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This communication came in confidence, among many like it, to an organization of which I am an advisory board member, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). More than a decade ago, I became an advisory board member to replace Glen Doherty, a former US Navy SEAL, who was killed in the attacks around Benghazi in September 2012. Since that time I have grown increasingly concerned about such matters — concern that increased exponentially when the current Secretary of War [Defense], Pete Hegseth, tattooed all over his body with the symbology/mythology of this movement, took the reins of power at the Pentagon.
MRFF represents the only trusted forum to which concerned members of the US military can turn in absolute confidence — a confidence many times corroborated over the last two decades. The ACLU, the DOD Inspector General (IG), the various Service IGs, all are subject ultimately to their “chains of command” and, in the military version, every GI knows he or she cannot trust that chain in the highly-charged, MAGA environment in which they now serve. Military “bosses” in many ways hold the very life of subordinate members in their hands. No civilian exists thusly. None.
Pointedly, MRFF represents the last resort for tens of thousands of GIs, never more so than today. Men and women who are terrified to go anywhere else, knowing if they do their careers will likely be in serious jeopardy.
Some doubters have raised questions about the MRFF, most often due to the asker’s scant knowledge of the military environment. Such questions include:
– Why do MRFF’s complaint emails look so similar when describing in-service religious pressure and coercion?
The answer is more or less a procedural one, but key to MRFF’s success in maintaining utmost confidentiality. GIs and others addressing MRFF rely on previous complaints posted to MRFF's website, or they actually request assistance in putting their experience in appropriate language. The vast majority of them have never had to write such letters or emails seeking assistance in responding to what they know is a violation of their civil right to be free of religious coercion and the adverse effects created within their unit and the military overall.
– Why don't these service members simply approach the U.S. mainstream media directly? (This one really gets to me as no American with any common sense trusts today’s mainstream media at all).
The answer is because military men and women are seriously concerned for their careers both in the military and after. They know from word of mouth now after 20 years that MRFF will protect their identities while working within the military command structure to rectify their complaints of religious coercion. And, as is the case now in this MAGA-dominated military leadership, if relief cannot be found immediately at least their lives are secure until it can be accomplished with new leadership.
MRFF is not a panacea; organizations like it rarely if ever are. What America needs most of all is an end to scandalous people like Pete Hegseth. But the MRFF was very busy before Trump and Hegseth. So America needs an end to this new Great Awakening as well. We need to put in the dustbin of history where they belong pastors like Franklin Graham and John Hagee, two of the very worst. Let them prattle to their mesmerized flocks, but not to the “captured” military. Simply “Google” Graham’s remarks on December 17, 2025 in the central courtyard of the Pentagon, or Hagee’s remarks a week ago on Operation EPIC FURY and about God’s will being done by our soldiers bombing Iran. Any sane American will know what I mean immediately. This is not just a travesty; it is a present and growing danger to the very fabric of our republic.
We will need the MRFF until such positive and rectifying developments occur — just as Americans did with the 21st Amendment to our Constitution. Through it, we woke up and tossed the religiously-inspired short but crime-filled era of Prohibition on the burn pile.
Lawrence Wilkerson, Colonel, US Army (Retired)
Former chief of staff to the U.S. Secretary of State
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