Monday Evening, June 27, 2022

MRFF REACTS TO CALAMITOUS SUPREME THEOCRATIC COURT'S RULING THAT A PUBLIC SCHOOL COACH'S GROUP PRAYER IS "CONSTITUTIONAL" "Today’s universally horrible SCOTUS decision in the Kennedy v. Bremerton School District case will serve to utterly and expeditiously destroy the precious wall separating church and state in our country and especially the U.S. military." "The dystopian fiction of the country of Gilead in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is now FACT and we all must fight tooth and nail to preserve our precious teetering democracy." — MRFF Founder and President Mikey Weinstein

Judgment: 6 - Chief Justice Roberts, Justices Gorsuch, Thomas, Alito, Barrett, and Kavanaugh. 3 - Justices Sotomayor, Breyer and Kagan.

Mikey Weinstein's Statement on the Kennedy v. Bremerton SCOTUS Ruling Obliterating the Wall Separating Church and State By: MRFF Founder and President Mikey Weinstein Monday, June 27, 2022

"Today’s universally horrible SCOTUS decision in the Kennedy v. Bremerton School District case will serve to utterly and expeditiously destroy the precious wall separating church and state in our country and especially the U.S. military. Pandora’s box of fundamentalist Christian supremacy, domination, exclusivity, and triumphalism has been loosed and inestimably buttressed by the highest court in our nation. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has long fought the unconstitutional promulgation of pernicious fundamentalist Christian nationalism up and down the ranks of our American armed forces for nearly 2 decades. MRFF has particularly battled the sectarian expression of such exclusionary Christian prayers on the football fields and in the locker rooms of the U.S.military academies, especially the most egregious examples of that behavior at my own alma mater, (and the alma mater of 3 of my children) the United States Air Force Academy. https://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/2015/12/air-force-academy-football-prayers-openly-defy-repudiate-u-s-law/ What comes to MRFF’s mind right now is that all too prophetic quote from the esteemed, late SCOTUS Justice William O. Douglas: 'As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air – however slight – lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.’ My fellow Americans, let me assure you that fundamentalist Christian oppression has clearly arrived in our beleaguered land today delivered on a silver platter by the very same SCOTUS Justices who have just destroyed a woman’s right to reproductive freedom.  The dystopian fiction of the country of Gilead in the "The Handmaid’s Tale” is now FACT and we all must fight tooth and nail to preserve our precious teetering democracy."

JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY (JTA) COVERS MRFF Supreme Court decision on coach’s prayer throws doubt on a 30-year-old victory for a Jewish family By: Ron Kampeas Monday, June 27, 2022 (Excerpt from The Jewish Telegraphic Agency) Mikey Weinstein, the Jewish veteran who leads the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which advocates for religion-state separations in the military, said the ruling will undercut his years-long efforts to remove Christian prayers from military academy athletic events. The decision “will serve to utterly and expeditiously destroy the precious wall separating church and state in our country and especially the U.S. military,” he said."

Click to read on JTA

BACKGROUND

4/25/22 - Will SCOTUS Obliterate the Establishment Clause MRFF Defends? Why We Should All Be Very Worried About Kennedy V Bremerton.

MRFF's 2015 battle against Air Force Academy football team's very public Christian group prayers on the field

How would the current Supreme Court have ruled if it were Muslims insisting on praying on the football field?

Image credit: Military Religious Freedom Foundation

“Band Request for Help to the MRFF” From: (Active Duty MRFF Clients’ E-mail addresses withheld) Subject: Band Request for Help to the MRFF Date: June 23, 2022 at 7:54:50 AM MDT To: Michael L Weinstein Dear Mr. Mikey Weinstein and the MRFF, A bunch of us saw the success you had yesterday in helping the 246th Army Band in South Carolina to avoid violating the constitution and the military regs by getting that Christian church event cancelled from their schedule. You have helped out 5 of our band members in the past so we keep an eye on your website and public releases. Congratulations!  We just wanted to say that we are in the (military service branch name withheld and band unit designation withheld) Band and are facing a very similar situation. Our Band Commander has told us that we are to supposed to perform in a Fourth of July ceremony at a nearby large evangelical church. That church is promoting the event as some sort of “Celebration of the Founding of America as a Christian Nation” which is just unacceptable to most of us in the Band.  It’s fine for that church to butcher American history if they want to but not for the (military service branch name withheld and band unit designation withheld) Band to help them do it. We have a meeting scheduled this morning with our Band Commander to make it clear that we will not participate if he continues to insist that we do so. We are going to show him the news release from the MRFF about helping the 246th Army Band achieve its goal to not play at their Christian church event. As per the phone call we just had with you Mikey we would like to ask for the MRFF’s help if he refuses to cancel our Band’s participation in this unconstitutional event which also clearly violates (DOD and military branch regulation citations withheld). Please give our best to our brother and sister Bandmates in the 246th Army Band as we try to do what they were just able to do. And thank you to the MRFF for being there to help guide us as we fight this affront to the constitution and our own (military service branch name withheld) regulations. Please keep all of our identity information confidential at this point. V/R (Active Duty MRFF Clients’ names, ranks, titles and military branch unit designation and assigned installation all withheld) To see Response from MRFF Supporter Stan Levin USN 1950-1954:

Click to read in Inbox

PLEASE MAKE A 100% TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION MRFF is a 501C3 Nonprofit

If you prefer to mail a check, please use this link to download a printable donation form

Please Share on Social Media

‌ ‌

MRFF Information/Contact: (505) 250-7727

‌ ‌