A petition demanding the Air Force Academy respect the religion freedom of Christian cadets has been sent to the Academy.
The Family Research Council and the American Family Association organized the movement after a series of decisions that basically eliminated the rights of Christian cadets to display their faith on the same level as those without any faith or of other faiths.
“I trust the Air Force Academy to train up the best young men and women our nation has to offer to be prepared to faithfully defend my family, my community and my country,” read the petition delivered to Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson. “Part of that trust hinges upon the notion that the Academy would protect the religious freedom of the cadets we send it.”
The Academy has been keeping Christian students from expressing their faith because of actions taken by extremist anti-Christian Mikey Weinstein of the anti-Christian Military Religious Freedom Foundation.
“If cadets are taught to be afraid of Bible verses, how will they respond against terrorists who are willing to die for their cause?” continued the petition. “Our U.S. Air Force Academy cadets should be taught how to intercept the enemy, not how to tiptoe around the hyper-sensitive complainants.”
In response to the Air Force’s assault on the religious freedom of Christian cadets, a group of Christian organizations have banded together to protect the cadets.
The Restore Military Religious Freedom Coalition announced they will defend any cadet brought up on charges for exercising their religious rights.
The formation of the group comes after the Air Force bowed to the demands of the virulent anti-Christian activist group Military Religious Freedom Foundation and their extremist leader, Mikey Weinstein. The group demanded the whiteboard of a cadet be scrubbed of a Bible verse he had displayed outside his dorm room.
Friends of the cadet who had the verse (Galatians 2:20) removed from his whiteboard say it had been posted for months and the cadet saw the verse as inspiration.
The anti-Chrsitian group was not satisfied with the removal of the verse and is demanding that disciplinary action be taken against the student for exercising his religious freedom.
The Air Force is claiming the cadet remove the verse on his own, however other cadets who spoke to Fox News said that was a pure lie. The Air Force also said after removing the verse that cadets may only place things that are respectful on their whiteboards, thereby saying the Bible is not respectful.
An aggressive anti-Christian group that targets Christians in the military has taken aim at a cadet at the Air Force Academy who posted a Bible verse on the personal whiteboard outside his dorm room.
The cadet had posted Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ therefore I no longer live but Christ lives in me.”
The virulent anti-Christian Military Religious Freedom Foundation claimed they had received complaints from cadets and faculty & staff who said they were offended the Bible verse was posted on the cadet’s whiteboard.
The MRFF’s director claimed the simple existence of the verse created a hostile environment at the Academy. He called in a complaint and in just over two hours the cadet’s whiteboard had been scrubbed of the verse.
MRFF Director Mikey Weinstein told Fox News they will use the erasing of the Bible verse as a “teachable moment” according to Lt. Col. Denise Cooper. Weinstein said the removal is not good enough, however. He wants the cadet to face discipline along with those in the chain of command over him for violation of the Constitution.
An Academy spokesman said that the verse did not violate Air Force regulations.
An attorney with the Liberty Institute said if the verse didn’t violate Air Force regulations, it makes no sense why the Air Force would violate the cadet’s religious freedoms to cater to anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein and his organization.
The U.S. Air Force Academy admitted to Fox News that they had removed the phrase “so help me God” from three oaths in the official cadet handbook.
Fox News’ Todd Starnes reported that two dozen members of Congress sent a letter to the Academy Superintendent demanding to explain why the phrase was removed from the 2012 edition of the handbook. The phrase was taken out of the Cadet’s Oath of Allegiance, The Oath of Office for Officers and the Oath of Enlistment.
The news comes less than a month after the Air Force Academy announced they were making “so help me God” option in the school’s honor oath after a threat from the anti-Christian Military Religious Freedom Foundation.
“This phrase is a deeply-rooted American tradition – begun by George Washington as the first president of the United States and now stated by many who take an oath of service to our country,” Ron Crews of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty told Fox. “The removal of this phrase is a disservice to the countless men and women who wish to include this phrase as a solemn reminder that they are pledging their fidelity to God and their country.”
Crews pointed out that law requires the words remain part of the oath.