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Military Religious Freedom Foundation
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Military Religious Freedom Foundation
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2005 by Mikey Weinstein, a former Air Force officer and attorney. The organization's mission is to ensure that members of the United States Armed Forces are able to practice their religious beliefs without fear of discrimination or coercion, and to promote the separation of church and state within the military.
The organization was founded by United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) graduate and former USAF Judge Advocate General's Corps officer Michael Weinstein in 2005 for the purpose of opposing the spread of alleged religious intimidation by Christians in positions of power within the US military. The founding was driven by the experiences of Weinstein and his sons, who were discriminated against at the Air Force Academy due to their Jewish faith. He described the group's target audience as, "a small subset of Fundamentalist Christianity that's called premilliennial, dispensational, reconstructionist, dominionist, fundamentalist, or just Dominionist Christianity." He further characterized their antagonism as, "incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation's armed forces."
On September 11, 2012, advisory board member Glen Doherty, a Roman Catholic, died in the U.S. Consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya. MRFF founder Michael L. Weinstein said that Doherty had "helped me on many MRFF client cases behind the scenes to facilitate assistance to armed forces members abused horribly by fundamentalist Christian proselytizing."
In 2015, the group asked the United States Congress to hold oversight hearings regarding its allegation of the Defense Department's failure to abide by the Constitutionally mandated separation of Church and State.
From its inception, the MRFF has advocated for many active duty U.S. servicemen/women and veterans who have contacted them regarding alleged religious discrimination, harassment, and aggressive proselytizing by Fundamentalist Christians. As of 2024, the MRFF reports that it represents over 88,000 active duty U.S. Marines, sailors, soldiers, airmen, cadets, midshipmen, national guard members, reservists, and veterans, about 95% of whom self-identify as practicing Christians. Of the remaining 4%, MRFF represents Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Native American Spiritualist, Humanist, Pagan, Atheist, slightly over 18% of all Muslim Americans in the U.S. military, other minority faith, and non-faith military members, and slightly under 1,000 LGBT military members.
MRFF has filed multiple federal lawsuits against the Pentagon and the Secretary of Defense, with military members as co-plaintiffs, asserting a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religion by the military. MRFF founder Weinstein has spoken to students at a number of the U.S. military's educational institutions: The U.S. Air Force Academy's National Character and Leadership Symposium, the Air Force JAG School, the Air Command and Staff College, and the US Army War College.
Jewish veteran Akiva David Miller, who alleged he had suffered religious discrimination and aggressive Christian proselytization while receiving care at the Iowa City, Iowa V.A. Medical Center beginning in 2005 was a client of the MRFF.[citation needed]
In 2006 the MRFF criticized a promotional video by Christian Embassy (an offshoot of the evangelical Campus Crusade for Christ) which was filmed in the Pentagon and featured uniformed generals. Following a MRFF-requested internal investigation carried out by the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General, the report concluded that several violations of Defense Department policy were committed during the production of the promotional video. Chief among the violations was the obtaining of permission to film the video at the Pentagon by means of a willful "[mischaracterization] of the purpose and proponent of the video" by Chaplain (Colonel) Ralph G. Benson, as well as the acts of officers who used their name, rank, and uniforms as a means towards endorsing the Christian Embassy proselytizing message.
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Military Religious Freedom Foundation
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2005 by Mikey Weinstein, a former Air Force officer and attorney. The organization's mission is to ensure that members of the United States Armed Forces are able to practice their religious beliefs without fear of discrimination or coercion, and to promote the separation of church and state within the military.
The organization was founded by United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) graduate and former USAF Judge Advocate General's Corps officer Michael Weinstein in 2005 for the purpose of opposing the spread of alleged religious intimidation by Christians in positions of power within the US military. The founding was driven by the experiences of Weinstein and his sons, who were discriminated against at the Air Force Academy due to their Jewish faith. He described the group's target audience as, "a small subset of Fundamentalist Christianity that's called premilliennial, dispensational, reconstructionist, dominionist, fundamentalist, or just Dominionist Christianity." He further characterized their antagonism as, "incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation's armed forces."
On September 11, 2012, advisory board member Glen Doherty, a Roman Catholic, died in the U.S. Consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya. MRFF founder Michael L. Weinstein said that Doherty had "helped me on many MRFF client cases behind the scenes to facilitate assistance to armed forces members abused horribly by fundamentalist Christian proselytizing."
In 2015, the group asked the United States Congress to hold oversight hearings regarding its allegation of the Defense Department's failure to abide by the Constitutionally mandated separation of Church and State.
From its inception, the MRFF has advocated for many active duty U.S. servicemen/women and veterans who have contacted them regarding alleged religious discrimination, harassment, and aggressive proselytizing by Fundamentalist Christians. As of 2024, the MRFF reports that it represents over 88,000 active duty U.S. Marines, sailors, soldiers, airmen, cadets, midshipmen, national guard members, reservists, and veterans, about 95% of whom self-identify as practicing Christians. Of the remaining 4%, MRFF represents Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Native American Spiritualist, Humanist, Pagan, Atheist, slightly over 18% of all Muslim Americans in the U.S. military, other minority faith, and non-faith military members, and slightly under 1,000 LGBT military members.
MRFF has filed multiple federal lawsuits against the Pentagon and the Secretary of Defense, with military members as co-plaintiffs, asserting a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religion by the military. MRFF founder Weinstein has spoken to students at a number of the U.S. military's educational institutions: The U.S. Air Force Academy's National Character and Leadership Symposium, the Air Force JAG School, the Air Command and Staff College, and the US Army War College.
Jewish veteran Akiva David Miller, who alleged he had suffered religious discrimination and aggressive Christian proselytization while receiving care at the Iowa City, Iowa V.A. Medical Center beginning in 2005 was a client of the MRFF.[citation needed]
In 2006 the MRFF criticized a promotional video by Christian Embassy (an offshoot of the evangelical Campus Crusade for Christ) which was filmed in the Pentagon and featured uniformed generals. Following a MRFF-requested internal investigation carried out by the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General, the report concluded that several violations of Defense Department policy were committed during the production of the promotional video. Chief among the violations was the obtaining of permission to film the video at the Pentagon by means of a willful "[mischaracterization] of the purpose and proponent of the video" by Chaplain (Colonel) Ralph G. Benson, as well as the acts of officers who used their name, rank, and uniforms as a means towards endorsing the Christian Embassy proselytizing message.