Your mission

Dear Mikey,

Nice title of your organization to hide your true anti-religious mission. Your bio describes your military experience. I wonder what the first general of our country, the first president of our country, the man who led the daring charge across the Deleware would say about your organization. He might have a comment right after he got up off his knees after praying to God. The same God that people like you are trying to push out of our country. I look around and wonder how that is working for us.
I can say with great confidence that one day we will look back at guys like you and realize that you had great impact on the demise of this great country.
Now you can put this in the “hate mail” bucket. People who respectfully disagree with you are haters. Interesting way to approach things.

(name withheld)

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Hi (name withheld)–

Thanks for your note. I can’t speak for how anyone else will perceive your email, but I don’t view it as hateful. Just today, I got a reply from another critic that I’d responded to, and he called me, in a mere 12 lines of email, all of the following — “kike rate”, “ratfilth”, “vermin”, “ratboy”, and “scum.” Perhaps you and I can start from a point of agreement that this other correspondent is certainly guilty of “hate speech.”

Happily though, you are polite enough to express yourself intelligently and to sign your name. I greatly appreciate that – thank you.

You are correct that the founder of MRFF, Mikey Weinstein, is a USAFA graduate and an Air Force veteran. I am also a USAFA graduate and an Air Force veteran – and I am also an active and devout Christian. So despite your assertion to the contrary, MRFF is in no way anti-religious. We are, however, pro-Constitution. We believe that every military member is entitled both to freedom of religion AND to live and work in an environment that is free of undue and inappropriate religious influence from others, especially leaders.

I can also assure you that, if Mikey or I had been given the opportunity to meet George Washington, neither of us would have suggested that he had no right to pray. But if you have done much reading about GW, then you know that he was also generally private about his faith and his personal expression of it. That sort of lesson is one that I think is perhaps lost on many people today — that someone can be an individual of great faith yet still take care not to infringe on the constitutional rights of others.

I don’t know if you wrote to MRFF in response to the news out of USAFA this week or for some other reason. If the former, then I encourage you to read the email exchanges in the Inbox at the MRFF website, where a number of us have answered emails with a variety of perspectives about why the “whiteboard scripture verse” is an important issue. Also, if you look for the latest news online you can find a statement from Lt Gen Johnson, USAFA Superintendent, which I think is for the most part a decent explanation of why the scripture verse was removed.

If you have something else on your mind, I’m happy to correspond with you.

Thanks again for writing.

Peace,
Mike Challman
Veteran, Christian, MRFF Supporter

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Thanks Mike. You know I appreciate you note and I get the importance of separation of church and state. But, that said, I see a lot more keeping God out in our country today than letting him in. I am 60 years old and the change just in my lifetime is profound. Your organization is promoting keeping God out – now you say you are doing it to protect religious freedom and I respect that. But if I am a soldier about to go to battle and possibly lose my life and I want to have a cross hanging by my bunk then you know what, I could give a hoot about the fact that might offend someone – they can look the other way.
I find it quite interesting that our country seems to be quite worried about the religious freedom of Muslims but tells Christians like me to shut up.
Now the red neck in me is about to come out. This country was founded with God in mind. It’s on our money, reference to God was quoted numerous times by our founders. We were founded as a Christian nation and as far as I am concerned other than the terrible institution of slavery no one was forced to come here nor are they forced to stay. As far as I am concerned we are a Christian nation and those that do not like that can leave. Like I said the redneck in me came out.

Thanks!
(name withheld)

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Thanks Mario. I’ve got plenty of redneck in me, too, and I’m proud of it — it’s the result of almost 20 years living in GA.

I don’t know if you saw the statement from the USAFA Superintendent, Lt Gen Johnson, that was released today. I think it offers a decent explanation of why USAFA leadership thought it was reasonable to remove the Scripture verse. She said —-

“A religious scripture was displayed outside a dormitory room belonging to a cadet who held a leadership position in the squadron. Another cadet prompted a discussion of appropriateness, according to policies that leaders will avoid actual or apparent use of their position to promote their personal religious beliefs to subordinates. The scripture was below the cadet’s name on a white board and could cause subordinates to doubt the leader’s religious impartiality.”

I think Gen Johnson articulates fairly well the central issue — military leaders have an obligation, based on both AF rules and the Constitution, to act in a way that supports religious impartiality in the execution of their duties. Every individual, even a leader, has the right to his own religious beliefs, and can even hold them passionately. But the leader still has a duty to ensure the unit’s overall climate is one of religious impartiality — because not every member of the unit is going to believe the same thing that the leader believes and, as Gen Johnson says, there can be neither actual or perceived promotion of a particular religious belief.

MRFF isn’t trying to “keep God out”. The majority of MRFF supporters and clients are Christians. So it’s not about fighting Christianity at all, it’s only about ensuring that every military member’s beliefs are on equal ground. This is especially critical in the very hierarchical structure of the military, where superior/subordinate relationships are unlike anything in the civilian world and leaders at all levels have tremendous control over their subordinates.

So it’s about impartiality and appropriateness. As Mikey Weinstein said at the start of this kerfuffle – “Had it been in his room – not a problem. It’s not about the belief. It’s about the time, the place and the manner.”

Thanks again for a thoughtful and interesting dialogue.

Peace,

Mike Challman