be forced involuntarily out of the Army. You alone are responsible for making that choice. I hope you will make the correct decision.

Col. James T. Currie, USA (Ret.)

Board of Advisors, Military Religious Freedom Foundation

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Sir,    I thank you as well for your service to this great nation and your civility in your response to me as well. I would like to say all the responses I have received from your fellow members were just as civil. Unfortunately they were not, but that is okay and yet sad to say the least.     Sir, I respect the response you gave me. However, the military across the board has made it a point to give those who seek an exemption whether it be medical, administrative or religious a means to do so. I have been serving since I was 18 years old starting off in the Air Force. I got caught up in the drawdown of forces in the late 80’s early 90’s and set out for about a year before joining the Army National Guard in my home state. I switched over to the Army Reserves many years ago and have served ever since.     I fully understand what the oath I took means when I raised my hand to enlist as well as each time I did so when I re-enlisted. I love this country and would not have served as long as I have if I didn’t. However, that does not mean I gave up my religious rights when I joined.     You were very cordial to me with your response so I will be very cordial to you in my response. Sir, in all of my years serving this nation I have never seen our military so divided on an issue. I am pretty sure there has been exemptions in place over the years for other matters, but I have never seen this much attention given to them or even from higher command being forthcoming in letting Soldiers, Sailors, Airman, Marines, Coast Guardmen and now Space Force know they are available.    Your organization is there to fight for our religious freedoms and I am very aware there are many who refuse to get vaccinated based on those freedoms. However, I also understand that there are some that are using this as an excuse rather than a true conviction. One of your fellow members responded back to me citing even the Pope was on board with the vaccine. All due respect to the Pope, but just because he is the Pope does not make him the all knowing religious authority on everyone’s belief.    Sir, with much respect. I do understand disobeying a direct order is punishable under the UCMJ, but in this case it would apply if I have finished going through all of the proper channels afforded me for the requesting a religious exemption based on my beliefs. (Currently my exemption is going through the process in order to be reviewed.)  Then if I have been denied and did not seek an appeal and still refuse. Then I in fact would face this punishment. . However, that would not stop me from having my heartfelt conviction on this matter.     Sir, it is my understanding your organization is Here to fight for military service men and women’s religious freedoms. If I as a service member have a very strong religious conviction not to take the vaccine and am following the set forth guidelines to seek an exemption. Then how is this not part of  my religious freedom that I, along with with every American, has been given by our forefathers who wrote, signed and in some cases died for the Declaration of Independence.      I am not taking my stance on this lightly and am not using a religious exemption as a meer means to disobey a direct order. I understand we are to obey the authority over us, however when that authority, in my deep religious conviction, is asking me to do something I feel will indeed go against my religious beliefs, then I will not compromise.       Sir, I am a Fundamental Independent Baptist and have a very real intimate, personal and passionate relationship with God. I thank you again for your response and my hope is I have not come across with disrespect to it.     Out of all the responses I have received from other members of your organization yours was one I could respect even though I didn’t necessarily agree with all of it. I did not feel I was under attack as the others made me feel.      With all due respect please remind your fellow members. There will be those who seek out your organization in the name of religion but fly under false flags, however not all who seek your services are posers.  I am not seeking your organizations help in this matter. This all started with a simple email to Mr. Weinstein because of my opinion and what I felt I needed to say in defense of those who truly have a religious conviction in this matter.     Not everything is politically driven as one of your fellow members alluded to in the case of the Navy Seals. There are those of us who have strong convictions in the matter st hand.   Once again thank you for your cordial and civil response. I hope this one is received in the same manner.

Sincerely and much respect, (name withheld)
PS  I am sincere when I say I will be praying for you and your organization. 

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Response from MRFF Board Member John Compere

On Feb 6, 2022, at 9:26 AM, John Compere wrote:
Your right to pursue a coronavirus vaccination exemption as permitted by the military is acknowledged. You must also recognize & realize (1) 900,000 fellow Americans have died to date from this perilous pandemic which is being perpetuated by the unvaccinated and (2) 96% of the active military have been vaccinated to date to insure military readiness.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation will continue to encourage all military members to honor their sworn service oath, fulfill their duty by doing their part in military readiness & obey lawful immunization orders to prevent this highly contagious & deadly disease from spreading, infecting & harming other military members & their families.

Please read & reflect on Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31, Romans 13:8-10 & Galatians 5:14.
“A Christian lives not within himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise, he is not a Christian.” – Martin Luther (Protestant Reformation leader).
“Remember! It is Christianity to good always…to love our neighbors…to do to all men as we would have them do to us…” – Charles Dickens (English author).
“The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.” – General Norman Schwarzkopf (Gulf War Allied Forces Commander).

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Much respect Sir. Thank you for your response. As I do daily I will continue to seek God’s direct guidance in my life.

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