MRFF's Inbox

December 30, 2008

[name withheld],

I, too, would like to help Mikey by answering your email. Richard has done a wonderful job, and yet, I think woman to woman, I may be able to put this in a special perspective for you.

Imagine you are married, and your husband, who goes to work everyday and brings home the paycheck, was the perfect fit, when you married. Now, though, you have stayed home to raise the children, take care of the home and your husband, accepting personal sacrifices for the sake of family unity and personal duty.

One day, your husband comes home to say he's going to leave your church and switch to the one his boss and his boss's boss attend. It's necessary, he tells you, because otherwise, he'll never get a promotion or a raise. In fact, he might wind up demoted and fired, and then it will be hard to get another job, because of what the boss might say to future potential employers.

You realize that this new church is, first of all, not the one you and all your family have been attending for generation upon generation, going back to the Mayflower. Secondly, though, this church has different goals. For example, you must bring in 12 new members a year, or be found wanting. You must raise your children to start bringing in new members, too. You must never question the men, as they are said to be your natural superiors. Your sons, in fact, get to tell you what to do, and if you disobey, your husband not only has the right to beat you, it is his job to do so. Your bruises are humiliating reminders to church peers that you are not worthy, making you feel all the more marginalized, unwanted, unloved, even unviable. And, in this church, divorce is not allowed. Period. Your commitment is " 'til death do you part", and the less worthy you are, the more you get the feeling your husband's peers are suggesting he'd be better off if you just killed yourself so he could hurry up and remarry.

Unfortunately, all these secondary realizations don't come until after you've started attending and bringing your children to the new church, though, and not until the new church has pushed itself into your life, drawing you into its congregation through manipulations that at first seem merely friendly. Soon as your husband sees a big promotion and pay raise in his future, you start feeling the pinches that are too bruisingly hard to try to ignore.

You have been lulled and coerced from the safety of your friends, family, and church to an indentured servitude very like the military, particularly where Dominionist Christians are in control. To them, even you, as strong and vibrantly and bravely Christian as you may be, you will never quite be enough. You will be kept from being "enough" so that you keep trying, by bringing in more and more innocent people to become indentured, just as you are.

Scary, isn't it?

You could, on the other hand, sneak away in the middle of the night, find a safe house, gather your strength, rejoin your church and family, and with legal help, try to remove your children from the brainwashing their own youthful innocence will fall prey to. And, you could support organizations that are trying to stop this insidious poison in our American culture.

It's hard to believe, in this day and age, as modern and educated as we all believe ourselves to be, that a situation like this could exist, or that our brave military could, itself, be so infiltrated. I, for one, know of a woman, a sargeant, who was sucked in, along with her son. Her husband had little choice but to save himself, and the divorce has come between him and his only child. His ex-wife still doesn't get it. But, she is getting promotions and choice picks of duty above her peers, because she is allowing herself to be completely manupulated religiously. That, and only that, is what it takes.

If you do not want to help MRFF, at least be aware that this is not an exclusively military issue. It has hit many aspects of civilian life, too. At least, maintain enough awareness to question and hopefully, by keeping your eyes open, be able to protect yourself and your personal freedom of religion.

Anonymous