MRFF Stops Bible-Waving Commander from Carrying and Holding Up Bible During Unit PT Runs
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: September 1, 2014
Publisher Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Publication: Freethought Newswire
Original Link: research@militaryreligiousfreedom.org
Publication Date: September 5, 2024
Organization: Military Religious Freedom Foundation
Organization Description: The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is dedicated to ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Over 89,000 active duty, veteran, and civilian personnel of the United States Armed Forces, including individuals involved in High School JROTC around the nation, have come to our foundation for redress and assistance in resolving or alerting the public to their civil rights grievances, with hundreds more contacting MRFF each day. 95% of them are Christians themselves.
| Thursday Afternoon, September 5, 2024 |
| MRFF STOPS BIBLE-WAVING COMMANDER FROM CARRYING AND HOLDING UP BIBLE DURING PT RUNS AND REWARDING TROOPS FOR COPYING HIM WITH THEIR OWN BIBLES “Simply put our commander started carrying and holding his bible high in the air for the whole unit to see before after and during these PT runs. He never actually ‘said’ anything about why he was doing this but I can assure you that the message was fully received by our unit. Shortly after he began doing this some of our younger members of our combat unit also started bringing their bibles for these training runs and holding them up in the air whenever our commander did it during these PT exercises. “Then on the following mornings of PT exercises our commander would always ‘reward’ these young troops by picking them to lead as element leaders of our unit at the front of our PT running formations. This clearly sent the message of his ’special approval’ for those troops who also carried their bibles and raised them whenever he did during our PT runs.” — Active Duty Senior NCO and MRFF Client |
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| (The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.) |
| E-mail to MRFF from grateful active duty senior NCOin Bible-waving commander’s unit “Our commander stopped bringing and displaying his bible and the younger troops had been previously advised by our unit EO designee, after Mr. Weinstein’s intervention with that phone call, to stop as well.” |
From: (Active Duty Senior NCO/MRFF Client’s e-mail address withheld)Subject: MRFF stopped our commander from promoting his bible in physical conditioning runsDate: September 5, 2024 at 9:14:43 AM MDTTo: Information Weinstein <mikey@militaryreligiousfreedom.org> Hello to Mr. Weinstein and the MRFF action team. I am an active duty senior NCO in a combat unit. And yes I am also a Christian (Church of Christ) who is married to my Christian wife and we are raising our kids Christian. I recently reached out to our (military installation name withheld) MRFF Rep regarding the divisive religious actions of our (combat unit designation name withheld) commander regarding early morning physical training (PT) runs with our unit. Simply put our commander started carrying and holding his bible high in the air for the whole unit to see before after and during these PT runs. He never actually “said” anything about why he was doing this but I can assure you that the message was fully received by our unit. Shortly after he began doing this some of our younger members of our combat unit also started bringing their bibles for these training runs and holding them up in the air whenever our commander did it during these PT exercises. Then on the following mornings of PT exercises our commander would always “reward” these young troops by picking them to lead as element leaders of our unit at the front of our PT running formations. This clearly sent the message of his “special approval” for those troops who also carried their bibles and raised them whenever he did during our PT runs. Just like every military unit ours also has members from many different religions including Muslims and Sikhs and Jews as well as members who don’t follow any faith structure at all. They as well as Christian troops like myself were shocked by all of this! I knew something had to be done but didn’t want to face the anger of our commander. I’ve been in the (military branch name withheld) long enough including a number of intense combat engagements down range to know that what our commander did with his promotion of his bible during our PT runs badly hurts our unit solidarity rather than helps it. I realize that as a senior NCO I should have spoken up to him personally but frankly feared his reaction if I tried. Believe me I and other NCO’s involved here don’t feel happy about our failure to act. I and the others won’t let that happen again. Instead I contacted our MRFF Rep here after doing a little “quiet research” and getting advice from one of our (military installation name withheld) JAGs and she put me in immediate touch with Mr. Weinstein. Within an hour of my call with Mr. Mikey Weinstein he had called me back explaining that he had contacted the Exec. Officer for Colonel (name withheld) who is the commander of (senior reporting unit designation name withheld). Mr. Weinstein told me that on my behalf and the behalf of at least 35 other members of our unit (2/3s of whom are also Christians like me) who wanted our commander to stop promoting his bible during our PT runs, he had made the demand to have these actions stop immediately as violations of the civil rights of our unit members by our commander. It worked. We have had 5 PT runs since that time and there have been no further bible displays during any of them at all. Our commander stopped bringing and displaying his bible and the younger troops had been previously advised by our unit EO designee, after Mr. Weinstein’s intervention with that phone call, to stop as well. Our commander has said absolutely nothing at all about no longer using his bible during our PT exercises. But I can tell you that the damage has been done as many of us have lost respect for him as a result and also for not mentioning any of this after he was forced to stop by MRFF contacting our superiors to make him stop. On behalf of our entire unit, I want to thank our MRFF Rep here at (military installation name withheld), Mr. Mikey Weinstein and the whole of the MRFF for handling this matter. I realize that we should have confronted our commander ourselves but again were very concerned about inciting him to anger against us for doing so since this involved his personal Christian faith. The MRFF took that fear away and got the job done. A lot of lessons learned here and everyone is very grateful to the MRFF for all of this! Thank you to the MRFF for doing what we should have done in the first place but didn’t. Easy for those who weren’t involved to criticize us for asking for MRFF’s help but none of you were here to go through this fxxxing mess. (Active Duty Senior NCO/MRFF Client’s name, rank, MOS/AFSC, unit designation, and military installation all withheld) |
| When leaders say something, subordinates respond accordingly, whether it’s imitating their commander by bringing their Bibles to PT runs in 2024 or following the lead of their “born-again” Christian commandant at the Air Force Academy two decades ago. |
 Veteran/VA employee thanks MRFF for “assistance in responding to disgustingly abusive and in-your-face Christian Supremacist inspired religious/racial harassment” |
| From: David (last name withheld) Subject: LetterDate: August 31, 2024 at 12:22:56 PM MDTTo: <mikey@militaryreligiousfreedom.org> Mikey/MRFF, Thanks for recent advice and assistance in responding to disgustingly abusive and in-your-face Christian Supremacist inspired religious/racial harassment (…Project 2025 preview?) directed at me as an employee then promptly ignored if not actively encouraged by the administrators of the Phoenix VAMC. While my situation is not fully resolved, the MRFF crew has been extremely helpful in providing advice and encouragement in my ongoing effort to push-back for the Constitution, our shared civil rights, and my sworn oath to protect both! My name is David (last name withheld) (…and please feel free to publish my name) and I am a retired veteran of 23 years. I served honorably with or in four branches of the U.S. military with great personal pride. I have always wanted to make a difference by protecting those who could not or cannot protect themselves. I also happen to be a 53-year-old black man. While I was raised in a Southern Baptist faith tradition, I became an Atheist/Humanist assuming that I could exercise my freedom of belief as someone not convinced of the existence of god(s). If you stand up for what is right and fair, you will be appreciated and revered. I was wrong. In 2019, while working as a nurse at the Phoenix VA’s Southeast clinic in Gilbert AZ, I was on a team of three that took care of veterans. A private contractor serving VA clients (a.k.a. Provider), that my team of nurses lead, was going to have a meeting about daily workload (NORMAL). This provider decided that we would have a prayer session in the room where I see my patients (NOT NORMAL)! Being an Atheist/Humanist, I stated that I would not be participating and attempted to excuse myself until whomever wanted to pray were done, then I would return to the meeting. She grabbed my hand and stated that she, “was going to pray for me to become a good Christian whether I want to be or not”. Pulling my hand away in shock, this provider would not relent stating once again (after trying to grab me a second time) that she, “was going to make me a good Christian today” and “I was going to pray with them”. Pulling my hand away again, I said “no, and never touch me again”! The provider grabbed my hand a ridiculously aggressive third time! After offering some choice words about keeping her hands to herself, I left to seek guidance and possibly file a complaint. Later that week while I was speaking with my Admin Clerk in the clinic office area, the provider loudly stated something smelled bad in the POD. Appeared extremely confused by her statement, everyone began asking what she was talking about and someone offered deodorizing spray. Spraying vigorously, she held her nose proclaiming “I know where the smell is coming from” then pointing directly at me “it’s Dave, he stinks”. Everyone working in the POD was shocked. This exceedingly arrogant, condescending, and racist provider got in my face saying “black people stink”. A complaint was filed immediately on my behalf as I filed one as well (EEO Complaint #1). The VA ‘No Fear’ Policy proclaims the “VA does not tolerate unlawful discrimination, workplace harassment or retaliation based on… race, color, religion… and does not tolerate retaliation for opposing discriminatory practices…”. The Phoenix VAMC response? Since filing my EEO complaint, I have been: -ARRESTED for enforcing the VAMC’s masking mandate during COVID pandemic,-removed and given ‘No Contact Order’ at clinic where the incident occurred,-shipped around to almost every clinic under the Phoenix VAMC system,-blacklisted by other contract providers,-treated like shit by co-workers because I reported over-the-top religious AND racial discrimination. These abusive, illegal, and unethical examples of vicious retribution led to filing two more EEOC Complaints and a ‘Section 1983’ Civil Rights lawsuit in Federal District Court in Phoenix. 5 years after filing my original complaint in 2019 I received a response from the EEOC-OFO (Office of Federal Operations) to my appeal of the EEO Administrative Judge dismissal my original appeal: -New hearing ordered to assess the provider’s statements contrary to my claims verified by witness testimony.-A hostile work environment had clearly been created and allowed to continue by the providers and VA Administrators based on obvious Religious and Racial discrimination.-The judgement in favor of the VA by the administrative judge SHOULD NOT have been granted. I have never known an organization so hell bent on violating employees’ rights and protecting the people who violate those rights. I find it shameful for an administrative judge to so blatantly ignore Constitutional mandates and my civil rights to protect whatever they may identify with (religiously and/or culturally). My successful appeal of that judge’s decision highlights the Phoenix VAMC’s ongoing environment of Christian supremacy and retribution for anyone willing to call them on it! The MRFF’s recent assistance in my 5-year battle with this bureaucratic maze of gutless hypocrisy and ‘naked ass covering’ has been a tremendous assistance to my morale and drive to see this in-your-face un-Constitutional and highly unethical situation to a full resolution!! I can highly recommend active-duty military and veterans contact MRFF in response to what will obviously be even more intrusively over-the-top attempts to support the supremacy of one religious view over all others (i.e., Project 2025)! Sincerely, David (last name withheld) (PS. Freedom is scary. Deal with it!) |
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