COLORADO SPRINGS INDEPENDENT – New review ordered for AF instruction on religion

Selected Article Excerpts:

• Such a brouhaha erupted over a cadet writing a Bible verse on his dorm whiteboard that Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh has asked Air Force chaplains and lawyers to conduct a special review of the relevant Air Force Instruction.

  After an Air Force Academy cadet removed a Bible verse from his dorm whiteboard in mid-March out of religious sensitivity for others, a group of organizations accused the academy of actions that “chill speech at the Academy, harm morale, and create unnecessary confusion for cadets.”

  Academy officials say the cadet chose to remove the message, but the fundamentalist Christian American Family Association and 20 other organizations sent the academy a letter on March 31, saying the cadet was inappropriately pressured.

• The whiteboard issue went viral after someone reported it to Mikey Weinstein with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Weinstein called the March 31 letter “utter idiocy.”

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