By DAWN BORMANN
The Kansas City Star
June 14, 2007

Fort Leavenworth removed Bible study guides from its Web site this week after a religious foundation called the materials anti-Semitic and threatened a lawsuit.

Military Religious Freedom Foundation President Mikey Weinstein said although he is disgusted that terms like “Jewish problem” were used on the site, his legal objection is not aimed at one’s biblical views or interpretations.

The foundation, a nonprofit watchdog group that works to maintain separation between church and state in the military, is infuriated instead that the subjective Bible study guides were allowed to be posted to a government Web site at all.

Fort Leavenworth officials removed the study guides almost immediately after they learned about the foundation’s opposition.

“We’re taking the material offline to assess it,” said Fort Leavenworth spokeswoman Janet Wray.

The information was posted on the chaplain’s Web site, which is hosted by the military installation. The study guides have been available on the government Web site at least five years. Wray believes the recent objections were the first complaints about the study guides.

The Fort Leavenworth chaplain’s office was responsible for posting the material, which has been used by Protestant Bible study groups, Wray said.

“I was massively offended by the study guide,” Weinstein said.

“That’s OK. I don’t like cheese and butter, or the Dallas Cowboys … but when they use the machinery of the state to push their biblical view, we strongly reject that.”

He said that groups have every right to discuss religious viewpoints at a worship house or in private — provided everyone is there voluntarily.

“But they can’t put all of it on the U.S. Army Web site,” he said.

Fort Leavenworth said the study guides were written by retired Lt. Col. George Kuykendall, a Christian lay leader who is deceased. He wrote the guides in the mid-1980s.

The study guides ask participants to ponder Bible verses.

They offer verses and subsequent points to spark discussions. Some of the statements at issue were published in a lengthy file about Galatians.

“The Judiazers were zealous people (much like the zealous Moslems have become today),” the study guide said.

Other statements included: “Why did the Jews persecute Paul? Because of his teachings. The cross was an offense to the Jews. Jesus had victory over the cross (death).”

The words have a negative spin, said Tim Miller, interim chairman of the University of Kansas religious studies department.

Miller said the study guide passages were anti-Semitic because they implied that Jews did certain things collectively.

“That’s an unwarranted generalization,” he said.

University of Missouri history professor Gary Ebersole said the material is not likely to be found in “mainstream seminaries.”

“It just seems to me there is a fundamentalist perspective the late Jerry Falwell represented,” he said.Weinstein, a former counselor for the Reagan administration and an Air Force Academy graduate, said he was pleased to learn that the study guides were removed after the publicity. He doesn’t intend to stop pursuing the matter. He’s settled for letters and phone calls in the past, but not this time.

Instead, he offered five words to Fort Leavenworth.

“Tell it to the judge,” he said.

Weinstein wasn’t surprised there were no objections.

He pointed out that most members of the military fear retribution in such situations.

“Look, it’s really hard to speak truth to power,” he said.

Weinstein said his agency has heard from and helped to protect Catholics, Protestants, Jews and others.

The nonprofit foundation advisory board includes Topeka lawyer Pedro L. Irigonegaray, whom Weinstein named as a possible lead attorney in the court case he expects to file in federal court.

To reach Dawn Bormann, call 816-234-5992 or send e-mail to [email protected].
The Star’s Dave Helling and Sara Shepherd contributed to this report.