MRFF Allies Steve Dundas and Mike Challman Respond to Claims MRFF Reporting Is “Misinformation”

From: (name withheld)
Subject: Misinformation
Date: March 5, 2026 at 4:42:49 PM MST
To: [email protected]

I am currently serving and this news you’re spreading of commanders preaching about Jesus is all by anonymous sources. I have not heard of any such thing. Without names of offenders, this is just click bait. I am a proud atheist and what you’re doing is wrong. 

---

Response from MRFF Supporter Steve Dundas

On Mar 5, 2026, at 10:53 PM, Steven Dundas wrote:
 
 Dear (name withheld),

 I am responding to your email to Mr. Weinstein. I am a retired Navy Chaplain and combat veteran. I served nearly 40 years in the Army and Navy combined, about 28 of which were as a Chaplain. I am the child of a Navy Chief Petty Officer and grew up in Navy chapels. I enlisted in the Army National Guard while in college and attending UCLA’s Army ROTC program, and was commissioned as a Medical Service Corps officer in 1983. I retired as a Navy Chaplain with the rank of Commander in December 2020. I became a National Guard Chaplain in 1992 after leaving active duty to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1988. I served in the Guard and Army Reserve as a Chaplain from 1992 to 1999 when my last active duty mobilization ended, giving up my rank of Major to enter the Navy as a Navy Lieutenant with no time in grade. I served with the Second Marine Division, aboard USS HUE CITY CG-66 during Operation Enduring Freedom, and was an advisor to a boarding team that monitored impounded Iraqi ships violating the UN sanctions against Iraq in 2002. I then served with Security Force Battalion and Navy EOD Group Two before being deployed to support U.S. Army and Marine Corps advisors in Al Anbar Province in Iraq from 2007-2008. I served in Naval Medical Centers and hospitals before I was assigned as Chaplain and faculty at the Joint Forces Staff College from 2013-2017 where I taught ethics and led the Gettysburg Staff Ride. My final tour was as a base Chaplain.

 Education wise I have a BA in History from California State University, Northridge (1982), a Master of Divinity (92 semester hours) from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1992) and a year long Clinical Pastoral Education Residency at Parkland Memorial Hospital in 1993-1994 while serving in the Texas Army National Guard. I took a contract chaplain position at a hospital in Huntington, West Virginia before being mobilized to support the Bosnia operation (Operation Joint Endeavor) in 1996 through 1997 and lost my contact. The Army then sent me to be the last Federal Chaplain at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania from April 1997-October 1998. After I entered the Navy I graduated from the Marine Corps Command and Staff College in 2005, and earned a Masters Degree in Military History from American Military University in 2010. After my retirement, my first book “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: Religion and the Politics of Race in the Civil War Era and Beyond” was published by Potomac Books of the University of Nebraska Press in 2022. Those are just some of my credentials.

 You claim to be serving now as an Atheist. Maybe unusually for a chaplain, many of my best friends in the military were and remain proud Atheists who were willing to identify as such in an often hostile environment. I am a bit confused because you don’t believe the story because the sources remain anonymous and Mr. Weinstein maintains their confidentiality. However, you don’t reveal your name, rank, or what military branch that you serve. Your email address has a name, but I have found that many people use aliases in the email address. I have tools to look you up and see if you are who your email address says that you are, but I haven’t gone there yet, because I want to show a modicum of respect for your anonymity.

 Since you claim to be an Atheist who is currently serving I am curious about your lack of understanding of the military and how it often deals with whistleblowers or people who rock the boat. I saw that as a platoon leader, company Executive Officer and Company Commander, as well as battalion, group, and brigade S-1, personnel officer before I became a Chaplain. I have seen more in my lifetime than you can imagine. Young might not have even been born yet, but my experience of this is broad and personal.

 The pressure on military personnel to comply with superiors, even in events not related to their service is great. I can go back to the 1980s on this, being pressured to attend the National Prayer Breakfast services in Wiesbaden Germany, and at Fort San Houston, Texas. Having a direct superior pressure me to attend his Bible study and church, and to distribute tickets for the Fort Sam Houston National Prayer Breakfast. That was in the mid 1980s, and I was a young Evangelical Christian who did not want to offend my superiors.

 My first endorser for the military Chaplaincy was a retired Army Chaplain who was very much a Christian Nationalist. He believed that it was the job of chaplains to evangelize and to advise their commanders to endorse right wing Christian policies. I had problems with that and more than once had to support soldiers who were being targeted for their beliefs by their commanders and whose “Christian” Chaplains who refused to endorse necessary personnel requests because of their non-Christian beliefs. These were personnel requests, completely administrative, but which because of regulations required a Chaplain to sign off on them. I signed off on them and was respected by the command for doing so without prejudice. That was in 1997.

 During my first few tours in the Navy I was exceptionally busy on the tactical side being deployed to see higher level religious policies, but pressure was always on us to support the National Prayer Breakfasts. However, I found myself busy guarding the religious rights and freedoms of Marines and Sailors from overzealous Chaplains or lower level officers and NCOs. I was always supported by my commanders in protecting the rights of our personnel of religious minorities, or Atheists and agnostics. I began to see more pressure when serving ashore, especially in Naval medicine facilities, this was mostly due to senior enlisted personnel who were zealous in their faith, and some officers, but not the medical center or hospital commanders. Once again, my work was to support people regardless of their beliefs, not mine, because when it comes to military service, it is the Constitution that is the guide, not the Bible or the tenants of any church or religion. While at a major Naval Medical Center in 2010 I served in a very conservative “pro-life” Anglo-Catholic denomination. We has the wife of a sailor who was pregnant with twins and was diagnosed with a fast moving ovarian cancer. Without an abortion she and her unborn twins would die. I had to write a memorandum to the Admiral, who was a conservative Christian and in addition to being a medical doctor was a seminary graduate. Since under the Hyde Amendment military hospitals cannot conduct abortions, we had to make an exception to policy, not based on my religious beliefs, but due to the prognosis. The Radiologists refused to due the radiation treatments to save her from the cancer unless the exception to the abortion policy was granted. I looked at the young woman and her husband and in my heart I realized that the abortion was necessary for the woman to live regardless of their beliefs beliefs of my church. I wrote the letter, and the Admiral authorized the procedure.

 Over the next few years I worked to protect the rights of military personnel regardless of their faith, which ranged from members of small fundamentalist Christian bodies, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, agnostics, and practitioners of Wiccan, Native American faiths, and Pagans, even helping them get lay leader training so their activities fell under the protection of the command religious program.

 During my time in ministry, I found that if I could not support the Constitutional rights of others, that I could not be a Chaplain in good faith.

 Now let me get to the nitty gritty aspects of this subject in light of our military personnel being forced to hear commanders and possibly Chaplains telling them that the war against Iran is to bring about Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. I grew up in an evangelical Christianity that was pervaded with the false beliefs promoted by the “Pre-millennial dispensationalists” that advocate the necessity of the “Rapture” and the final battle that is colloquially known as Armageddon which are necessary for the second coming of Christ. It wasn’t until seminary until I rejected it as a late development and heresy, not supported by Scripture or orthodox Christian theology.

 I personally don’t care if people believe until they start using their positions in the military to shove it down the throats of their subordinates. This is where the rubber meets the road, and not just in this case, but in every situation where superiors coerce subordinates into following their religious beliefs. As I said earlier, you say that you serve in the military and are an Athiest and haven’t seen evidence of this. As such I have to believe that you haven’t served that long or have been incredibly lucky, as an Athiest to not have experienced this.

 The reason military personnel go to Mikey Weinstein and MRFF and ask for complete confidentiality is because of the reprisal faced by whistle blowers everywhere. The military does not need to punish a service member through the UCMJ. The most cunning use simple administrative methods. A couple of low marks on an Evaluation or FITREP, not major stuff, but just enough to keep someone from promotion, advanced training or schools, or important positions needed for future promotion. I was a personnel officer. I know that it isn’t that hard to torpedo a career. Junior personnel are the most vulnerable because they believe that they have no power, and even senior NCOs and Officers can be susceptible to such internal pressure. As such, even when they contact MRFF, they want to know that their confidentiality will be honored.

 But then there are other situations that people, especially Chaplains can find themselves in. I speak from experience. I know from this from experience. When I returned from Iraq in 2008 I was suffering from severe PTSD and something that I had never heard of before, “moral injury”. When I returned from Iraq I was suffering. My wife didn’t understand what was happening to me, and it wasn’t until the late summer of 2008 that I knew that I was in trouble, and our Group Medical Officer finally pulled me aside and asked if I was okay. I said that I didn’t think so. He referred me for evaluation and treatment of PTSD. That was just the beginning. My therapist asked me what I was going to do, and I started blogging about it. That was the beginning of then end of my military career. I told of how little help I received from the Chaplain Corps, and how I felt abandoned. Because my story hadn’t yet hit the press I was selected for commander and I was sent on a tour to be the Department Head of Pastoral Care and Counseling at Naval Hospital Camp LeLuene. While there a local reporter with the Jacksonville, NC Daily News newspaper found out about me and asked our PAO to arrange an interview. That made the front page. Then, the DOD Public Affairs agency which had a video service dedicated to publicizing the stories of veterans dealing with PTSD asked me to do a video.

 I received no support from the Chief of Chaplains office even though individual Chaplains and other military personnel thanked me for coming out. After I was transferred to the Joint Forces Staff College in 2013 I was approached by the DOD PAO to do an interview with the Washington Times. That interview made their front page and though I was still doing really bad psychologically and spiritually, I received no support from the Chaplain Corps, and was not selected for promotion to Captain. Since either the Chief of Chaplains, or the Deputy Chief of Chaplains, and a senior Chaplain are members of selection boards, I knew what happened. I had good paperwork and FITREPS, I had done combat tours in Joint environments, I had more than the Joint Professional Military Education needed for promotion and still wasn’t selected. My immediate superiors supported me, but I had broken a cardinal rule of the Chaplain Corps. A chaplain shouldn’t need help, or mention their struggles in public.

 But that wasn’t all. In 2018 I preached a sermon while substituting for our Protestant Chaplain, in which I criticized from the Bible, the Christian Tradition, and history the policy in the first Trump Administration of separating families and putting children inside cages in warehouses with little in the way of climate control, sanitation facilities, healthcare or nutrition. Unfortunately, a retired officer who was very MAGA wrote a letter to my commanding officer say in that I called Trump “Hitler” and the Border Patrol “the SS.” These were complete fabrications and outright lies, but my Commanding office never bothered to ask me about the incident and instead began a criminal investigation of me.

 When the investigating officer notified me I contacted MRFF and Mr. Weinstein, because if I asked for a Navy JAG I knew that I would get a junior attorney with little experience. Mr. Weinstein listened to me and got me a top flight attorney. Thankfully, the investigating officer knew me and decided to interview over half of the congregation and all the chapel staff present during the sermon. Not a single person corroborated my accuser’s story. Many disagreed with it, but said that I did nothing wrong. At no time did anyone from the Chief of Chaplains office offer any support for me, and my commander, who should have stood up for me and ask for my side of the story, offer any support after I was exonerated.

 I fully understand why military personnel demand that their names be held in absolute confidence. The pressure from the chain of command can be intense, and the consequences of identifying themselves can end their careers or result in criminal prosecution under the UCMJ. I was senior enough and seen the system work its worst on others to fight back. Most servicemembers don’t have my experience and need the protection of remaining anonymous. Mikey Weinstein effords that protection. This story isn’t clickbait, and either you are a very junior military member or have never have served to understand the pressure. If you are serving and have not seem or experienced these things, count yourself fortunate.

 Even though you don’t know me, if you read this email you can see that I am being honest. The anonymous accusations you make against Mr. Weinstein don’t stand up well. You take no risk by making your anonymous accusations against Mr. Weinstein and MRFF, and condemning people who request anonymity to protect themselves from retribution. Yet, since you basically condemn people who fear reprisal in the military and the Trump Regime, you must be anonymous?  Do you risk anything by being an undercover Atheist? I think not. I figured that you have to be under 45 years old, which means that you were either unborn or in diapers when I began my service.

 If you are an Atheist in the military, I say good luck. If you haven’t served, a pox on you.

 All the best,

 Steve Dundas, Commander, Chaplain Corps, USN, (Retired)

---

On Mar 6, 2026, at 7:05 AM, (name withheld) wrote:

My name is in my email. My rank or position is not relevant. You’re putting out information that could be totally false with hearsay and no sources. Not even the names of the so called leaders who brought religion into war fighting. I don’t know why their names would be protected. This isn’t passing the sniff test and misinformation destroys the ranks. Do better

 Respect,

 (name withheld)

---

Responses from MRFF Supporter Steve Dundas

On Mar 6, 2026, at 8:50 AM, Steven Dundas wrote:

You don’t get it. Identifying the commanders publicly puts a target on the backs of those present. Mr Weinstein always works with the military chain of command to address the issues, and most of the time he is successful. But the playing field has shifted. Secretary Hegseth sets the example by conducting services at the Pentagon. Those services are being led by his civilian pastor who thinks slavery was okay, that Th 19th Amendment should be revoked, and sees religious liberty as something only for Christians. You are showing me that you are not in the military and you are shopping for information.

On Mar 6, 2026, at 9:43 AM, Steven Dundas wrote:

(name withheld),

 You say the article is not credible without the names and “service numbers” of the officers. You are not credible. First you do not understand the culture of retaliation against whistleblowers, and since the “service number” is the person’s Social Security Number” you a fishing for information protected by law. As a society we don’t ask victims of sexual assault or other crimes perpetrated by people in authority to reveal their names or social security numbers for the same reason. These in the military we don’t require rape victims to identify themselves.

 Since you refer to “service numbers” and don’t understand the basics of protected information I doubt that you are in the military. And your status does make a difference when you want the names, ranks, and SSNs of victims.

 Have a good day.

 Steve Dundas

---

On Mar 6, 2026, at 10:40 AM, (name withheld) wrote:

Again! I have never asked any information on a whistleblower! You are blatantly ignoring my request to support your narrative.
I asked the names of the “leaders” who were preaching religious speak to the troops. You are proving me right. Again you ask for my identity, but never release the identity of those who violated the religious freedom act. I got you.

 Respect,

 (name withheld)

---

Response from MRFF supporter Mike Challman

On Mar 6, 2026, at 3:31 PM, Mike Challman wrote:

Good Day, (name withheld) – 

Mikey Weinstein asked if I would like to respond to your email, and I am very happy to do so.  I am a volunteer MRFF supporter and an Air Force veteran.  As well, my youngest son serves in the USSF today.

The issues that the MRFF addresses are legitimate, not “just click bait.”  I’ve been involved with the MRFF for a number of years, and I can assure you that the threat of Christian Nationalism in today’s military is very real.  Your email seems to take issue with both the anonymity of the MRFF’s clients, and with the anonymity of the “offending” commanders.  As such, it’s not at all clear exactly what you find objectionable, other than you seem to contend that the issues raised by the MRFF are somehow invalid as a result.  There are good reasons for this discretion.

As it relates to the MRFF’s clients, I’d be very surprised if you don’t understand the risk undertaken by a junior military member if they wish to bring attention to a commander’s inappropriate proselytizing.  You mention that you are serving today.  Thank you for your service.  I’m certain you well-understand the dynamics of military hierarchy, and the threat posed to anyone, especially a junior member, who is perceived as a complainer or a problem-child.  That is why the MRFF exists.  We can address (and resolve) a member’s concern without risk to the service member’s reputation or career path, and this is absolutely a good thing.  If you don’t agree, please feel free to share with me your perspective so I can try to better understand your position.   

I’m also guessing from the tone of your email that you have not personally experienced the sorts of Constitutional violations that the MRFF addresses on an almost daily basis.  Rest assured, a violation doesn’t have to occur in every unit of every branch in order to be inappropriate and dangerous.  The fact that it happens anywhere is cause enough for the MRFF to exist.  And if you follow the news at all, you can see real-time examples of this sort of violation occurring at the highest levels of today’s US military leadership.  The MRFF addresses constitutional violations whenever and wherever they occur, when the concern is brought to us by a military member (or a civilian working with the military).  

Lastly, you mention that you are a “proud atheist”.  I fully support you in your belief and would defend your rights in any circumstance, as would the MRFF.  I’m a lifelong Christian myself.  The great thing about the MRFF is that it exists to support service members who hold either of our beliefs, as well as any other conceivable belief regarding religion.  The MRFF does not take a stand in favor of any particular belief.  We exist to support and defend that Constitution of the United States, simple as that.

I’d be happy to engage any questions or comments you may have about what I’ve shared here, or about the important role of the MRFF in today’s military.  Feel free to reach out to me at this email address.

Peace,

Mike Challman
Christian, Veteran, MRFF Supporter

---