Travis AFB

Ms. Sholes,

My name is (name withheld), I am a former USAF Officer and have spent time at Travis. This is a wonderful place with great people making unbelievable sacrifices.

After reading the entire article on Military.com, your concern and involvement are not warranted.

Please put on a blue uniform and make a choice to put the Air Force first in your life, God and family come second. This is the reality of the commitment to the

USAF. You must say yes to whatever the USAF asks of you and tell everyone and everything else in your life no. If you are not able to put the USAF first,

please stay off the base because you have no voice are not welcome by everyone else living their calling and commitment.

If you can not answer the call to arms, please stay away, you are not helping.

Thanks for your time.
(name withheld)

“We would ask that you keep faith entirely personal for each and every individual,” the council’s director of public policy, Elizabeth Sholes, wrote in a letter to 60th Air Mobility Wing commander Col. Dwight Sones. “We support MRFF’s request that you move the crèche to the chapel grounds so that Travis AFB is not perceived to be promoting Christian religious messages as if they were national policy.”

Dear (name withheld):

As taxpayers and citizens, we most certainly do have a say over how our governmental agencies operate, and the military is no exception.

Your former calling is shared by my family, also Air Force. At no point 30 years ago did the USAF tell us how and what to worship. That’s as should be. At no point did this issue arise since diversity of FAITH was considered by our armed forces to be entirely personal, a right our family members fought and worked to preserve for all people, not just those who were Christian. Their job in the Air Force was to uphold the Constitution, not Christianity.

We in the faith community have asked the Air Force to keep Christmas a private religious expression. How? By moving the Nativity Scene to the chapel. Why? In the drumbeat of “power shows” over who has this right to display religions symbols, the Nativity gets reduced to just another holiday decoration. It makes it appear it’s something you put on display – but it has no more meaning in that area than Rudolph. At the chapel, its full religious meaning would shine. That’s as it should be.

All of us, including you, are totally free to worship and pray and celebrate as you choose. Our government doesn’t need to “help” that. It doesn’t need to make a show for us – we can do all our expressions of Christmas all on our own. But when this becomes something the government endorses, it cheapens the private aspects of our faith which would be greatly enhanced by keeping religion IN Christmas and government OUT.

If you’re saying that the USAF has the right to tell every single enlisted person, officer, and civilian personnel what they should do about Christmas, then I am shocked. When government intrudes, religious freedom goes out the window. That is not the Air Force I once knew, and it’s not the Air Force our Constitution commands to uphold ALL our rights, not just those of the few.

We wish you a most happy new year.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Sholes
Director of Public Policy
California Council of Churches/California Church IMPACT
4044 Pasadena Avenue
Sacramento, CA 95821
916.488.7300