MilitaryReligiousFreedom.org

Fighting for our servicemembers' rights, so they can fight for ours.

Please consider making a fully tax-deductible donation today.


ASK AN ATHEIST DAY AT
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY

Mikey Weinstein enraged by evangelical atheists

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Published: March 19, 2014, 12:10 pm, by Tom Roeder

It’s no surprise to get a phone call from a fired-up Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and a frequent flyer when it comes to criticizing the Air Force Academy over religious issues.

But, on Wednesday, Weinstein broke new ground — he’s mad at evangelical atheism in a hallway of the academy’s Fairchild Hall.

“It’s Ask an Atheist Day,” Weinstein said as he built up to the machine-gun delivery deriding commanders including Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson for fostering a climate of religious intolerance.

“What if this was ask a Muslim Day or ask an Evangelical Christan Day?” Weinstein said.

Allowing atheist cadets to set up table in the building to field questions about the non-existence of God violates Air Force regulations and the Constitution, he said.

“They are proselytizing for atheism,” Weinstein said.

The academy couldn’t be reached for questions on the alleged activity.

An academy graduate Weinstein normally takes aim at Christianity at the school, which he claims is promoted by commanders.

Last week, he went to war with academy brass over a Bible verse written on a white board outside a cadet’s dorm room. The cadet took the Scripture down, but the academy refused to set a policy banning similar displays.

Atheists get his ire this week.

“No faith is able to proselytize on the third floor of Fairchild Hall,” he said.


Read Article at Colorado Springs Gazette


MRFF FEATURED BY HUFFINGTON POST

MRFF Complains About Atheists Proselytizing at Air Force Academy? Surely Pigs are Flying!

By MRFF Senior Research Director
Chris Rodda

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

  • Yes, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and its leader Mikey Weinstein are going after the Air Force Academy again.
  • According to a member of the U.S. Air Force Academy Cadets Freethinkers Club, these "Ask an Atheist Days" are being held in protest of the Academy's refusal to allow their group to participate in S.P.I.R.E. (Special Programs in Religious Education). S.P.I.R.E. is a long-running program at the Academy, where one night per week is set aside for various religious groups and outside parachurch organizations to hold religious meetings for the cadets.

  • The Cadets Freethinkers Club has been denied recognition as a S.P.I.R.E. group by the Academy on the grounds that freethinkers are not a religion, and has only been allowed to operate as a club.

  • A MRFF client who is a member of the Freethinkers Club explained the motivation behind the "Ask an Atheist Days" to Weinstein, saying that since the Academy does not consider them a religious group for the purposes of participating in S.P.I.R.E., then they feel they are are within their rights, as a non-religious club, to set up a table and have their event announced on the same basis as other non-religious clubs would be permitted to do.

  • MRFF agrees with the Freethinkers Club that their group should be able to participate in S.P.I.R.E., but does not condone the manner in which these cadets chose to protest the Academy's refusal to recognize them as a S.P.I.R.E. group.

  • According to Weinstein, allowing an "Ask an Atheist Day" to be announced to a captive audience of cadets in the dining hall and allowing the Freethinkers Club to set up a table in an academic building is no different that allowing an ask a Muslim Day or an ask an Evangelical Christian Day. "They are proselytizing for atheism," Weinstein said.

  • No, pigs aren't flying. Contrary the constant and deliberate stream of misinformation being spewed by those who claim that MRFF is an atheist organization that only goes after Christians, the reality is that MRFF will take exactly the same steps to stop a violation of the Constitution or military regulations when that violation is being committed by a freethinkers group or by any other group or individual. You just won't hear about it on Fox News.

  • Maj. Lonzo Wallace, Executive Officer to Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson, has told MRFF that the Academy is allowing the "Ask an Atheist Days" to proceed, despite of the clear violation of regulations in allowing a particular ideology -- one that many would say is in fact a religious belief -- to be promoted in a completely inappropriate time, place, and manner.

  • "Religious neutrality means religious neutrality," said Weinstein. "Whether it's saying that Jesus is your lord and savior or saying that there is no god makes no difference. Neither is a neutral position, and neither can be promoted by the United States Air Force Academy."

  •  

Click to read this article at
Huffington Post


MRFF FEATURED BY
Military.com

Religious Debate Intensifies on Academy Whiteboard

March 19, 2014 | by Bryant Jordan

An Air Force Academy cadet claims she was verbally and physically accosted by senior cadets for writing "there is no evidence that God ever existed" on her dorm whiteboard in response to a fellow cadet posting a Bible verse.

Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said the cadet wrote the statement to point out that posting personal beliefs in a hallway of a squadron area is wrong.

But, according to the cadet's parents who wrote Weinstein a letter, almost immediately upon writing the statement she was "shouted down" by two male cadets who were senior to her in rank. They called her "anti-faith" and said she was insulting "all people of faith."

When she tried to stop them from wiping off the whiteboard they pushed her and forcibly held her back, the letter states. Weinstein would not name the cadet and, as the MRFF keeps its clients' identifies confidential.

The parents of the cadet told Weinstein that the family is Christian, and she was only trying to make a point. In the original incident, a cadet penned a Bible verse that read, in part, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."

In their letter, they said the senior male cadets defended the original whiteboard inscription that spurred their daughter to act. After a cadet complained about the public posting, academy officials got involved, talked to both cadets and the quotation was erased.

"What happened here sparked a debate between competing beliefs," Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson said in a statement afterwards. "One side's perspective of this decision is that [it] elevated one religious faith over all others, and that posting scriptures from any religion on cadets' whiteboards creates a hostile environment."

The "competing viewpoint," she said, "states that there is censorship, suppression of religion and/or a violation of cadets' constitutional rights."

Last week, the matter drew the Congress' attention when lawmakers spent time asking the Air Force's top leadership why the Air Force Academy cadet was required to remove the Bible verse.

Johnson said the incident of the whiteboard gets into a gray area. In her statement she said both sides believe that Air Force policy was violated.

"Sometimes we must put the good of the entire unit before the good of any single individual," she said.

However, Weinstein disputes the conclusion that this would fall into a "gray area." The religious posting was in a common area, he said. If it was in the cadet's room, no problem at all. He said Johnson's response is poor leadership.

"If you try to be everybody's superintendent you can't be anybody's superintendent," he said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the MRFF has been asked to take up the cause of religious cadets and faculty at the academy against an atheist cadet, Weinstein said on Wednesday.

"We have seven new clients at the academy ... and they're all outraged at something atheists are doing," MRRF founder Mikey Weinstein said on Wednesday. "And you know what? They're right."

Weinstein said an atheist cadet announced at the academy's chow hall on Wednesday, while everyone was at attention, that Wednesday and Thursday would be "Ask an Atheist" days." Weinstein said a group of the cadets set up a display on the third floor of Fairchild Hall, which includes classrooms, lab and research facilities and faculty offices.

"Replace 'Ask an Atheist' with 'Ask a Christian,' 'Ask a Jew," or "Ask a Muslim,'" said Weinstein, and the problem is obvious. "This is unlawful."

Atheists have no more right to promote their beliefs in official settings than religious people, he said.

Weinstein said his group was contacted by seven people at the academy, including four cadets, two faculty members and a staff member. Six members of the group are practicing Christians, he said.

Click to read this article at Military.com


Nightline logo
MRFF's Inbox

We receive an enormous amount of emails at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, both from our supporters and detractors. "MRFF's Inbox" allows us to share this correspondence with you.

Please click here to view some of this
incredibly vile, as well as intimately
heartfelt, correspondence to MRFF.

FEATURED INBOX POST –
You are the Problem Not the Solution

MRFF,

You say you want things to change and yell about getting offended, yet you want to take none of the responsibility on yourself. You act as if the Academy’s problem has nothing to do with you. Start acting responsible and start balancing the reality that military members have the dual responsibility to be FREE TO and to be FREE FROM religion.

Tell me, is your desired solution to this problem that everyone in the military become atheist or that we don’t incorporate military into every part of our lives. Pick your solution wisely: your ability to enjoy the Constitution’s protections depend on the ability of those who have volunteered to defend ALL views, including your own.

(name withheld)


Connect with MRFF:
Mikey Weinstein Facebook Page Mikey Weinstein Twitter Mikey Weinstein Youtube Channel

SUPPORT MRFF!

Your Generous Support Allows us to Continue
our Fight in the Courts and in the Media

The media outlet referenced in the link above has no affiliation with the
Military Religious Freedom Foundation, nor has expressed endorsement thereof.

While we make every effort to ensure that news articles pertaining to our Foundation remain available for you to access,
we are unable to guarantee that the link above will remain online and unchanged indefinitely.