Background
The organization was founded by Michael Weinstein in 2005 for the purpose of opposing the spread of alleged religious intimidation by evangelical Christians in positions of power within the US military. Weinstein experienced discrimination due to his Jewish faith while a cadet at the United States Air Force Academy. After his sons experienced discrimination as well while at the Academy, Weinstein founded the MRFF in 2005.
Weinstein describes the group's target as "a small subset of evangelical Christianity that's called premilliennial, dispensational, reconstructionist, dominionist, fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity or just Dominionist Christianity." The group is asking the United States Congress to hold oversight hearings regarding what it alleges is the Defense Department's failure to abide by the Constitutionally mandated separation of Church and State.
From its inception, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has advocated for and assisted thousands of active duty U.S. servicemen/women and veterans who have contacted the MRFF regarding alleged religious discrimination, harassment and aggressive proselytizing by Evangelical or Fundamentalist Christians. The MRFF reports that more than 90% of the servicemen/women and veterans who contact the MRFF with complaints are Christians.
On September 11, 2012, advisory board member Glen Doherty 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."
Read more about this topic: Military Religious Freedom Foundation
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