Weinstein Bonnie - To the Far Right Christian Hater...You Can Be a Good Speller or a Hater, But You Cant Be Both: Official Hate Mail, Threats, and Criticism from the Archives of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation

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Copyright 2015 Bonnie Weinstein

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Distributed in the US by Publishers Group West

ePub ISBN 978-1-940207-95-7

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication data

Weinstein, Bonnie.
To the far right Christian hateryou can be a good speller or a hater, but you cant be both / by Bonnie Weinstein.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-940207-83-4
1. Freedom of religion. 2. Church and state. 3. Religion and law. 4. Armed ForcesReligious life. 5. SoldiersReligious life. 6. English languageErrors of usage. I. Title.

BV741 .W455 2014
323.44/2/0973 dc23

Contents

Dear MRFF,

Just wanted to express my total dismay at your website and purpose in life. So,

please **** YOURSELF!

To the Military Religious Freedom Foundation,

I'll evangelize where ever I like and I don't care what you or the constitution say period. GET IT!!!

-C.I.

To C.I.,

If you violate the U.S. Constitution by the time, place, and manner in which you choose to proselytize others with your fundamentalist Christianity, you WILL be punished and held accountable!!!

Mikey Weinstein, MRFF Founder and President

To the Military Religious Freedom Foundation,

Considering the failure record of the federal government in prosecuting religion, and considering how much even the most tyrannical regimes (i.e. China Roman Empire) have failed in stopping Biblical Christianity your chances of success is nil. There are other who think like me and will take over where I have started and don't finish. So yeah go ahead and try and stop me. Knock yourself out trying. Your prosecution will only strengthen my position not weaken it.

-C.I

Introduction

M y name is Bonnie Weinstein, and I am married to a force of nature.

About forty years ago now, when I was sixteen, my decision to go up to the United States Air Force Academy to meet real men set me on a collision course with my futureone that I would never trade away, even though it so often leaves me shaking my head with disbelief and astonishment at the absolute shock of it all.

Kierkegaard has a saying: Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. While I admit that I tend to understand myself better the more I move forward in life, I have found that I understand nobody betterboth forward and backwardthan my darling husband. It saddens me, however, to know that, without a doubt, there is no amount of living through this maelstrom of hate and viciousnessall in the name of a benevolent Godthat will ever let me come to understand the men and women who write the hideous letters presented here. This book is but a TINY sampling of the thousands we have received, with more coming in on a daily basis. I have chosen to publish this body of gutter-level trash to try and shed some light on the people they affectmyself and those closest to me.

In 2005, my husband and I started the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), and in the ensuing decade it has taken an extreme amount of intestinal fortitude to stay the course. We fight against those who, at worst, seem hell-bent on dismantling our Constitution, and at best, seem to have little idea of what they are talking about. These authors, and I use that term very loosely, seem to have never made it past a third grade intelligence level both in erudition and education. Simple people skills, which kids learn in kindergartensuch as learning to play well, getting along with people, and understanding that not everyone thinks the same way you dohave sadly eluded them altogether.

Tens of thousands of clients have come to MRFF after being horribly tormented because of their faith or lack of faith. Their angst becomes very understandable when you see the hate in these letters. Our clients have nowhere else to turn. There is no one to stand up for them, to be their voice, to combat the remorseless abuse they face. The Foundation stands for Constitutional issues within a military environment, which is markedly different from the environment of the ordinary citizen of the United States. That enormous distinction is one our detractors do not even remotely comprehend. I now realize all too well that very few people understand the fine and beautiful balance our American forefathers put together in the first sixteen words of the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The writers of angry letters to MRFF seem to have never read the Constitution or its well-established case law, which they profess to grasp so well.

Article VI, Clause 3, in the body of the Constitution, states: The Senators and Representatives and the Members of several of the State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States, and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. NO RELIGIOUS TEST SHALL EVER BE REQUIRED AS A QUALIFICATION TO ANY OFFICE OR PUBLIC TRUST! No, they have never read the Constitution.

I never understood, before the beginning of MRFF, how thoroughly infested our military has become with the pushing of the one and only correct, true religion. They, of course, are the extremists known as fundamentalist or Dominionist Christians. As I have lived forward, I understand backward the extremely serious danger presented by this virulent version of Christianity, pushed by its fanatic adherents. It has become crystal clear to me that when you mess with peoples religious beliefshowever misguided and warped they may bethe situation can turn ugly and personal with lightning speed.

It has been well established that when you present a diehard believer with hardened, indisputable facts, facts which clearly dispel their position, it only further reinforces their erroneous belief. Oh, how true that is! The tidal wave of letters that now come into our inboxes everyday at MRFF is literally mind-boggling. Almost all of these letters fall into very specific groups: the love letters, the hate letters, and the please explain this letters. It is the please explain this letters that I like to read the most. Dont get me wrong, the letters of support and thanksthe love lettersare without a doubt the sweetest kind of affirmation we are fortunate enough to ever get. It is very heartwarming to understand that people do acknowledge and internalize the positions we take to support and defend the Constitution and do understand the urgency and importance of the work we do. What may be unknown to many is that every single letter that we receive via email receives a personal, individual response. I am especially moved that the people who ask reasonably for clarification and understanding in good faith, or come with a stance that is filled with misinformation yet have open minds, are willing to assess logical reasoning and undisputed facts because logical reasoning is a process and the facts are disputed, at times, but only failingly so by ignoramuses who cant tell truth from fiction. Believe it or not, we get many of these letters, and we have helped many who write in, transforming them into true believers and supporters of the Constitution.