CCCI is the advocacy arm of the California Council of Churches, a coalition consisting of 21 denominations representing 5,500 congregations and 1.5 million members within the mainstream and progressive Protestant community. The denominations themselves have over 6.5 million members in California alone.

CCCI Board President Rev. John Freesemann said of the endorsement:

"Our alignment with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is on behalf of religious freedom for all people, regardless of belief or non-belief.  It is not the function of the U.S. Military to proselytize our troops but to protect our constitutional freedoms."

MRFF Founder and President Mikey Weinstein lauded CCCI's announcement:

"This hard-earned and terrific universal endorsement from a huge Christian organization as well respected as California Council of Churches IMPACT formidably buttresses the credibility and effectiveness of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) on so very many different levels. Such forthright support is a clear rebuttal to those disgraceful unconstitutional forces who have so often sought to deliberately malign and portray us as 'anti-Christian.' We, at MRFF, offer our most profound gratitude to our Christian brothers and sisters at CCCI for being the first major Christian organization to have the collective courage, character, integrity, soul and compassion to proudly stand with MRFF and our ever-growing thousands of U.S. armed forces clients in support of the bedrock religious liberties mandated by our beautiful U.S. Constitution."

What comes as a surprise to most people is that 96% of the thousands of service men and women who have contacted MRFF for assistance are Christians themselves -- but not the right kind of Christians for a military that promotes a very narrow fundamentalist brand of Christianity.

Weinstein continued:

"CCCI's support of MRFF also underscores that our basic mission is not at all about waging a war against Christianity; rather it is about upholding the foundational laws outlined in Clause 3, Article 6 of the United States Constitution (specific prohibition of a 'religious test') and the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights (establishing a wall of separation between church and state). Without that clear wall of separation of church and state in the U.S. military, continued unconstitutional violations recklessly embolden terrorist extremists by sending an unmistakable message that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are really about Christianity versus Islam; essentially a modern day Crusade."

For more information about CCCI's endorsement, see MRFF's September online newsletter. To learn more about CCC and see a list of its member denominations, visit CCC's "Who We Are" page.

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