MRFF Stops Demon-Fearing Christian Commander from Replacing Unit Halloween Party with “New Testament Holiday Costume Party”

Monday Afternoon, October 7, 2024

MRFF VICTORY!!!

MRFF STOPS DEMON-FEARING CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALIST COMMANDER FROM

REPLACING UNIT HALLOWEEN PARTY WITH

“NEW TESTAMENT HOLIDAY COSTUME PARTY”

“Then just the other day our Commander said some jacked up shit

to our (senior enlisted title and rank withheld) about how ‘Halloween is inspired by demons and the devil’ and that ‘celebrating Halloween is the devil’s work’ and that he ‘won’t support anything that supports Satan.’ Yes he actually said this shit. Not very surprised as he is big on pushing his Christian faith anywhere and everywhere within our unit. He also now sometimes wears a ‘Trump 2024’ hat lately around our unit premises. We know that’s so messed up too. Nobody says anything though because he’s the Commander.

“Our (senior enlisted title and rank withheld) was able to talk him out of totally canceling our Halloween party. But our Commander decided instead to ‘encourage the troops’ (meaning do what I say!) to come to a brand new event that he and his wife would put on at the same time our event was supposed to happen called a ‘New Testament Holiday Costume Party’. Where those unit personnel and the families attending dress up as their favorite New Testament characters. Are you f——ing kidding me?

“I shit you not that is what he decided to do.”

— E-mail from junior enlisted MRFF client

on behalf of a group of 26 unit members

MRFF OP-ED ON

DAILY KOS

Trending story on Daily Kos

Christian commander tries to

replace unit Halloween party with

“New Testament Holiday Costume Party”

By: MRFF Senior Research Director Chris Rodda

Monday, October 7, 2024

“I shit you not that is what he decided to do,” writes a junior enlisted service member to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) in an e-mail about their fundamentalist Christian commander’s plan to keep his unit safe from demonic forces by replacing the unit’s Halloween party with a “New Testament Holiday Costume Party.”

Yes, it’s that time of year again — that time when we have U.S. military commanders, some of whom have risen very high up in the ranks, who are terribly worried that spooky decorations and kids in costumes might summon the Prince of Darkness. And, so, these Lucifer-leery leaders try their damnedest to get their unit’s or base’s Halloween parties canceled or, as with this year’s “New Testament Holiday Costume Party,” replaced with good, wholesome, non-Satan-summoning Christian fun. Last year it was a commander and his wife hosting a Bible knowledge contest on Halloween for soldiers “who do not wish to honor Satan,” and before that a commander who tried to cancel his base’s Halloween party, claiming that Halloween is “disrespectful to Christian personnel” because it elevates “satan over Christ.”

As the junior enlisted service member who sent the e-mail below explains, their commander not only aimed to have his ‘Who-would-Jesus-go-as?’ party as an option in addition to the unit’s Halloween party, he tried to de facto cancel the unit’s Halloween party, which months of planning had gone into, by getting, as the junior enlisted service member explained:

“… our prior (superior military unit designation name withheld) approval to hold the unit Halloween event in our HQ multipurpose room revoked. And guess what? Now his ‘New Testament Holiday Costume Party’ gets to be there instead of our unit Halloween party.”

Well, unfortunately for any fundamentalist Christian unit members who might have wanted to get a zombie costume and go to the commander’s do as Lazarus raised from the dead, the “New Testament Holiday Costume Party” has been canceled and the unit Halloween party is back on, as our junior enlisted service member writes:

“Everyone was pissed as f--- about this! We went to our base’s MRFF Reps right away who got us to Mikey Weinstein just as fast. Mikey encouraged us to hang in there while he reached out to our senior command chain on our behalf.

“It took 2 days after Mikey and the MRFF intervened but the good news is that the Commander’s ‘New Testament’ party has just been scratched. And our unit’s Halloween Party is totally back on and is going to once again be held in our multipurpose room per the original plan we had already gotten approved!”

Here’s the whole e-mail from our junior enlisted service member, written on behalf of a group of 26 unit members:

From: (Active Duty Junior Enlisted Member’s e-mail address withheld)

Subject: MRFF Saves Halloween From Being Replaced By Commander's New Testament Costume Party

Date: October 3, 2024 at 2:52:07 PM MDT

To: Mikey Weinstein

Hello MRFF.

I am an active duty service member (junior enlisted) writing on behalf of 26 other active duty service members (me included, both enlisted and officer ranks) in great thanks to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. For helping us stop our Commander from ruining Halloween for ourselves and our families. Seventeen of us, like me, are Christians by the way. Others are from other religions and some no religion.

I was assigned this summer to our unit’s Halloween Party Steering Committee along with many others to help our unit’s morale. Our job was simple. Just to organize a nice traditional Halloween celebration for our unit and its families for Thursday 31 Oct 24 in the early afternoon and evening. We’ve all been working hard on this for several months now.

We had filed all the appropriate paperwork to get our large multipurpose room in our unit’s HQ building as the Halloween Party venue. Took forever and was a real pain in the ass but we got it done. Lots of good eats, beverages, games etc. and typical Halloween fun and stuff for the families and especially the kids too.

Then just the other day our Commander said some jacked up shit to our (senior enlisted title and rank withheld) about how “Halloween is inspired by demons and the devil” and that “celebrating Halloween is the devil's work” and that he “won’t support anything that supports Satan.” Yes he actually said this shit. Not very surprised as he is big on pushing his Christian faith anywhere and everywhere within our unit. He also now sometimes wears a “Trump 2024” hat lately around our unit premises. We know that’s so messed up too. Nobody says anything though because he's the Commander.

Our (senior enlisted title and rank withheld) was able to talk him out of totally canceling our Halloween party. But our Commander decided instead to “encourage the troops” (meaning do what I say!) to come to a brand new event that he and his wife would put on at the same time our event was supposed to happen called a “New Testament Holiday Costume Party”. Where those unit personnel and the families attending dress up as their favorite New Testament characters. Are you f——ing kidding me?

I shit you not that is what he decided to do.

He also got our prior (superior military unit designation name withheld) approval to hold the unit Halloween event in our HQ multipurpose room revoked. And guess what? Now his “New Testament Holiday Costume Party” gets to be there instead of our unit Halloween party.

Everyone was pissed as f--- about this! We went to our base’s MRFF Reps right away who got us to Mikey Weinstein just as fast. Mikey encouraged us to hang in there while he reached out to our senior command chain on our behalf.

It took 2 days after Mikey and the MRFF intervened but the good news is that the Commander’s “New Testament” party has just been scratched. And our unit’s Halloween Party is totally back on and is going to once again be held in our multipurpose room per the original plan we had already gotten approved!

No word at all yet from our Commander about any of this and we doubt he will say anything at all as he is obviously the Big Loser here. Even though it was bad before with him and us now pretty much everyone in the unit despises him for trying to cancel our Halloween event due to “the devil”.

All 26 of us want to thank our base MRFF Reps (all 3 of them) 2 of whom are coming to our unit Halloween Party and especially Mikey Weinstein for jumping into this mess immediately for us all and getting it squared away for us. Now our military families and spouses and kids will have a real Halloween bash to be proud of!

Please do not reveal any of our names to the public because we know our Commander and those in our chain who agree with him would try to tune us up good for going to the MRFF for help and for the MRFF getting us the Big W here.

We so appreciate what the MRFF does for all of us in our country’s armed services because there is just no way we can do it ourselves without facing very bad consequences from our superiors.

(Active Duty Junior Enlisted Member’s name, rank, MOS/AFSC, unit, and installation all withheld)