{"id":10848,"date":"2018-07-18T08:46:19","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T08:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/?p=10848"},"modified":"2018-09-06T09:47:14","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T09:47:14","slug":"2018-08-05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/2018-08-05\/","title":{"rendered":"Military Religious Freedom Foundation \u2013 A Different Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gregory J. Petrequin<\/strong><\/h3>\n

August 5, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

The United States military can put religious pressure on active duty military personnel. Superior officers may push subordinates to attend and participate in faith-oriented events, often of the Fundamentalist Evangelical variety. It is illegal and unconstitutional of course, but this hasn’t stopped the abuse. In 2005, advocate Mikey Weinstein founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF, www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org<\/a>) to fight such objectionable religious compulsion.<\/p>\n

Today, the MRFF supports over 56,000 military personnel who have requested its legal help to combat the Fundamentalist Christian indoctrination they are pressured to attend. Most of these individuals are Christians, forced to participate in a shade of Christianity they don’t accept; others are Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, Humanists, and other believers and nonbelievers.<\/p>\n

Gregory J. Petrequin is a retired Air Force Colonel and Master Navigator who served on active duty for 27 years. He was involved in combat operations, in the air and on the ground, in Iraq and the Horn of Africa. He has a BA degree, with honors, from San Francisco State University and three master’s degrees from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Air University. After retiring from the military, he was a production manager for Cintas Corporation, supervising a production plant and a team of 50 partners. He is now an ardent supporter and volunteer contributor for the MRFF.<\/p>\n