Military Religious Freedom Foundation

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation'' (MRFF) is a watchdog group and advocacy organization founded in 2005 by Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein. The group's goal states it will, "Ensure that members of the United States Armed Forces receive the Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom to which they are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment."

Weinstein describes the group's target as: "A small subset of Fundamentalist Christianity that's called premilliennial, dispensational, reconstructionist, dominionist, fundamentalist, or just Dominionist Christianity.""With God on Our Side" Talk given July 10, 2007
at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. First aired on C-SPAN August 11, 2007. Accessed on Aug. 19, 2007

Background

The organization was founded by United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) graduate and former USAF Judge Advocate General's Corps officer Michael Weinstein in 2005 for the purpose of opposing the spread of alleged religious intimidation by Christians in positions of power within the US military.

Weinstein said he experienced discrimination due to his Jewish faith while serving as a cadet at the Air Force Academy. After his sons reportedly experienced discrimination additionally to himself at the Academy, Weinstein founded the MRFF in 2005. He describes the group's target audience as, "a small subset of Fundamentalist Christianity that's called premilliennial, dispensational, reconstructionist, dominionist, fundamentalist, or just Dominionist Christianity." He further characterized their antagonism as, "incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation's armed forces."Michael Weinstein (April 16, 2013)
"Fundamentalist Christian Monsters: Papa's Got A Brand New Bag."
accessed July 26, 2013. In 2015 the group asked the United States Congress to hold oversight hearings regarding what it alleges is the Defense Department's failure to abide by the Constitutionally mandated separation of Church and State.

From its inception, the MRFF has advocated for many active duty U.S. servicemen/women and veterans who have contacted them regarding alleged religious discrimination, harassment and aggressive proselytizing by Fundamentalist Christians. As of 2022, the MRFF reported that it represented over 77,000 active duty U.S. marines, sailors, soldiers, airmen, cadets, midshipmen, national guard, reservists, and veterans, about 95% of whom self-identify as practicing Christians. Of the remaining 4%, MRFF represents Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Native American Spiritualist, Humanist, Pagan, Atheist, slightly over 18% of all Muslim Americans in the U.S. military, other minority faith, and non-faith military members, and slightly under 1,000 LGBT military members.

On September 11, 2012, advisory board member Glen Doherty, a Roman Catholic, died in the U.S. Consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya. MRFF founder Michael L. Weinstein said that Doherty had "helped me on many MRFF client cases behind the scenes to facilitate assistance to armed forces members abused horribly by fundamentalist Christian proselytizing."

On November 13, 2014, for the sixth consecutive year, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation was officially nominated again for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize (its seventh total nomination).

Notable cases and achievements

MRFF has filed multiple federal lawsuits against the Pentagon and the Secretary of Defense, with military members as co-plaintiffs, asserting a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religion by the military. MRFF founder Weinstein has spoken to students at a number of the U.S. military's educational institutions: The U.S. Air Force Academy's National Character and Leadership Symposium, the Air Force JAG School, the Air Command and Staff College, and the US Army War College.

Jewish veteran Akiva David Miller,"Orthodox US Jewish Navy Veteran: Chaplains repeatedly tried to convert me"
israelenews.com, May 28, 2008.
jewsonfirst.org, May 15, 2007; accessed May 24, 2008. who alleged he had suffered religious discrimination and aggressive Christian proselytization while receiving care at the Iowa City, Iowa V.A. Medical Center beginning in 2005 was a client of the MRFF.

2006 saw the exposure by the MRFF of a promotional video by Christian Embassy (an offshoot of the evangelical Campus Crusade for Christ) which was filmed in the Pentagon and featured uniformed Generals. Following a MRFF-requested internal investigation carried out by the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General, the report on "Alleged Misconduct by DoD Officials Concerning Christian Embassy" concluded that several violations of Defense Department policy were committed during the production of the promotional video. Chief among the violations was the obtaining of permission to film the video at the Pentagon by means of a willful " ischaracterizationof the purpose and proponent of the video" by Chaplain (Colonel) Ralph G. Benson, as well as the acts of officers who used their name, rank, and uniforms as a means towards endorsing the Christian Embassy proselytizing message.

In September 2008, the California Council of Churches IMPACT (CCCI), a public policy advocacy organization that represents numerous and diverse mainstream Christian and Orthodox Christian communities, formally announced its endorsement of the MRFF's mission, with CCCI Board President Rev. John Freeseman stating "Our alignment with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is on behalf of religious freedom for all people, regardless of belief or non-belief. It is not the function of the U.S. Military to proselytize our troops but to protect our constitutional freedoms."

In February 2009, Colonel Kimberly Toney, commander of the USAF's 501st Combat Support Wing sent an email with a link to a religious-themed web video about the life story of Nick Vujicic. The sponsoring site of the video, 4marks.com, is a Catholic website. USAF service members who looked at the site after following the emailed link complained that the site contained criticism of President Barack Obama. Weinstein said the incident represented a textbook case of improper religious influence and added, "There's a pervasive pattern of constitutional abuse when you have a wing commander who sends out a direct, proselytizing e-mail with a link to a Web site that slanders the president of the United States."

Following the Fort Hood shooting in November 2009, the religious right American Family Association issued the statement "No More Muslims in the US Military", which explicitly stated that Muslim military enlistees be barred from military service in the United States armed forces on the grounds that "... just as Christians are taught to imitate the life of Christ, so Muslims are taught to imitate the Prophet in all things. Yesterday, Nidal Malik Hasan was simply being a good Muslim." Weinstein's denunciation of the AFA position as "bigoted, racist, ndvile" was featured prominently by Hatewatch, the official blog of the Southern Poverty Law Center civil rights organization.

MRFF Senior Research Director Chris Rodda was invited to contribute an essay on religious expression in the military to the discursive volume "Attitudes Aren't Free: Thinking Deeply About Diversity in the US Armed Forces" published by Air University Press, the publishing arm of the Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base.

The MRFF initiated the January 2010 media coverage of the Jesus rifles controversy, when rifle scopes manufactured by US government contractor Trijicon were discovered to be engraved with scripture citations. Following the breaking of this story by ABC News, the outrage provoked by this discovery was voiced by a diverse range of religious and political constituencies and within a week of the ABC News report, Trijicon announced that it would halt the engraving of the biblical inscriptions on all products sold to the government.

Pressure on United States Air Force Academy Superintendent Lt Gen Michael C. Gould throughout 2010 resulted in the release of the bi-annual Academy Climate Survey's results. The survey revealed that 41% of non-Christian cadets and 19% of all cadets were allegedly subjected to unwanted proselytizing.

In January 2011, the MRFF demanded that the US Army cease and desist their policy of administering a "spiritual fitness" component to the mandatory Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program test, whereby soldiers' combat readiness and ability are judged on the basis of their religiosity. MRFF criticized the fact that evangelical Christian rock concerts were being organized and funded under the auspices of the Spiritual Fitness program.

MRFF litigation sparked by a prayer luncheon hosted by the US Air Force Academy's chaplain service (which featured retired Marine Corps Lt. and fundamentalist Christian Clebe McClary as keynote speaker) was reviewed by a federal judge in February 2011. U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello ruled the plaintiffs (which included the MRFF and USAFA professor David Mullin) lacked sufficient legal standing to challenge the event.

The United States Air Force, in response to the pressure caused by the release of internal training material via a Freedom of Information Act request, revised the ethical indoctrination course material to which nuclear missile launch officers were exposed as a standard component of their training. The course was defended by a spokesman for the Air Force's Air Education and Training Command as a means of " elpingfolks understand why we're doing what we're doing. In the missile launch industry, it takes a certain mindset to be able to walk in the door and say, yes, I can do that". Included in the course is a PowerPoint presentatio
Who Are You When No One Is Looking: Five Ethical Principles For Service To The Air Force
a presentation which reveals a Christian militarist perspective and which heavily quotes Judeo-Christian scripture and contains a synopsis of the Just War Theory of St. Augustine of Hippo. Controversially, the PowerPoint also contains a slide excerpting the words of former Nazi Party member, SS Sturmbannführer, aerospace engineer and rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun, who is quoted as stating: "We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon he ballistic missileto people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world best be secured," in reference to his 1945 surrender to American occupation forces and subsequent recruitment by the United States Office of Strategic Services via Operation Paperclip. MRFF client and missile officer training attendee Damon Bosetti recounted to the media that he and his Air Force colleagues would refer to the religious portion of the ethics training course as the "Jesus loves nukes speech." In September 2011, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) encouraged the Air Force to resume the class.

Following the MRFF threatening suit over the "Crusaders" name and cross and shield logo for the Marine Fighter Attack Squadron VMFA-122, the Marine Deputy Commandant for Aviation directed VMFA-122 to revert the unit's identification back to the previous name and logo "Werewolves," on May 24, 2012.

In December 2012, Weinstein was named #95 of the "100 Most Influential People in U.S. Defense" by ''Defense News''.

In 2013, Department of Defense Officials responsible for U.S. Army Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness Program sought MRFF’s direct input. Lt. Colonel Chaplain Stephen W. Austin contacted MRFF President and Founder Mikey Weinstein on October 8, 2013, regarding the initial development and implementation of a spiritual dimension component to a U.S. Army soldier resilience platform.

In October 2013, MRFF exposed close ties between dominionist groups meeting with DoD officials and fundamentalist leader calling for a military takeover of U.S. Government. On October 3, 2013, MRFF Senior Research Director Chris Rodda reported in the Huffington Post and DailyKos on the extremely close ties between the Restore Military Religious Freedom (RMRF) coalition, RMRF coalition member the Family Research Council, and Rick Joyner, the head of MorningStar Ministries/Heritage International Ministries who proposed a “military takeover” of the U.S. Government on September 30, 2013. Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. “Jerry” Boykin, who serves as the Family Research Council’s Executive Vice President, appeared on Rick Joyner’s ''Prophetic Perspectives on Current Events'' for four of the five episodes in the week leading up to his September 30 proposal for a military takeover of the government. MRFF is working to uncover additional information regarding the relationship between these religious dominionist leaders and Department of Defense officials with a FOIA request filed on September 23, 2013, regarding a meeting on September 12 of the previous year between representatives of the RMRF and the DoD.

In November 2013, MRFF demanded on behalf of 27 lesbian/gay/bisexual clients at that the U.S. Air Force Academy that the Academy fire “ex-Gay” fundamentalist Christian Mike Rosebush, who claimed he could “cure” gays.

In September 2014, pressure from MRFF and allies forced the U.S. Air Force to rescind an unlawful requirement that enlistees state “So Help Me God” in their enlistment oath. Airmen were allowed to omit the phrase until October 2013 when the U.S. Air Force changed their interpretation of 10 USC 502, 5 USC 3331, and Title 32. On September 17, 2014, the Air Force News Service (AFNS) reported “In response to concerns raised by Airmen, the Department of the Air Force requested an opinion from the Department of Defense General Counsel addressing the legal parameters of the oath. The resulting opinion concluded that an individual may strike or omit the words “So help me God” from an enlistment or appointment oath if preferred.”

In October 2014, MRFF exposed the Army ROTC program’s unconstitutional restrictions against non-Christians. An active duty U.S. Army officer informed MRFF that a list of available “broadening assignments” (i.e. assignments available to captains who have completed their required course and stint as a company commander) contained a listing for the position of Assistant Professor of Military Science for the ROTC program at Wheaton College which required that applicants “Must Be Of Christian Faith,” a violation of Article VI, Clause 3 of the Constitution, which states: "No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

In January 2015, a Special Forces recruiting poster for "God’s Mission" was immediately removed after MRFF’s Intervention.

In November 2015, MRFF's action forced the Fort Carson Post Exchange (PX) to remove anti-Islamic t-shirts from its retail shelves. The shirts depicted the Statue of Liberty wearing a hijab and holding the Quran on her left arm superimposed over a golden crescent and the statement “DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN AMERICA.”

In 2016, MRFF Action leads to the removal of unconstitutional sectarian religious text from POW/MIA "Missing Man" tables at five federal facilities.

Criticism

MRFF founder Weinstein has come under criticism for his salary, which exceeds the average for non-profit organizations. As one of the voting members of the MRFF's three-member board, he has voted on his own compensation. In 2012, he received total compensation worth US$273,355 according to Internal Revenue Service filings accessed on the nonprofit transparency website, GuideStar. According to the MRFF, however, Weinstein does not vote on his own salary, and the MRFF has a 100% passing grade from Charity Navigator on its finances and accountability.

References

External links

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Organizations established in 2006
Minority rights
Nonpartisan organizations in the United States
Government watchdog groups in the United States
Political advocacy groups in the United States
Secularist organizations
Church–state separation advocacy organizations
United States military support organizations
Separation of church and state in the United States
Religion in the United States military