MRFF Action on Client Request Leads to Immediate Relocation of Sectarian Religious Message from MCB Quantico Main FB Page

July 29, 2025

MRFF President/Founder Mikey Weinstein was contacted on July 28, 2025 by one of 17 clients regarding an overly sectarian religious message that originated on a Quantico Chapel Facebook page but was then re-posted on the official FB page of Marine Corps Base (MCB) Quantico:

From: (MRFF Lead Client’s Name and E-mail Withheld)
Subject: Our Navy supervisor’s Bible studies
Date: August 19, 2025 at 8:06:22 AM MDT
To: Michael L Weinstein  <[email protected]>

Good Morning,

I was directed to send this post to y’all. Official base pages can’t post anything “DEI” related but apparently sharing about God is totally fine.

While MRFF has always believed it is appropriate and constitutional to advertise religious chapel events via communications channels intended for religious/spiritual communications, posting via official communications crosses the unconstitutional line of command endorsement of the religious message. Mikey immediately contacted MCB Quantico with our client’s concerns:

From: Michael L Weinstein <[email protected]>
Subject: MCB Quantico First Amendment Establishment Clause Complaint
Date: July 29, 2025 at 11:46:17 AM MDT
To: Lt. General Michael Borgschulte

Cc: Michael Strobl, Assistant Deputy Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs; Col. Jenny A. Colegate, Commanding Officer, MCB Quantico; Corydon Cusck

Dear Lt. General Michael Borgschulte
HQ, Marine Corps
Manpower and Reserve Affairs (M&RA)
Deputy Commandant | M&RA

Dear General Borgschulte, my name is Mikey Weinstein and I head up a large civil rights organization known as the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (mrff.org). We currently represent just under 100,000 active duty, reserve and guard, military personnel, veterans, and many others in the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, and all 18 national security agencies.

I come to you today, General, asking your gracious understanding of the complaints we have received based on the advertisement on the main official Marine Corps Base (MCB) Quantico Facebook page to come and listen to a USMC Lt. Col./Marine Corps civilian employee (we’re not sure of his exact status?) give his personal testimony about how Jesus Christ saved him from alcoholism. Indeed, this wrongly placed advertisement includes the comments from MCB Quantico, “Come hear his story!”

We have no issue with that advertisement being on the Chaplain’s Facebook page but if it’s on the main MCB Quantico page, it is unconstitutional and wrong. Seventeen US Marines (and their families) under your command have come to MRFF asking us to speak for them to get that advertisement removed from the main MCB Quantico page.

I could go into an in-depth legal analysis for you but I think it’s not that necessary. Again, sir, it is fine to advertise Chapel and Chaplain Events on the homepage, but not when it starts to cross the line into proselytizing as it is clearly doing here.

Those Marines under your command who have come to us asking for help fear revenge, retaliation, and reprisal if they try to go up through their USMC chain of command on this. We’ve been doing this very same type of civil rights advocacy for military members et al here for more than 20 years so we understand their very real fears of being targeted for trying to engage their chain on matters of church state separation such as exists in this matter at hand. All of their identification will remain completely anonymous.

Please see the email directly below, General, from our lead MRFF client on this matter.

It is clearly an establishment of one particular religious faith, Protestant Christianity, when it is promoted on your main page with a comment telling MCB Quantico personnel to attend a Protestant worship service.

General, this is an easy fix. Please take down the current advertisement for the August 10 “testimony” about how the gospel saved this particular Lt. Col./Marine Corps civilian from the ravages of drinking alcohol too much. It’s fine, appropriate, and quite constitutional where it currently sits on the Chaplain’s Facebook page as I said before, sir. Our clients only want it removed immediately from the main MCB Quantico FB page.

In closing, General, please do the right thing here expeditiously. Please kindly advise me on the particular status of this MRFF complaint, if you would be so kind, so that we here at the Foundation can, in turn, inform our 17 Marine Corps client families soonest.

Respectfully and gratefully; standing by for your decision here, sir,

Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein.
Founder and President, Military Religious Freedom Foundation
505-250-7727

To their very honorable credit, the MCB Quantico command quickly removed the post from their main FB page as pointed out in a follow-up email from MRFF’s lead client in this matter:

From: (MRFF Lead Client’s Name and E-mail Withheld)
Subject: MCB Quantico First Amendment Establishment Clause Complaint
Date:  July 28, 2025 at 9:32:07 AM MDT
To: <[email protected]>

Good Morning,

I was directed to send this post to y’all. Official base pages can’t post anything “DEI” related but apparently sharing about God is totally fine.

While MRFF has always believed it is appropriate and constitutional to advertise religious chapel events via communications channels intended for religious/spiritual communications, posting via official communications crosses the unconstitutional line of command endorsement of the religious message. Mikey immediately contacted MCB Quantico with our client’s concerns:

From: Michael L Weinstein <[email protected]>
Subject: MCB Quantico First Amendment Establishment Clause Complaint
Date:  July 29, 2025 at 11:46:17 AM MDT
To: Lt. General Michael Borgschulte

Cc: Michael Strobl, Assistant Deputy Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs; Col. Jenny A. Colegate, Commanding Officer, MCB Quantico; Corydon Cusck

Dear Lt. General Michael Borgschulte
HQ, Marine Corps
Manpower and Reserve Affairs (M&RA)
Deputy Commandant | M&RA

Dear General Borgschulte, my name is Mikey Weinstein and I head up a large civil rights organization known as the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (mrff.org). We currently represent just under 100,000 active duty, reserve and guard, military personnel, veterans, and many others in the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, and all 18 national security agencies.

I come to you today, General, asking your gracious understanding of the complaints we have received based on the advertisement on the main official Marine Corps Base (MCB) Quantico Facebook page to come and listen to a USMC Lt. Col./Marine Corps civilian employee (we’re not sure of his exact status?) give his personal testimony about how Jesus Christ saved him from alcoholism. Indeed, this wrongly placed advertisement includes the comments from MCB Quantico, “Come hear his story!”

We have no issue with that advertisement being on the Chaplain’s Facebook page but if it’s on the main MCB Quantico page, it is unconstitutional and wrong. Seventeen US Marines (and their families) under your command have come to MRFF asking us to speak for them to get that advertisement removed from the main MCB Quantico page.

I could go into an in-depth legal analysis for you but I think it’s not that necessary. Again, sir, it is fine to advertise Chapel and Chaplain Events on the homepage, but not when it starts to cross the line into proselytizing as it is clearly doing here.

Those Marines under your command who have come to us asking for help fear revenge, retaliation, and reprisal if they try to go up through their USMC chain of command on this. We’ve been doing this very same type of civil rights advocacy for military members et al here for more than 20 years so we understand their very real fears of being targeted for trying to engage their chain on matters of church state separation such as exists in this matter at hand. All of their identification will remain completely anonymous.

Please see the email directly below, General, from our lead MRFF client on this matter.

It is clearly an establishment of one particular religious faith, Protestant Christianity, when it is promoted on your main page with a comment telling MCB Quantico personnel to attend a Protestant worship service.

General, this is an easy fix. Please take down the current advertisement for the August 10 “testimony” about how the gospel saved this particular Lt. Col./Marine Corps civilian from the ravages of drinking alcohol too much. It’s fine, appropriate, and quite constitutional where it currently sits on the Chaplain’s Facebook page as I said before, sir. Our clients only want it removed immediately from the main MCB Quantico FB page.

In closing, General, please do the right thing here expeditiously. Please kindly advise me on the particular status of this MRFF complaint, if you would be so kind, so that we here at the Foundation can, in turn, inform our 17 Marine Corps client families soonest.

Respectfully and gratefully; standing by for your decision here, sir,

Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein.
Founder and President, Military Religious Freedom Foundation
505-250-7727

To their very honorable credit, the MCB Quantico command quickly removed the post from their main FB page as pointed out in a follow-up email from MRFF’s lead client in this matter:

From: (MRFF Lead Client’s Name and E-mail Withheld)
Subject: Many Thanks!
Date: July 29, 2025 at 1:52:40 PM MDT
To: Michael L Weinstein  <[email protected]>

Dear Mikey & Staff of MRFF,

I reached out to MRFF regarding a social media post on an official military page and Mikey responded within minutes. We spoke on the phone and he promised he would be addressing the issue. 24 hours later, he had contacted the official in charge and the post was removed.

When I contacted Mikey, I did not expect a response much less quick action. Thanks so much, Mikey & MRFF.

Respectfully,

Lead MRFF MCB Quantico Client

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