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From: (Active Duty Admiral or General’s e-mail address withheld)
Subject: Senior Military Flag Officer: Coward or Hero; The Method I Used For MRFF's Help Over My Career
Date: March 24, 2024 at 11:12:17 AM MDT
To: Information Weinstein <mikey@militaryreligiousfreedom.org>
I am a senior military Admiral or General (“Flag Officer”) who is still on active duty
I have commanded military combat units all over the globe for many years and I have wanted to write this note about the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and Mr. Mikey Weinstein for almost as long. I hadn’t done so because I feared reprisal despite my senior rank and position. I am not proud to admit that.
I now find myself in circumstances where all is good and likely to stay that way so I finally felt secure enough to drop this note to Mikey and the MRFF for any and all to see.
I will say now and for the record that I personally reached out for help from Mikey and the MRFF on at least 6 occasions. I initially did this years ago as an O-6 (Navy Captain or Full Colonel in the other military branches). My current flag rank is well above that level now.
I either personally observed or experienced or found out from subordinate military staff members within my own commands that clearly wrong actions of proselytizing the Christian faith were intentionally occurring in a manner that was clearly unconstitutional. As Mikey or the various MRFF installation reps would always advise me, these illegal activities were happening in a way that violated the place, time and manner mandates of our constitution and military regulations. Thus, our solemn oaths to the Constitution were being violated.
Now here’s the part you may not like? Rather than stopping these Christian proselytizing activities myself as the unit commander, I contacted Mikey and the MRFF and asked them to do it publicly. They never failed me.
Now why did I do that? Simply because it was the most effective way to stop the illegal Christian proselytizing. Why you might ask? Simple answer; if Mikey and the MRFF went public with the matter, there would be far more consensus by my superiors to agree to snuff it out well before it exploded further. If I alone had done it, I would be viewed as a “boat rocker” and “troublemaker” and would never have been promoted up the ranks as a result. Convenient for me? Maybe. Every time I went to Mikey and the MRFF the proselytizing would stop. I would then be viewed as just being “reactive"’ and not “proactive" in my actions to abate the situation which I myself had secretly asked MRFF to publicly expose. Such reactivity vice proactively was always forgiven by my superior chain of command. Had I directly taken action without the MRFF first rolling in, I’d never have been forgiven. The Pentagon simply does not reward military commander "activists”.
I get the fact that Mikey, his family and MRFF staff would often suffer great criticism and serious threats for their actions to expose what I had originally brought to them. I have lost much sleep over that. I also understand that some might say that I personally benefitted greatly using this method of first alerting the MRFF quietly and confidentially. After all, I kept getting promoted and avoided being labeled as, perhaps, a “woke” military commander for doing it this way.
I don’t care if those who read this believe me to be a coward or hero. That is not the point. The crux of the matter I wanted to say was that the MRFF is 100% correct when it states that Christian extremism exists all throughout the DoD. And I say that as a weekly, church-going Christian myself and nephew of a well known Christian pastor who also, by the way, supports what I am revealing here.
To Mikey and the MRFF’s credit they never expressed the slightest amount of disappointment with the way I worked with them. They never tried to lecture me about my staying under the radar when I reached out for their help. Once they brought it all public I was then able to take the actions necessary to stop it.
As I said at the outset of this note, some of you may not agree with the way I have used the MRFF throughout the years of my long military career as the main tool to stop these destructive Christian proselytizing activities. But let me just say this, how do you think I even found out about this method of confidentially working with the MRFF in the first place? Other senior military officers and commanders told me about it because that is exactly how they work with the MRFF as well. And they are still doing so!
This note of explanation and gratitude was long overdue. Whether the readers see me as a coward, hero or something else, at least working together with the MRFF through the years we jointly were able to eliminate the targeted Christian proselytizing in its tracks. We have made a good team. Me in the background and the MRFF out front.
Did the unconstitutional activities ever come back? Yes, always. Did the MRFF reengage? Yes, always. Did the MRFF win again? Yes, usually. And that is the fight we all have on our hands. The MRFF puts itself out there for all to see and takes the often ugly consequences. I and others of senior flag officer rank often cannot do that and still maintain our commands. All respect to the MRFF!
I am a war fighter and combat veteran. I want to state for the record that the MRFF is one of the most effective weapons any of us in the U.S. armed forces have to preserve our core values and mission objectives.
Christian nationalism in our Defense Department is real and extremely widespread. It must be defeated!
Thank you Mikey and all MRFF staffers for leading this perilous fight.
(Name, flag rank, commander's title, unit, installation, MOS/AFSC all withheld)
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