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HUFFINGTON POST – Air Force Academy Cadets Decide They Must Pretend To Be Fundamentalist Christians
photo credit: defenseimagery.mil
Air Force Academy Cadets Decide They Must Pretend To Be Fundamentalist Christians
by Chris Rodda, MRFF Senior Research Director
This article was originally published by The Huffington Post.
A little over a year ago, a cadet at the Air Force Academy emailed the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) to tell us about an “underground” group of about a hundred Academy cadets who, in order to maintain good standing among their peers and superiors at the Academy, were actually pretending to be fundamentalist Christians. Their charade included leaving Bibles, Christian literature, and Christian music CDs laying around their rooms; attending fundamentalist Christian Bible studies; and feigning devoutness at the Academy’s weekly “Special Programs in Religious Education” (SPIRE) programs. This group of cadets had decided to resort to doing whatever they had to do to play the role of the “right kind” of Christian cadets, all the while living in constant fear of being “outed.”
In the words of the cadet who wrote to MRFF last year, who described himself as “kind of the leader” of this underground group: “If any of us gave even the slightest indication that we weren’t one of their number, our lives would be even more miserable than they already are due to the fact that we are all living lies here. Despite the Cadet Honor Code we all lie about our lives. We have to.”
Who makes up this group of over a hundred cadets who feel that they must pretend to be such devoted fundamentalist Christians? Well, surprisingly, they are mostly Christians — both mainline Protestants and Catholics — who aren’t “Christian enough” or the “right kind” of Christians for the Air Force Academy. The rest of the group is made up of other assorted heathens, which include members of non-Christian religions, agnostics, and atheists.
That cadet who originally told MRFF about this group and identified himself as its leader also identified himself as a first class cadet (or a senior) at the Academy, which means he would have graduated last year. But the group of fundamentalist Christian impersonators that this former cadet was leading not only continues to exist — it is growing. Each time an incident occurs showing that Christian fundamentalism still reigns supreme at the Academy, MRFF hears from more cadets who have joined the group, having made the decision that the best way to survive their four years at the Academy is to lie about their religious beliefs.
The most recent email from one of the cadets in this group recounts that cadet’s experience at a recent weekly “Bible study,” presumably the SPIRE group that they are pretending to be a member of. Since an entire evening each week is set aside for SPIRE — a program where all the parachurch military ministries come to the Academy to run their programs — a cadet not belonging to a SPIRE group is quite noticeable, so joining and regularly attending a SPIRE group is an essential part of the masquerade for these cadets who are pretending to be fundamentalist Christians.
(A few notes are needed here to explain everything this cadet was referring to in the email below. The billboard referred to is one that MRFF put up a few weeks ago at a busy intersection in Colorado Springs, the home of the Air Force Academy, when the Academy’s leadership failed to distribute a watershed edict from the Chief of Staff of the Air Force on “Religious Neutrality” to the Academy’s staff and cadets. The content of the billboard was the full text of the Chief of Staff’s memorandum. See my previous post for the full story of this billboard. The reference in the P.S. to the “surprise escort” is referring to this cadet volunteering to escort MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein and his bodyguard through the tight security at the Air Force Academy football game on September 11. The cadet did not tell Weinstein at the time that they were a member of the group of cadets pretending to be fundamentalist Christians, but merely showed up out of nowhere and volunteered to be their cadet escort.)
Subject: Mikey is “Most Dangerous Threat”
Mikey, my name is [USAF Academy cadet’s name and cadet rank withheld]. We have met but you probably would not know that. I am one of the cadets here at the Air Force Academy who has been a MRFF client for [number of years and months withheld], I am also one of the many MRFF cadet clients here who appear to be a “super-stoked Christian” to avoid the direct and indirect shitstorm you get for not being one here. alot of us do this and most are clients of the MRFF. Just wanted to let you know how “special” you are Mikey. At our weekly bible study the other night held in [Bible study’s USAF Academy location withheld] our group’s leader spent an amazing half an hour on you and the “obsessed Christian-hating legacy” which you and your Weinstein family and the MRFF have cursed the Academy with. They showed pictures of you and your wife and kids. From the internet I think. Our bible study group leader said that you Mikey were the most dangerous threat to the Word of Jesus Christ in America today. Everone just nodded approval. I wanted to ask why but didn’t. Another cadet in our bible study did though. Our leader mentioned as “evidence'” the billboard you had just put up in C. Springs. What? Then even I could not resist asking naive why that was considered “evidence” of how dangerous to Jesus you were. Another cadet said to me (with the leader’s and everyone else’s approval) “well, did you actually read what the billboard says”? I told them that the newspapers reported that it only said what the Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Schwartz said about making sure there is no religious favoritism in the USAF. No shit Mikey you could have heard a pin drop. Then our study leader said “exactly, now do you see why Weinstein is so dangerous?” Seriously? Trying not to have my head explode I just slowly said yes like I had just had this total revelation or something. I’d laugh but it’s not even funny. I live in an alternate universe here, Mikey. So do all the others who fake being a part of it to avoid the religion insanity here which is considered as sanity. Thank you and the MRFF for fighting it for us. (P.S. and say hi to your bodyguard for us all. We saw you guys at the TCU game a month ago. Do you recall your “surprise escort”? Thanks for coming up so we could talk and see you.)
V/R
[USAF Academy cadet’s name, cadet rank, cadet position title and cadet squadron withheld]
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- March 12, 2025 | 1 comment
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I just heard from a family member……..if you don’t go to church on Sunday at the Air Force basic training school, which that family member is currently a part of, you spend the morning cleaning up the kitchen…..sounds like KP, way back in my Army days.
I’m sure the contractors appreciate the help…….Air Force brass is no more imaginative, when it comes to busy-work, than the other services apparently.
Forgot………..thanks for being there, Mikey.
Great web site…..great foundation……the word is getting out.
The armed services prepares women and men to defend “the enemy.”
It is not a place to try to indoctrinate them to any particular religion.
The armed services is or ought to be a secular institution anything less spells trouble.
They’re Atheists in the foxholes ,Bubie anything less is a lie.
Going along with prayer and the like is making you less than the person you are.
I advocate freedom from religion for all who make it their right.
Your assesment of life at the academy is so far off it is not even funny. I am a highly religious person and never attened SPIRE while at the academy. Do you know how many people noticed that I did not go or that I was not the right “type” of person…NO ONE! If these cadets are supposed living underground, then they need to get their heads on straight and stand up for what they believe in. Is that not what your organization stands for? The bottom line is the religious persecution is rare if not non-existant at the Academy and the cases that do happen are isolated incidents that usually get blown way our of perportion due to your “Watch Dog” efforts. This nation was founded on Chirstian principles (national motto, pledge of allegiance, Oath of Office) so it is no surprise that those principles leak into many facets of the military, but it does not mean that our uniformed services are advocating for wholesale adoption of the Chirstian religion.
@ TS —
Please note that the national motto was established legally in 1956 (the initial unofficial motto was “E pluribus unum”), the same decade at which the theocratic and anti-Constitutional language was added to the Pledge of Allegiance (which was composed in 1892 and adopted by Congress in its secular form in the 1940s) — neither could be considered a “founding” document. The Oath of Office for the President is, in its legal form, secular, though religious Presidents have a tradition of including their own religious postscript.
You might also wish to read up a bit on the people in the military who are hard at work trying to subvert the purpose of the military and turn it into a force for global religious war; there are plenty of links on this site.
Finally, please look into the debates that went into the framing of U.S. law. While there were, in fact, many Christians involved (with a number of types and intensities of faith, with a strong presence of Unitarians, deists, and agnostics), the final decision was to found the government of the U.S. based on secular ethical principles. Given the history of religious warfare in Europe, even among different Christian denominations, this was seen as a better option for religion as well as for government. The influential political philosophies of the day emphasized government as a way of solving shared needs, not a way to push religion. Hell, placing the authority over government in the hands of the governed is quite a departure from the position of just about any religious authority.
I’d suggest whoever did the research for this articles hit reset and try again.
And Les Caputo, the cadets at the Air Force Academy don’t do KP during BCT, especially on Sunday mornings.
That this foundation would even consider bringing up lying and the honor code is complete hypocrisy.
Honestly I’m also surprised by this. I’m LDS (Mormon), which to many wouldn’t fall under the “right” kind of fundamentalist/evangelical Christian, and a 2010 graduate. I also never saw anything occur that made me feel ostracized or made me concerned that I would fall out of favor with peers and superiors due to my own religious beliefs. Maybe the pressure is greater among the mainline Protestants the story cites, but I simply never saw it.
As for SPIRE, I will agree with the other cadets who posted stating that attending or not attending SPIRE was never a really serious thing. I knew a lot of people who attended various groups, a lot of people who never attended and also quite a few who attended sometimes, but often skipped for homework or other activities. I never saw anyone make a big deal out of it or judge others for their participation or lack thereof. Once again, that is merely my experience, but I never saw or felt anything like what these cadets describe as the pressures on them.Honestly I’m also surprised by this.
Completely absurd…
Enlisted AF basic training does require ALL squadron flights at some point during training to perform KP duty. This does not occur solely on Sundays as you would suggest, Caputo. Furthermore, you are not required or compelled to do anything during the time set aside in the morning for religious observation… you obviously cannot sleep, but you can write letters or take care of anything you need to get caught up on. So there is one partial truth to your ‘rumor’
As is usually the case… Caputo… individuals hear a jaded or one-sided story and run with it, as can be seen through this whole article (and your post as well). I would go as far to say… that the ‘family member’ you refer to probably got kicked out of basic and gave your whole family the lame excuse that the AF was religiously intolerant… poor kid. PS: I am a prior enlisted cadet.
Now, on to the whole the AF Academy underground martyrs.. who supposedly pass bibles and pamphlets around the school, give me a break. That is stupid. Let me explain how the Academy works for me… and probably, other cadets. Sunday Morning: I am usually recovering from a massive hangover. I get up around noon… (oh my god!! too late for church!!), drink some water and throw in a huge dip of tobacco. I then proceed to reflect on the debauchery the night before.. hopefully I used condoms, and if not, I begin planning my next trip to public health on base. Then, I might think about doing some homework to prepare for the upcoming week. Or, I might drink some more. I have never, NEVER, been woken up on Sunday morning to a knock on my door… open the door to find an ‘outcast’ handing me a pamphlet prescribing me religion. Give me a break. I have never found propaganda pamphlets sitting on my desk or anywhere in my room. I wish the ‘ring leader’ would have described what the ‘outcasts’ look like. Maybe I have missed them. I doubt it.
No one judges me. I do whatever the heck I want.. as long as I look decent in my uniform once class rolls around. I find it hilarious that the outside world thinks we are all perfect little Christian cadets who ostracizes the outsiders… where did this come from? 70% of the cadets here probably ascribe to the religion of World of Warcraft or Pokemon, and the other 30% either loosely ascribe to a religion, with an actually Small amount of individuals taking their religion seriously-not to say they are proselytizing, but probably don’t find themselves getting wasted to forget the horrible week of school they just completed. Not all cadets are the image you all paint for us… religiously pious zealots.
Religion is not a big deal here. Prog/final grades and the weekends are. No one cares what you worship, or if you do at all. Write a story on something a little more pertinent AND factual..
If this article holds any truth it is quite worrisome. However it’s worrisome not because of alleged religious intolerance, but because 100 future U.S. Air Force officers don’t have the strength of character to stand up for who they are. Pressures to act a certain way don’t suddenly stop once you become an officer, if anything they are stronger. As a recent graduate and new officer I know many former cadets who lived their lives at the Academy without ever attending a church or bible study. They weren’t Christians and they never pretended to be Christians. How did they do at the Academy? Just fine. Perhaps they were proselytized, perhaps they were shunned by some for not sharing Christian beliefs but what it comes down to is the fact that they did not sacrifice what they believed to be included. Does the Air Force care if you believe in God, Allah, Buddha, or the trees and rocks? Absolutely not! Does the Air Force need officers who are true leaders, who stand up for their beliefs? ABSOLUTELY! Perhaps if this underground group is all freshmen, one could argue that they have 3 years to figure it out but they aren’t all freshmen. The self-proclaimed leader will be commissioned as an officer this year and he/she still has not learned what leadership is. He is faking being someone he is not because it’s more comfortable for him. Have some courage and take a stand for who you are.
This is ABSURD. I mean, I have no doubt that some feel this way, but there is no reason for it. I have a great bunch of friends at the Academy that are openly Jewish, Agnostic, Non-denominational protestant, Mormon, and Catholic and they have never had any trouble at the Academy because of it. As evidence, my friend who is agnostic, and my friend who is a protestant (of the non-fundamentalist variety) both won extremely competitive national scholarships to go to grad school with the help of the Air Force. They could not have done this without the support of both the faculty and the brass at the Academy. People may do this, but it’s not because of any pressure here.