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From: (Active Duty Military Officer’s email address withheld)
Subject: Our commanders’ “non-mandatory” Christian-only services are nothing of the sort
Date: January 13, 2026 at 11:10:02 AM MST
To: Information Weinstein <mikey@militaryreligiousfreedom.org>
To the MRFF:
Wanted to pass on a thank you for the advice you gave those of us who reached out to you Mr. Weinstein regarding the Christian-only prayer services being conducted biweekly (every other week) by two of our commanders here at (military installation name and location withheld).
I am the spokesperson for 32 members of several units under these commanders. All 32 of us consider ourselves to be new clients of the MRFF. Although I personally am an agnostic, I was raised Protestant. Of the remaining 31 troops reaching out here 25 are either Protestants or Catholics. The others are Jewish Muslim and Buddhist with two describing themselves as being “secular”.
We were trying to find a way to object to our units' chains of commands against these Christian-only prayer services held in our headquarters “All Hands” auditoriums by these two commanders. The services are always held right before lunch in the middle of our normal duty shifts. One or the other or sometimes both commanders preside. Some military civilians attend but mostly it is our active duty and active reserve components who attend in full uniform.
These two commanders have made a point of saying that the Christian-only services are "non-mandatory" but they have their staffs there and we know for a fact that they are recording who shows up.
When we contacted Mr. Weinstein with the help of our (military installation name withheld) MRFF rep he made us aware of what the Secretary of Defense is doing in the Pentagon. This seems like the very same thing we are going through here. I was already aware of what Secretary Hegseth was doing but others among our group were not. How is any of this constitutional?
Mr. Weinstein took us through our protest options although it seems as though each one carries a high certainty of reprisal. The fear of speaking out and facing such reprisal is extremely worrisome to our group of 32 and our families too. However, without going into specifics, Mr. Weinstein provided an avenue of protest pursuant to UCMJ Article 138. We are collectively intending to pursue this if we are unable to stop these Christian-only prayer services as described above. None of us were even aware of the Article 138 avenue until Mr. Weinstein explained it all to us. Mr. Weinstein is helping us with the drafting and other matters connected to the Article 138 complaint if we have to do it. Without this guidance, action and advice from MRFF we would have no idea how to fight back. Thank you so much to the MRFF!
(Active Duty Military Officer’s name, rank, MOS/AFSC/SFSC, assigned unit, and installation all withheld)
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