2010 Nobel Peace Prize nominated group, Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been standing up for the rights of the oppressed service members of the United States, both religious and secular, for years now. MRFF’s contributions to soldiers everywhere are misleadingly public. The real truth is that most of the fighting is done behind the scenes, not to say that they haven’t picked a public fight or two.
The story of SPC Jeremy Hall should be enough to convince anyone that the need for an organization like the MRFF is not only warranted, but also a critical and vital support system for oppressed United States military heroes worldwide.
Hall’s atheism became an issue soon after it became known. On Thanksgiving 2006 while stationed outside Tikrit, Hall politely declined to join in a Christian prayer before the holiday meal. The result was a dressing down by a staff sergeant who told him that as an atheist he needed to sit somewhere else.
In another episode, after his gun turret took a bullet that almost found an opening, the first thing a superior wanted to know was whether Hall believed in Jesus now, not whether he was okay.
MRFF’s founder and president, Mikey Weinstein said that this sort of thing was not new to him.
From the MRFF website: Over 18,000 active duty members of the United States Armed Forces have come to our foundation as spiritual rape victims/tormentees. 96% of them are Christians themselves.
They weren’t ‘Christian’ enough, I guess.
Mikey worked for the Reagan Administration for half of Reagan’s presidency. He is also the author of With God On Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military
