Monday Afternoon, March 23, 2020
MRFF VICTORY!!!
AIR FORCE RESERVE SWIFTLY REMOVES SHOCKINGLY SHAMELESS PROSELYTIZING VIDEO AFTER MRFF DEMAND
The Air Force Reserve might as well have come out and said:
'Anxious about the coronavirus? You need to find Jesus!’
MRFF OP-ED
ON DAILY KOS

Recommended reading on Daily Kos

Air Force Reserve Removes Shameless
Proselytizing Video After MRFF Demand

By: MRFF Senior Research Director Chris Rodda

Monday, March 23, 2020
The Air Force Reserve might as well have come out and said: ‘Anxious about the coronavirus? You need to find Jesus!’

On March 19, the Air Force Reserve posted on their official Facebook page and YouTube channel one of the most overt proselytizing videos in the recent memory of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). The video, titled “Spiritual Resiliency – Meaning & Purpose,” consisted of nearly seven minutes of in-your-face Christian proselytizing, introduced on Facebook with a statement that began: “We can all use some spiritual resilience in this challenging time.”

Among the airman featured in the video, one Air Force captain, giving his Christian testimony, proclaimed that every decision he makes is based on his belief that “the judge is the Lord” and that he is “saved through the blood of his son, Jesus.” 

That captain was immediately by a second captain stating, in answer to the question of “What brings you purpose and meaning?” –  “The short answer would be Jesus.”

[…]

This shameless video was first reported to MRFF by one of its DoD clients on Thursday, the day it was posted. MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein swiftly composed a letter to the Secretary of the Air Force, which was sent via email on Friday, demanding that the video be taken down, and as of yesterday it had been removed from both the Air Force Reserve Facebook page and YouTube channel.

[…]
MRFF'S DEMAND LETTER
TO SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE
BARBARA M. BARRETT
TO REMOVE PROSELYTIZING VIDEO
MILITARY TIMES
COVERS MRFF

Military court hearing at Liberty University sparks outcry from religious freedom group

By: Kyle Rempfer

Friday, March 20, 2020

(Excerpts from Military Times/Emphasis Added by MRFF)

An advocacy group is complaining about the lack of strict orders from the Navy and Air Force to end in-person worship services during the coronavirus pandemic, but officials from those services say the decision to do so rests with local commanders and not their chiefs of chaplains.

The Navy and Air Force stances are in contrast to the Army, which closed all chapels in the United States and Europe this past weekend, according to a memo signed by the Navy chief of chaplains and provided to Military Times.

That move was praised by Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, who said that Air Force and Navy leaders should have taken similar steps.

Weinstein said he has had 16 clients, including enlisted service members, chaplains and doctors, reach out with concerns about the lack of top-down leadership during the pandemic.

“If there was ever a time this should be centralized and come from the top, it’s now,” said Weinstein.

[…]
MILITARY TIMES
COVERS MRFF

A different Sunday for
Army installation worshippers

By: Howard Altman, Kyle Rempfer, and Meghann Myers

Sunday, March 22, 2020

(Excerpts from Military Times/Emphasis Added by MRFF)

It’s a very different Sunday on Army installations in the age of coronavirus.

Where chapels were once filled with the faithful, social distancing precautions have moved many services online. The move to virtual worship came after the Army closed all chapels in the United States and Europe last week.

[…]

One group is advocating for all services to move to virtual worship.

Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said that Air Force and Navy leaders should have taken similar steps.

Weinstein said he has had 16 clients, including enlisted service members, chaplains and doctors, reach out with concerns about the lack of top-down leadership during the pandemic.

[…]
“POW/MIA Tables at Al Udeid (Qatar)”

MRFF,

I’m a DoD Contractor stationed at Al Udeid AB. When I first arrived to the base, I noticed that each dining facility had an elaborate POW/MIA table, with a prominently displayed Holy Bible – all-caps, large font, big cross on the cover. I served in the Air Force for 7 years before transitioning into the private sector, so I have a deep reverence for our brothers and sisters gone but not forgotten. However, I am not a Christian, and I would be surprised if every troop taken POW or MIA was a Christian.

I reached out to the MRFF, saying that while I wasn’t a troop anymore, I had served. I was sure there were serving troops who felt that the existence of a Christian-only display was exclusionary, just like I did. It turns out that the MRFF has been engaged in a long discussion with the military about POW/MIA tables that recognized troops of all faiths. 
 
Recently, I noticed the displays were gone entirely. I haven’t found a notice, or policy change announcement. My assumption is that the DoD or base commander made the decision that, ‘if the display can’t have a Bible, there won’t be a display.’ It’s unfortunate that there isn’t a display honoring those gone but not forgotten, but I still feel that it’s better to have that empty space than an altar to Christianity in a military that has non-Christian members as a rising minority, especially among younger troops. 
 
Thank you MRFF for fighting for troops (and people like me who work with the troops in a khaki and polo uniform) who silently bear a culture that privileges Christians, and for pushing back against prominent displays of religion that exclude the rest of us. We fight for the right of freedom of religion, and your organization helps us enjoy that right.

A Grateful Veteran
“Thanks”

I’m a USAF vet, and the daughter, wife, and mother of Army & Navy vets. I’ve been appalled at what I’ve seen my former service do over the last 10 years or so.

Not much else I can do, but I wanted to say thanks.

(name withheld)
“Fan Mail from Canada”

Dear Sir,
 
Re: Air Force Reserve Removes Shameless Proselytizing Video After MRFF Demand
 
I just ran across the above article and was very impressed with your tenacity and success in these confrontations. The U S military are plagued by born again individuals obsessed with proselytization.  Separation of Church and State is fundamental to a sane and healthy democracy. It must be preserved. 
 
Best regards

(name withheld)
“Air Force Reserve Removes Shameless Proselytizing Video After MRFF Demand”

Mister Weinstein  

   I watched that video last night and after your reply I got to thinking and I watched it again and even took some notes. I agree that one religion shouldn’t be promoted over another, that is wrong. Religion should be everyone’s individual choice (the best religion is the one that brings you closest to God). To me that video was more about Christianity then about a particular religion. Christianity is a PHILOSOPHY not a religion. Those airmen shown in the beginning were talking about their faith not about what specific religion they were. They were discussing things that all religions have in common (accepting of a higher power, faith in that power (God), the knowledge that we are all accountable to God and his son Jesus Christ. Those were just simple beautiful beliefs ALL religions have in common. That chaplain in the video talked about how a Soldiers spiritual health and well being is just as important as everything else and I don’t know how anybody could disagree with that. When I was in Desert Storm our chaplain would tell us we needed food for our bodies but reading the Bible and trusting in the Lord was like the food for our souls. In that video. there was a beautiful quote they mentioned by General of the Army George C. Marshall that all Soldiers should have to memorize here it is The Soldier’s heart, the Soldiers spirit, the Soldiers SOUL are everything. Unless the Soldier’s soul sustains him he cannot be relied on and will fail himself and his country in the end. Some of our greatest military heroes have been men of strong faith like Sergeant Alvin York or Desmond Doss (the movie Hacksaw Ridge). I think you’ll agree that no military leader comes greater then General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Well did you know that he included references to God and faith in his D Day message to his troops? He even prayed in his Inagural Address (you can look it up on line). I got a letter once from a Doolittle Raider and he told me that on that famous mission there were eighty mortals but one IMMORTAL. I think that is what makes them our greatest generation.
  I do want to apologize for comparing the MRFF to terrorists. That was unfair and wrong. In all fairness, your organization has done good work but I think its terrible what you did with that video and those words you used to describe it calling it vile and disgraceful. It was beautiful and maybe just maybe if you watched it from a different perspective you might see it that way too. When I was in Desert Storm I never prayed so much in my life as I did in that short time! As a Solider I was proud to serve my country and I would do it all over again in the blink of an eye, HOWEVER I am also proud to say I am God’s servant there can be no greater title. I pray for our service men and women in harms way every day. We all need God in our lives now more then ever with this terrible disease. Best wishes

(name withheld)

To see response from
MRFF Founder and President Mikey Weinstein:
“The Air Force video on facebook”

To the MRFF

Even though I am a retired Army Sergeant I have nothing but the highest respect for the men and women of the US Air Force and I want you to know this old Soldiers blood is boiling over your childish “demand” that video on spiritual resialiancy be removed from facebook. I watched it and it was a beautiful video showing these fine young men and women (any one of them is worth more then all of you because they really SERVE) I had a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat watching it. How dare you call is odious, wretched, disgraceful and shocking! To me those words describe you and what you do. I read that letter you wrote and it made me angry that you demand and threaten. That is how a terrorist talks do you know that. Every serviceperson should view that video because they talked of faith in God and how our ultimate Judge is God and how we are saved through Jesus. Yes I was a Soldier who is also proud to say he is God’s servant and Mister Weinstein I don’t need you or General Compere or some washed up two bit actor from an overrated dumb tv show to lecture me on the word of the law over God’s word. You have gone too far. We have a terrible disease that could kill countless people and your worried about something like this! We need God now more then ever

(name withheld)

To see responses from MRFF Founder and President
Mikey Weinstein, MRFF Advisory Board Member Mike Farrell,
and MRFF Board Member John Compere:
“You will be censured Michael Weinstein”

Just so you know, Michael Weinstein, I and many other fellow graduates of our United States Air Force Academy truly hate you and your MRFF with all of our will and might.

You (and your USAFA slime bucket graduate children) have disgraced our once proud institution by willfully attacking “all things Christian” for no good reason other than you and your family had some alleged “issues” there during your USAFA cadet years.

Issues you Weinsteins brought on yourselves, truth be told. And don’t try to cry about any anti-Jewish fabrications you Weinsteins claimed to have suffered there. You deserved whatever you got.

I have been a faculty member for several years at USAFA and I want you to rest assured that our unified loathing of you is genuine, justified and only grows stronger every day.

Spoiler Alert: we have started a strong movement to have you become the first USAFA grad ever formally censured by a large segment of the Academy graduate community.

Since the USAFA Assn. of Graduates tells us that they cannot make this happen, we all will do so on our own.

No one connected with our Academy in any way will ever want to be within miles of you after your censure. Good riddance!

So when you go to sleep tonight Mikey just never forget how very much you are hated and despised by your fellow Academy grads.

What a wonderful legacy of being reviled you will leave for your children and grandchildren.

Disrespectfully Yours and on behalf of a sea of your fellow USAFA graduates,

(name withheld)

To see response from MRFF Advisory Board Member
Mike Farrell, MRFF Board Member John Compere,
and MRFF Supporters:
MRFF Information/Contact:
(505) 250-7727
SUPPORT MRFF!
Your Generous Support Allows us to Continue our Fight in the Courts and in the Media