hang you head in shame

Dear Mr. Weinstein,

If it is true that you spear headed to get Operation Christmas Child closed and out of the military. SHAME ON YOU. I am a mother of two grown children. I am also the grandmother of a one year old girl and fixing to have another boy grandchild.

I am in no way political, because I am too busy trying to support my family. I don’t have any high connections with anyone, just that I love my family and country. I’m not even a good writer, But the one thing I do know is——- That a child is a helpless individual and that we need Operation Christmas Child! I don’t care if its called Operation Jew Child, Operation Muslim Child, Operation German Child, Operation Atheist Child. I just know that a child that has been subject to war around them deserves some kindness. I see from your bio that you are a father, and its looks like your pretty proud of that. Well, I want you to put your children in the shoes of children that have been subject to war. I would only hope that you would want someone to show kindness to your child by giving them a toy during a hard time in their lives. Anyway, if there was any way to change your heart, I hope I did. Thank You for your time. Sincerely,
(name withheld)

Dear (name withheld):

Mr. Weinstein asked me to respond to your email to him.

I am also the grandmother of a little girl, but no other baby yet in sight! She’s enough of a handful for the moment, so we revel in her and delight in her existence on earth. I imagine you feel the same most of the time – it’s the biggest and best job grandparents can have – not to mention the parents’!

We all love our families or we’d probably live alone on mountaintops. You are a good writer about exactly that. Love and compassion for children, worldwide no matter who, is the hallmark of civilization, in my humble opinion. Families are what sustain and enlarge the world. We are in total agreement there.

What Military Religious Freedom Foundation has done is to affirm your values. It may, on first blush, not seem that way, but you have to understand why.

Samaritan’s Purse has a long history of taking our donations to children then using them as blackmail to force parents and children to convert to his way of thinking. You can see the forms on their web site – they force people to sign a pledge of faith BEFORE any child gets one of the gifts we recruited and sent.

Now you may be in total agreement with that. That is your business. But the military, through the officially sanctioned Cadet group, cannot be doing this. Why? Because faith is entirely private. We cannot use the instruments of government including the military to promote one set of religious values over another. Think how you’d feel if the Cadets had sent these donations to Unitarians who (though they never would!) insisted that the children and their families had to sign a pledge renouncing traditional Christian values of the Trinity. Of course that would not happen, but think how offended you would be if our government DID that!

Over the years the Marines have been a big part of Christmas “Toys for Tots” that sends toys to non-religious groups to give, no strings attached. We are fine with that – delighted with that! MRFF joined with them last Christmas to get toys and gifts to children drastically impacted by the BP oil spill – MRFF paid to make sure these kids got their gifts by Christmas. Here is the story:

What we object to is directing money and effort through our government organizations to narrow, religious, evangelizing and manipulative groups. We sure don’t object to Christmas (my organization and I LOVE Christmas) or to children, or to charity, or to purely private acts of donation anywhere.

But our Constitution forbids the support of any given religous group or idea over another, and that is what the Cadet group – even with good intentions – did in picking Samaritan’s Purse rather than Toys for Tots for their work.

I hope you can see the difference now? We love kids, all kids, but want them to get gifts without strings attached. It is the only way they can truly have a happy holiday – without coercion, blackmail, threats, intimidation, or imposition of someone’s idea of Christianity on those who have other ideas about their faith.

We wish you the happiest of holidays, the joys of children and grandchildren around you, and hope for a wonderful new year.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Sholes
Director of Public Policy (and Grandma extraordinaire!)
California Council of Churches IMPACT
Sacramento, CA