{"id":12861,"date":"2011-09-02T02:30:50","date_gmt":"2011-09-02T07:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=12861"},"modified":"2015-06-27T19:15:09","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T22:15:09","slug":"mrff-targets-military-ministries-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/02\/mrff-targets-military-ministries-again\/","title":{"rendered":"MRFF Targets Military Ministries. Again."},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking for Michael Weinstein and his Military Religious Freedom Foundation, Chris Rodda recently went on the offensive against Officers’ Christian Fellowship<\/a>, a Christian military ministry.\u00a0 (This isn’t really new.\u00a0 Rick Baker lists virtually every Christian ministry<\/a> in existence\u00a0in his frequent diatribes against religious freedom in the military.)\u00a0 Rodda’s write-up sounds like the intro to a Twilight Zone <\/em>episode:<\/p>\n

Throughout the US military…lurks an organization of over 15,500 fundamentalist Christian military officers who think their real duty is not to protect and defend the Constitution, but to raise up “a spiritually transformed military, with ambassadors for Christ in uniform, empowered by the Holy Spirit.” These officers belong to an organization called the Officers’ Christian Fellowship (OCF)…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Rodda later gives a second nod to the Twilight Zone <\/em>with the intro to her example, “Imagine for a moment…”.)<\/p>\n

Of course, Rodda provides no support for her accusation that any member of OCF thinks their “real duty is not to protect and defend the Constitution.”\u00a0 Remember, Rodda feels no desire to actually defend her positions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the past few years, Rodda and Weinstein have been trying to support the meme that the US Department of Defense is just ‘too Christian’ for non-Christians to be able to effectively use intra-departmental grievance systems.\u00a0 (Two of Weinstein’s four dismissed lawsuits<\/a> were tossed out precisely for the defendant’s failure to use those systems.)\u00a0 If they can build a case that members of the military can’t<\/em> use those systems, they can circumvent the military’s grievance systems and finally pursue Weinstein’s vendetta in court.\u00a0 Rodda’s blanket mischaracterizations and caricatures of Christian officers are simply another means to that end.<\/p>\n

In the end, Rodda’s article<\/a> says little of substance.\u00a0 Consistent with her writing “style,” she never explicitly says how any of the people cited in her article violated any policy, regulation, or law (though she repeatedly says “you know its wrong…”).<\/p>\n

This may be intentional, as Rodda may realize she would be unable to support her implications and her argument would fail.\u00a0 Thus, she leaves the hanging chad for her supporters to cling to, allowing them to draw the (incorrect but) desired conclusion.\u00a0 It may also simply be that\u00a0Rodda is unable to\u00a0articulate a defense\u00a0of her position, much like Weinstein himself<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a comment<\/a> on her own article, however, she clearly says those officers are <\/em>violating regulations (though she still\u00a0fails to say\u00a0how<\/em>):<\/p>\n

You apparently don’t understand that the people in the military who are doing these things are violating the military’s own rules and regulations. All MRFF is trying to do is to get the military to obey its OWN rules and regulations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pop quiz:\u00a0 What regulation\u00a0prevents a military officer from posting his religious beliefs on the internet or otherwise making them public?\u00a0\u00a0Answer:\u00a0 There isn’t one.<\/p>\n

Either way, it’s important to note the majority of Rodda’s article does not criticize the membership of OCF for any conduct<\/em>.\u00a0 She holds them up for mockery and derision simply for their beliefs <\/em>— just for being Christian<\/em>.\u00a0 In fact, the final third of her article is only direct quotations of the Christian testimonies of military officers.\u00a0 Rodda implies the mere statement <\/em>of Christian beliefs is somehow wrong<\/em>.\u00a0 Actually, this is one of the few things on which she explicitly takes a position (albeit unsupported):<\/p>\n

U.S. miltary [sic<\/em>] officers who are afraid of “violating the uniform code of military justice, command policy or regulations” by publicly espousing their religious views is a problem? To the rest of us that’s a solution!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The research assistant of Michael Weinstein’s “religious freedom” group thinks officers “publicly espousing their religious views” is wrong<\/em>.\u00a0 And Weinstein claims to defend <\/em>the US Constitution?<\/p>\n

The MRFF seems to think\u00a0these officers\u00a0are not the “right kind <\/em>of Christian” and are therefore undeserving of religious freedom.<\/p>\n

Contrary to the beliefs of Weinstein’s “charity,” members of the military are permitted to hold, express, and practice their religious beliefs, whether they are Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, or any other kind of beliefs.<\/p>\n

Rodda’s accusations are on the cusp of a “slippery slope:”\u00a0 She asserts a military officer cannot express <\/em>his religious beliefs because of the environment it creates\u00a0if his subordinates know his beliefs.\u00a0 The next logical step is a military officer\u00a0should\u00a0not be able to practice <\/em>those beliefs.\u00a0 After all, you can’t have subordinates see a superior officer walk into a Mormon temple or Jewish synagogue — then they’d know their superiors’ religious beliefs and\u00a0suddenly be unable to function.\u00a0 Or something.<\/p>\n

Of course, the MRFF could always ask that its current role as arbiter of what is and is not the “right kind” of Christianity be made official by the military. Then the military could simply ask Weinstein if a person’s religious beliefs were acceptable for a military leadership position, and everyone would be happy.\u00a0 There are certainly issues with that concept, too.<\/p>\n

The simplest way to prevent Rodda’s hypothetical hypersensitive offense\u00a0is to ban religious belief in military leadership positions altogether.\u00a0 Then\u00a0Weinstein, Rodda, and others who are so hypersensitive to Christians they think saying “I am a Christian” is illegal would finally be assured that no Christian would ever be in a position of military leadership.<\/p>\n

And Michael Weinstein would finally achieve the objective of his “religious freedom” charity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking for Michael Weinstein and his Military Religious Freedom Foundation, Chris Rodda recently went on the offensive against Officers’ Christian Fellowship, a Christian military ministry.\u00a0 (This isn’t really new.\u00a0 Rick Baker lists virtually every Christian ministry in existence\u00a0in his frequent diatribes against religious freedom in the military.)\u00a0 Rodda’s write-up sounds like the intro to a Twilight Zone episode: Throughout the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[175,96,85,2,5218,7,81,10,171,420],"class_list":["post-12861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-chris-rodda","tag-christian","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-ocf","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-rick-baker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}