Friday Evening, January 14, 2022
National Religious Freedom Day
This Sunday, January 16, 2022
Commemorating the 236th anniversary of the Virginia General
Assembly's adoption of Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute
for Religious Freedom on January 16, 1786.
LONG-TIME MRFF SUPPORTER & AUTHOR
BRILLIANTLY RESPONDS TO NY TIMES OP-ED
THAT OMITTED RELIGIOUS FANATICISM
AS A THREAT TO AMERICAN SOCIETY


Many, many evangelic congregations in the US today feel
fully justified to subvert any government or castigate any
individual who does not support a Xtn and evangelic basis for America’s political legitimacy and when they encounter an
obstacle to that dominance, they frequently damn their enemies, “acting out” in what they would describe as justified, and righteous, indignation. You may be familiar with Mikey Weinstein and his
MRFF foundation; take any random sample of Mikey’s hate
mail if you are unconvinced how this virulent strain of Christianity has poisoned day to day life in America—not to mention in state legislatures and in the halls of Congress.

— Author Darryl Wimberley in his response to David Brooks's
New York Times op-ed “America Is Falling Apart At The Seams”
computer keyboard
Darryl Wimberley, author of “The King of Colored Town,” responds to NY Times op-ed’s omission of religious fanaticism as a cause of the current
violent and anti-social behavior among Americans

Friday, January 14, 2022
From: Darryl Wimberley
Date: January 14, 2022 at 12:09:33 PM MST
To: Michael L Weinstein <mikeyw4444@icloud.com>
Subject: Response to Brooks Fri NY Times op ed AMERICA IS FALLING APART AT THE SEAMS

Mikey, I am sure you are familiar with David Brooks, a widely published author and frequent opinion writer for the New York Times.  Mr. Brooks wrote an article in this Friday’s Op Ed, “America Is Falling Apart At The Seams”, to which I felt obliged to respond. As are you, I am an AFA grad. When I was commissioned in 1971, I took for granted that the values embued at the Academy would endure, among these that the chain of command is color-blind and that our Founding Fathers created a firm separation between Church and State. 
  
As I learned some years after graduating, and as you learned from painful and personal experience, USAFA is not immune to bigotry, nor to the influences of social pressures and politics. Very well-intentioned folks like Mr. Brooks seem, too often, insulated from the kind of bigotry that you and the MRFF have worked for years to expose and to counter. I cited you and your work at MRFF as part of my response to Brooks’ column. 
Here ‘tis. [emphasis MRFF's]

From:  Darryl Wimberley, author of: The King of Colored Town, first winner of The Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction 

For: David Brooks

Re:  Your Friday NY Times  OpEd

Mr. Brooks, hello and I hope this finds you well.  I read your Friday’s Op-Ed lamenting the rise in violent and anti-social behavior among Americans, but I am frankly nonplussed that you have “no idea” what lies at the root of this tide of vitriol and bad behavior.  I can’t believe my note, here, will tell you anything you don’t already know, but if you are familiar with the thesis I am about to try to cement, you ought to have some notion, at least, why Americans are “suddenly” losing their sense of societal decorum and obligation.

I will focus on one factor influencing day to day behavior in the US. Americans are behaving badly because millions of Americans have convinced themselves that the America they actually value is threatened by people who are not white and who do not share a particular view of an American exceptionalism requiring absolute fealty to Jesus Christ.  For these folks, mostly now Republican, the only way to be a true American is to accept a not-so tacit theocracy with a very militant view of God’s Truly Begotten Son as the authorizing deity.

A major and growing cancer manifest in the Jan 6th insurrection also plays out in airplane aisles and parking lots. The boiling resentment fueling these varied eruptions is felt by white folks whose identity and dominance, long threatened, now sees God’s hand in retribution. These congregants do not attend the sort of Bonhoefferian church or moderate temple that you often laud as a balm for social ills. Moderate Christianity or Judasim have not been the driving force in pulpits for a long time.

Growing up in the deep South and attending Baptist and Church of God and revival services, I knew as a teenager that these congregants ONLY felt fealty to a country specifically and “exceptionally” guided by God which as a corollary required an absolute intolerance, and often hatred, for any group challenging that identity. Millions and millions of Christian evangelic citizens simply do not believe that America should have a plural or secular government—this latter defined as any government or polity not specifically white-obeisant and Christian.

And these groups increasingly turn to militant Scripture to justify a holy war against the unbelieving. In this connection, the once-euphemistic term “Spiritual Warrior” has veered to Old Testament craziness. Quoting a sociologist Robyn Willey in his own March 23d, 2018 article, University of Alberta writer Geoff Mcmastern warns of attempts by this growing sect to convert indigenous populations in Canada. “Instead of focusing on personal salvation, as does mainstream evangelicalism, ‘NAR [National Apostolic Reform ]extends it to people groups, nations, communities and geographic areas. So instead of exorcising demons from a single individual, you can talk about exorcising demons from an entire people, group or community.’ says Willey. ‘Convinced they are soldiers in God’s army, NAR apostles aim to eventually take over governments and save the world from corruption and idolatry, establishing God’s new kingdom on Earth.’ ”

NAR’s stated purpose does not vary substantially from Christian nationalist movements in the US. The belief that any government not obeisant to Jesus is illegitimate gives easy rise to the justification for using any means to stop a government that demands a separation of church and state and to violently attack any group espousing values that do not kowtow to conservatively Xtn dogma.  I have seen the effect of this militant resurgence in evangelic life first-hand.  I have a good friend who attends “Spiritual Warrior” classes in what used to be a fairly normal Lutheran congregation in Austin, and his attitudes toward things heretofore not remotely religious – vaccinations, toilets for transgender students…etc etc etc—has taken an alarming Old Testament twist. For my friend, Jan 6th was not an insurrection but a prophetic moment calling Christians to oppose any Democratic pol, position, or government. For my friend and millions of Xtn citizens Donald Trump is God’s imperfect vessel on the way to converting the nation—or damning it.

I am not sure if folks not raised in the mid-Ages or modern evangelic circles realize how seriously millions of Americans take the notion of damnation.  For many citizens, “Damn it to Hell” is not a metaphor.  Many, many evangelic congregations in the US today feel fully justified to subvert any government or castigate any individual who does not support a Xtn and evangelic basis for America’s political legitimacy and when they encounter an obstacle to that dominance, they frequently damn their enemies, “acting out” in what they would describe as justified, and righteous, indignation.  You may be familiar with Mikey Weinstein and his MRFF foundation; take any random sample of Mikey’s hate mail if you are unconvinced how this virulent strain of Christianity has poisoned day to day life in America—not to mention in state legislatures and in the halls of Congress. 

A gentle challenge to you, Mr. Brooks: It seems to me that you have a tendency to invoke church attendance and religious life as automatic requirements for good society and to discredit the awful things done in the name of religion over centuries of history. You often write of the salutary effects of social gatherings in temples and churches without seeming to care whether the claims to authority are based any anything but myth and human invention.  [ I like Thomas Jefferson’s solution: Keep all the quotes from Jesus; eliminate any reference to divinity. ] You also sidestep or greatly downplay the deleterious effect of some churches and religious groups on general society. For example, your Friday Op Ed implies that a lowered church attendance correlates with recent trends in awful behavior.  Well, church attendance was sky high during the Jim Crow years and that did not improve white behavior toward African Americans. The huge revivalist movements bringing folks to church post Civil War were specifically instigated to keep Black populations… and later on Communists or aetheists..whomever… from gaining political power.  Church attendance was certainly higher when I was a teenager in the mid 60s than it is today, so what is the difference in behavior then and now—? You really have no idea?

Well, one huge difference is that white evangelics who maintained a sense of dominance and cultural superiority for decades are seeing their cultural influence erode and when they saw that erosion begining to extend to political life, the response of self-described Christians was not simply to become more active in social life but to become more bellicose.  Newt Gingrich understood this and so did the Koch brothers.  Trump understood right away that the resentments seething in rural and Christian regions had little to do with policy, or abortion, but had everything to do with resentment over a loss of influence at the local high school and in Congress.  People like Ted Cruz have no illusions what it means to be a spiritual warrior. He barely bothers to hide political ambition and a drive toward theocracy in the guise of more measured rhetoric.  

I am guessing you have read Andrew Whitehead’s May 27, ’21 article for the Times. Mr. Whitehead describes a moral stance that he attributes to 20 percent of mostly-white Americans today. From Mr. Whitehead’s article:  ”…The relationship between Christian nationalism and anti-democratic attitudes has a long history in this country. Limiting access to voting and employing violence in order to disrupt the democratic process are not aberrations. After the Civil War and throughout the years of Jim Crow, Christian leaders routinely provided the theological arguments needed to rationalize limiting Black Americans’ access to participation in the democratic process. They explicitly tied these efforts to their desire to protect the purity of a ‘Christian’ nation…”

It would be wrong, of course, to draw a straight line from these sorts of global and political actions to rants against flight attendants or threats to poll workers. But to pretend that there is no connection at all–? 

     Just to give you some idea. 

     Best to you and yours,  Darryl
The History and Significance of
American Religious Freedom

By: MRFF Board Member John Compere

In honor of National Religious Freedom Day,
Sunday, January 16, 2022
John Compere
“Religious Freedom Day” is our national observance on January 16th celebrating America's historic religious freedom (i.e. freedom of belief). It commemorates the day in 1786 when the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (Virginians, Founders and Presidents) was enacted. 

Virginia's landmark law mandated no person “...shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever” and separated religion from government in Virginia. It provided the genesis for US Constitution (Article VI [3] and 1st Amendment) separation of religion and government (aka: church and state separation)) established by the Founders and overwhelmingly supported by Americans today (Pew Research). Even Jesus reportedly separated government and religion (Matthew 22:21; Mark 12:17).

Freedom of belief (religious or non-religious) is an original American liberty. It was a basis for Article 18 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaiming “...everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion...” . 

Beliefs are predominately determined by the family, geography and culture in which one happens to be born and raised. American children believe in Santa Claus, flying reindeer, elves, Easter bunnies, Halloween witches, tooth fairies, ghosts, angels, devils, gods, et al although they are not evidence based. They want, need and enjoy these beliefs which are by-products of childhood obedience, imitation and gullibility.

American adults cease believing in most childhood myths but many continue to believe in gods, devils and angels because they want to believe and some need to believe. Comfort in belief is often preferred to accuracy. Religion prospers and profits by perpetuating these propensities. Other adults evolve to evidence based beliefs in humanity, nature, science, morality, etc.        

World history confirms early civilizations created their own gods which continued as cultural creeds. Naturalist religions deified humans, animals and elements. Egalitarian religions deified children, women and men. Matriarchal religions deified women and motherhood. Patriarchal religions deified only males. 

Humans created most gods in their own image. Biblical scripture affirms “...each national group made its own gods...” (2 Kings 17:29). Renaissance Philosopher Michel de Montaigne advised “Man is certainly stark mad. He cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozens”. 

The religious beliefs of America's original discoverers and inhabitants, our indigenous people or Native Americans, consisted of animistic nature worship with animals, elements and geographic features revered as spiritual essences. The next discoverers and inhabitants, Vikings/ Norsemen, practiced polytheistic paganism with various deities.

The religion of later Western European immigrants to America included varieties of Christianity imported from the ancient Middle East by way of Rome. The majority of American colonists fled Europe to escape religious oppression by the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church. When independence was declared in 1776 less than 20% of colonists belonged to religion establishments. Less than 50% of Americans are members of churches, synagogues or mosques today (Gallup).

Most of America's principal founders were not orthodox Christians. Many were Deists (e.g. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen and Joel Barlow). Some were Unitarians (e.g. John Adams and John Quincy Adams). Only a few were orthodox Christians (e.g. Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry).

The religious freedom provided by our Constitution includes the military. Department of Defense directives and Armed Forces regulations protect freedom of belief. There are 221 different faith or belief groups for the military recognized by the Department of Defense and 79 different faith or belief emblems for military graves authorized by the Department of Veteran Affairs. Also, military chapels are available for religious worship and military chaplains are available for religious instruction.

Religious belief uniformity is non-existent. Diversity prevails worldwide. World Christian Encyclopedia records 10,000 distinct world religions with over 2,000 different Christianities in America alone. “Religion” is derived from the Latin “religare” meaning “to bind”. Most religions claim exclusive truth rejecting others. Few respect diversity. Murderous rejection is even mandated in Deuteronomy 13:6-10. American Philosopher Mark Twain observed “Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion – several of them.”

American religious freedom is a secular shield of protection providing every American the inalienable right guaranteed by the Constitution to determine, enjoy and practice her or his own religious or non-religious beliefs free from government favor or disfavor. It is never a sectarian sword of privilege to harm, discriminate against or impose religion on fellow Americans. 

America is one of the most belief diverse (religious and non-religious) nations in the world. It is our proud American heritage of individual belief freedom and the cornerstone of American liberties.

“Being no bigot myself to any mode of worship...the Government of the United States, which gives bigotry no sanction...” - 1st President George WASHINGTON

“We should begin by setting conscience free. When all men of all religions...shall enjoy equal liberty...we may expect that improvements will be made in the human character and the state of society.” - 2nd President John ADAMS

“It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others...we are bound...to maintain the common right of freedom of conscience.” - 3rd President Thomas JEFFERSON

“...religion & Govt. will exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together...a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, will be best guarded against by an entire abstinence of the Government...” - 4th President James MADISON

“We establish no religion in this country, church and state are, and must remain, separate.” - 40th President Ronald REAGAN (Republican)

“I support the separation of church and state.” - 41st President George H.W. BUSH (Republican)

“I fully understand it's important to maintain the separation of church and state...it's very important for people who are serving (in office)to make sure there's a separation of church and state.” - 43rd President George W. BUSH (Republican)

“This is a nation founded on the idea of the separation of church and state. After 200 years, why the hell would you want to go messing with that?” - 46th President Joseph BIDEN (Democrat)

Brigadier General John Compere, Judge Advocate General's Corps, US Army (Retired)
Former Chief Judge, US Army Court of Military Review & US Army Legal Services Agency
Disabled American Veteran (Vietnam Era)
Board Member, Military Religious Freedom Foundation
Texas rancher
MRFF's Inbox
"TheAnalysis.news interview (1/11/22)"

Good evening Mikey!

I had the opportunity to watch you this evening while you were interviewed, on YouTube. It was one of the better analyses that I’ve seen on the subject (and truth be told, no mainstream media will touch this subject out of fear of a boycott or being painted as “anti-military” by the usual suspects) to date of the current crisis we face as a republic and a democracy. 
 
I’ve had these very same discussions with others that I know, only to be told over the years that I was making a mountain out of a molehill. Then Jan 6 happened, and it was a pretty shocking eye-opener for them. No longer was I being hyperbolic and railing against imagined enemies. They finally spent more than their usual cursory two minutes of “research” on a subject that requires a Ph.D. level of study to comprehend it all. They began to look into this, and I sent them your way to help them raise the shroud from their eyes. Slowly, I believe that they are realizing the magnitude of the threat we now face. So, glass half full, I guess. We need more to see it though if we are ever to tame this beast.

Back in the mid-80s when I was an enlisted man in the USAF serving in Europe at the forefront of the Cold War, this didn’t seem to be the problem that it is now on a force-wide level. That all changed in 1996, with the coming of a new speaker, Newt Gingrich, a craven politician who saw the opposing party not as the loyal opposition but as his and his party’s enemy. And in his quest to vanquish said enemy, he courted and then enlisted, quite openly, the radical evangelical Christian dominionists in the United States to accomplish his goal. That’s where this thing we now face went on afterburners.  It’s only been building speed since. When President Obama was elected, they found new footsoldiers by courting the open and closeted racists who live amongst us, causing the likes of an incompetent Donald Trump to rise to the highest office in the land.  One shudders to imagine where this all goes from here.

I’m so thankful that you are doing the lion’s share of bringing the awareness of this threat to the American people.  I read the mail you receive and it’s shocking, and I’m not one who is easily shocked. As a follower of Humanistic Judaism it would be hypocritical to say that I pray for your safety, but suffice it to say that I hope that you and yours remain safe in this torrential sea of hatred we are all currently charting our course through. You remain a beacon of hope for all you serve, one we need to keep up the fight. If the United States falls to these illiberal theocrats and faux strongmen, so does the world. That’s a certainty.

Be well and stay healthy!

Respectfully yours,

(name withheld)
USAF Veteran.
PLEASE MAKE A
100% TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION

MRFF is a 501C3 Nonprofit
Please Share on Social Media
MRFF Information/Contact:
(505) 250-7727