Dear Mel, Brother in Christ,

The time has come to be direct with you, rather than sidestep through women in our family. My leadership in the  <<REDACTED>>  family requires that I inform you that the following activities are outside the realm of Christian belief that I bear witness to family members: 1) Willingness to participate in a military coup rather than accept a federal leader who exposed a US war as unwise. 2) Torture of prisoners held without charges for years w/o substantive evidence of wrongdoing or right of habeas corpus to establish grounds to hold them. 3) Pre-emptive invasion of a foreign nation not an actual threat to the US, promoting it with intentional propaganda. 4) Destroying the reputations of national leaders who oppose rapacious militarism using concocted lies, including a former chairman of the joint chiefs, and excusing the person convicted of furthering such crimes. 5) Subverting the Constitutional structure of our national government, especially the judiciary and legislative branches, and 'hollowing out' the administrative departments that serve the govened, incurring loss of human life in emergencies and in the long term, and 6) Invading and supporting invasions of sovereign nations with innocent loss of life, and pursing that course by commanding the home guard to put aside its principles and repeatedly report for duty to overseas wars of aggression that make the world hate and mistrust us.

I know you think you have special knowledge of a way of life oriented around defense of the homeland, and that this specially qualifies you in matters interpreting the Bible's meaning for the end times and its potential conflicts. You do not. I have three years completed service in just such an endeavor--I was offered a military commission--and I struggled with these concerns while you father was pastoring, I had young children in the house, and you were in short pants. That truth does not make an argument that holds water by itself, but your specious refusal to make an argument from the Word, in SUPPORT of any of the 6 issues above, doesn't either. You think a Christian can do these things without endangering his soul? Then, argue relevant points. I do not. They have made Christians in the American West look foolish at best, and despicable in the main. These are the issues. Address them.

Sincerely,