Operation Christmas Child

Dear Military Religious Freedom Foundation:

I am in the Air Force, and I totally disagree with your position on this.
Groups like yourselves destroy the goodwill that organizations like
Samaritans Purse provide around the world. You get so “PC” if the title
says Christian in it, you miss out on the gifts which helps millions of poor
children and families.

Did you survey Air Force cadets before you made your decision? Or just
bully your way through?
The real sad part about it….YOU are the minority in this nation of
citizens who approve of Christianity and its charities. It is funded by
taxpayer money. Why don’t you survey Americans about this? Or military
members?
YOU WOULD lose….that’s why you don’t and you know it.
How a small percentage of people can overthrow something like this is
wrong.

Again, I serve in the Air Force and do not agree with this at all.

(name withheld)

Dear (name withheld)

My name is Akiva David Miller and I am the Military Religious Freedom
Foundation’s Veterans Coordinator.

I can appreciate the fact that you disagree with the Foundation’s
position and you even cloak your opposition in feigned civility;
however, your repeated focus on the issue of the Foundation’s alleged
minority position on this leads me to believe that you are actually
not too subtly referencing Mr. Weinstein’s Jewishness (and mine, for
that matter). Apparently you believe that a majority has the right to
inflict their will on the minority – a conviction shared by Adolf
Hitler. Either our Founding Fathers were right when they stated that
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.” or they were wrong – clearly you believe they were wrong
because according to your assertion only those in the majority have
the right to pursue happiness. If our great nation followed your
standard, African American’s would still be segregated and treated as
second class citizens, or possibly even slaves, Japanese and German
American immigrants and their children would still be held in
confinement camps and women would still be waiting for the right to
vote…although with women gaining the majority in recent years
possibly it would mean that as a minority you, (name withheld), would be shit out
of luck and undeserving of any rights yourself!

Let me tell you briefly my story and how I came in contact with the
Foundation. I am a decorated and disabled Jewish American U.S. Navy
veteran (my grandfather served under Patton and fought in the Battle
of the Bulge where he was on of two survivors in his company of 120
men; he also went on to help liberate two death camps). A few years
back when I was hospitalized in a Veterans Hospital, sedated and wired
to a heart monitor, I was called upon by a good Christian chaplain who
stood over my bed, despite my protestations, for nearly 20 minutes and
proceeded to preach at me, telling me that if I didn’t accept Jesus as
my personal savior I was going to hell. Now I had told the hospital
staff during my hospital admission that I did NOT want to see a
Christian chaplain and gave them instead the name and phone number of
my Rabbi – I even wrote out on my admission forms that I refused to be
visited by a Christian chaplain; but of course the good Fundamentalist
Christian folks in charge refused to contact my Rabbi and sent the
Christian Chaplain in instead to lecture me and tell me that unless I
rejected my Jewishness and accepted Jesus I was bound for hell. This
was a bad enough experience for me, but guess what – it happened
twice. Yes, that’s right, during a follow up hospitalization they did
the exact same thing to me again. And when I dared lodge a formal
complaint, the V.A. Medical Center cut off all my medical care. At the
time I was very sick – I had seven kidney stones along with other
serious ailments; thankfully a friend told me about Mikey Weinstein
and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Mikey personally helped
me access medical care elsewhere and quite literally saved my life.
That’s when I got involved with the work of the Foundation. Now, if
you had your way the good Fundamentalist Christian majority would have
every right to engage in religious predation, they would have every
right to inflict their beliefs on me while I was ill, hospitalized and
vulnerable. I surrendered my health, permanently, in my service to
this nation and to protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States; I’ll be damned if I stand idly by and watch individuals you
support take away my religious freedoms and the religious freedoms of
others, just because we’re a part of what you call a minority. You
took an oath to defend the Constitution too, (name withheld) – what, was that, a
lie? Either do your job and defend the Constitution, defend America
and ALL Americans, regardless of what they look like or believe, or
you might as well just go ahead and tattoo a swastika on your
forehead. (name withheld), it’s time for you to come home, it’s time to
get your head out of your ass and decide which side you’re on, because
reading your little note you sound like one hell of a bigot.

Sincerely,

Akiva David Miller
Veterans Coordinator
Military Religious Freedom Foundation