Dear MRFF,
I am sure I am not the first, and surely not the last, to suggest that you mission is founded in misguided zeal. On the surface you seem to bring hope to the religious community and strive to restore religious freedoms. Your actions speak differently. In your own words on your home page it states ” ….the Constitutional guarantee of both freedom of religion and freedom from religion, to which they and all Americans are entitled.” Our Constitution does NOT say FREEDOM FROM RELIGION, as I am sure you know. It says CONGRESS shall make NO LAW…… The example is the National Prayer Day. There is no law passed in congress calling for mandatory Prayer Day. Just because it may be sponsored by a group with whom you do not agree (who do you propose sponsor such an event?) doesn’t make millitary participation a VIOLATION OF LAW because as previously stated there is NO LAW for or against such. So Freedom of Religion is actually being infringed upon by YOUR ORGINIZATION. This makes your mission predicated upon untruths
(name withheld)
Dear (name withheld),
Mikey – the Founder and President of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) – has read your email and asked me to respond to you.
I am sure that I am the first to tell you that your email is founded in misguided religious zeal full of untruths. A better definition is your complete lack of historical knowledge.
Let me correct you.
The Puritans that stepped off of the Mayflower came here because they wanted freedom FROM religion – FROM the Church of England. They wanted this freedom for their particular sect of Christianity alone.
The laws of Puritan Massachusetts were based on their interpretation of the bible and all of those living within the borders – whether of another religion or no religion – must obey them. Though they fled England because of the religious intoleration towards them, once on America soil, they were more heinous than the Church of England.
Roger Williams – a Puritan minister – was the first dissenter and argued that God did not sanction the Puritan colony. He was banished from Massachusetts in 1636 and founded the first colony to have no established religion (freedom FROM religion). He also gave them freedom of conscience.
“The Boston martyrs is the name given in Quaker tradition to the three English members of the Society of Friends, Marmaduke Stephenson, William Robinson and Mary Dyer, and to the Friend William Leddra of Barbados, who were condemned to death and executed by public hanging for their religious beliefs under the legislature of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1659, 1660 and 1661. Several other Friends lay under sentence of death at Boston in the same period, but had their punishments commuted to that of being whipped out of the colony from town to town.
“The hanging of Mary Dyer on the Boston gallows in 1660 marked the beginning of the end of the Puritan theocracy and New England independence from English rule. In 1661 King Charles II explicitly forbade Massachusetts from executing anyone for professing Quakerism. In 1684 England revoked the Massachusetts charter, sent over a royal governor to enforce English laws in 1686, and in 1689 passed a broad Toleration act.”
The Salem Witch Trials held between February 1692 and May 1693, caused by mass hysteria and lies, was the death knell of any attempt to force Christianity on the nation.
“More than once it has been said, too, that the Salem witchcraft was the rock on which the theocracy shattered.” George Lincoln Burr (January 30, 1857 – 1938) Professor of History and Librarian at Cornell University
Some of the early colonies had a state supported religion and all of those within said state had to pay taxes to support that church, whether they belonged to it or not. There were many dissenters of this tax that was forced on them.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment (Establishment Clause) of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise (Free Exercise Clause) thereof . . . “(1st Amendment)
The Establishment Clause comes before the Free Exercise Clause for a reason; the Free Exercise Clause is subservient to the Establishment Clause – not the other way around as some Christians would like it to be.
The Establishment Clause was needed – based on past history – so that our country did not have a government religion based on Christianity and was thusfree from religion. We were also free from paying taxes for a religion and free from making our laws based on religion. But, this freedom FROM religion did not interfere with anyone wanting to practice their faith whether it is Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, etc. (even the spaghetti monster) or to have no religious affiliation under the Free Exercise Clause.
The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” This clause not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion, but also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another. It also prohibits the government from unduly preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion.http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/establishment_clause
“Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history.”
James Madison; Monopolies, Perpetuities, Corporations, Ecclesiastical Endowments
“I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.”
Thomas Jefferson, letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, 1802
“Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.”
Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814
“The civil government functions with complete success by the total separation of the Church from the State.”
James Madison, 1819, Writings, 8:432, quoted from Gene Garman, “Essays In Addition to America’s Real Religion”
On to the National Day of Prayer:
You said “There is no law passed in congress calling for mandatory Prayer Day.”
Well, there is a law.
There are actually two distinct and separate National Day of Prayer events; The National Day of Prayer and the National Day of Prayer Task Force.
The National Day of Prayer was signed by Executive Decision on April 17, 1952 by President Harry S. Truman and is celebrated by Americans of many religions, including Christians of many denominations, Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, etc. reflecting the demographics of the United States.
The National Day of Prayer Task Force was formed in 1982 by a conservative evangelical Christian organization called the “National Prayer Committee” to coordinate and implement a fixed annual day of prayer for the purpose of organizing only evangelical Christian prayer events.
As you can see, these are not the same; the National Day of Prayer is government sanctioned while the National Day of Prayer Task Force is a private, religious entity that is not government sanctioned.
You said “Just because it may be sponsored by a group with whom you do not agree (who do you propose sponsor such an event?) doesn’t make millitary participation a VIOLATION OF LAW because as previously stated there is NO LAW for or against such.”
Again, you are wrong.
There are strict Department of Defense regulations barring any military personnel or bands from participating in a non-government sanctioned religious event. By allowing the military to participate in a conservative evangelical Christian organization’s event it gives the appearance of endorsement against all other religions.
Joint Ethics Regulation (DoD 5500.7-R) regarding the strictly prohibited DoD endorsement of any non-federal entity, such as the NDP Task Force (Section 3-209);
DoD Instruction 5410.19, Section 6.7.1, which, likewise, prohibits DoD endorsement of any non-federal entity, such as the NDP Task Force;
DoD Instruction 5410.19, Section 6.7.2, which prohibits the providing of a selective benefit or preferential treatment by the DoD to any non-federal entity, such as the NDP Task Force.
4. As stated in DoD Directive 5410.18, Section 4.2.4.2, “Providing support at events sponsored by non-Federal entities by Military Service members in uniform performing in a military band, choral group, or portion thereof, is particularly inappropriate because they convey in that context a strong visual appearance of a DoD endorsement of the non-Federal entity, its event, or its goals.”
Mikey and the MRFF DO NOT act on their own but on the complaints of soldiers who see the blatant disregard for the Constitution and military law where religion is concerned. There were 27 senior officials at the Pentagon who complained to Mikey about the blatant disregard for military law in this instance.
Our “ORGINIZATION” is not infringing on freedom of religion but holding our military to their own laws placed on them regarding participation in any religious event.
So, it is your email that is predicated upon untruths. It looks like you are the one that needed “correction.”
What’s up with using “Becky’s email?” Don’t you have one of your own?
Pastor Joan
Advisory Board Member