We think — and the Constitution and Supreme Court caselaw supports us — that the right of the men and women in our armed forces to their personal choice, the right to their personal belief, the right to their religious or non-religious preference, cannot be abrogated by the government, by their superior officers, or by the Pentagon.

That sounds like a statement most could agree with — and those words come from MRFF board member Mike Farrell in their annual end-of-year fundraising letter.

Regrettably, the actions of Farrell’s boss, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, contradict his noble words.  Contrary to Farrell’s gilded semantics, Weinstein has attacked the personal faiths of Christian chaplains and troops — even going so far as to attack Christian chapel services — in what can only be described as an attempt to deny “the men and women in our armed forces” their religious liberties through the force of government.

More tellingly, Weinstein — a self-proclaimed “religious freedom” advocate — is on the record calling for a “religious test” denying military service to people with Christian beliefs.

Other members of his board were less subtle in their description of the MRFF’s attacks on Christianity:

The forces of evangelical, 21st-Century Crusader Christianity comprise one of the most potent threats to democracy and the Rule of Law in the United States…
– Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame

‘American Taliban’ is not too powerful a descriptor for some of the fundamentalist Christians prowling our nation’s…armed forces.
– Lawrence Wilkerson

When these are the words the MRFF itself uses to summarize its purpose (and raise money for its mission), can there be any doubt that Weinstein uses his “charity” to attack Christians who hold beliefs with which he disagrees?

When his board describes Christianity as a “threat to democracy” and calls American troops “Taliban” because of their beliefs, can there be any doubt Weinstein would use “the government…, superior officers, or…the Pentagon” to attempt to abrogate the religious rights of US troops?  That’s precisely what he’s done, despite Farrell’s reassurances to the contrary.

Many people support the concept of defending religious freedom in the US military, and some of those may even support the MRFF because they believe Mike Farrell’s words. In Mikey Weinstein’s world, though, and in contrast to the words Farrell used, only certain beliefs are worthy of true “religious liberty” — and Weinstein seems to believe he is the one who gets to decide which ones are worthy.

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