MILITARY RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FOUNDATION

SHAME ON THE USAFA PROTEST RALLY

Fri. 3/8/13 - 11:00 AM Corner of Academy Blvd and Voyager Pkwy (Near IHOP)
Exit 150 from I-25 in Colorado Springs

Park in the Walmart parking lot, on the end closest to the

intersection, and walk to the corner for the rally

From the Military Religious Freedom Foundation website    http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/2013/03/military-religious-freedom-foundation-to-hold-protest-rally-vs-usaf-academys-homophobia-sexism/

Mar. 1, 2013 – On Friday, March 8, 2013, Colorado Springs will be the scene of a protest rally led by celebrated civil rights activist and church and state separation advocate Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein, Founder and President of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF; www.mrff.org).

MRFF is a five-time Nobel Peace Prize nominated civil rights foundation that represents over 32,000 active duty servicemembers and armed forces veteran clients, 96% of whom are Christians. According to MRFF, “The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is promoting a reprehensible, homophobic, and sexist religious website to its entire faculty, staff, and cadet wing. Even after [MRFF exposed] this noxious act, USAFA leadership have steadfastly refused to remove the link from their website!”

SIGNIFICANT BACKGROUND

The website in question is “Judaism 101,” or www.jewfaq.org, which bills itself as an “online encyclopedia of Judaism.” While the website contains information about various Jewish holidays, content on the site also indicates virulently homophobic and misogynistic prejudices presented as mainstream “traditional” Judaism. MRFF sprang into action after being contacted by numerous USAFA cadets, faculty members, and staff, including 21 lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) personnel who reached out to MRFF after links to the site were circulated in a “Notice to Airmen” (NOTAM) of Religious Accommodations.

According to Weinstein, “an equivalent move would be to link the descriptions of Christian holidays… to the website of Pastor Fred Phelps’ utterly despicable Westboro Baptist Church! The material… includes suggestions that homosexual males should be put to death as per the Torah. Additionally, it includes a speciously hideous comparison of the originating cause of homosexuality to that of kleptomania. This disgrace is an open slap in the face to all lesbian, gay, and bisexual USAFA cadets, faculty, and staff. Additionally, the website contains the absurd and perverse notion that males who masturbate should have their hands chopped off.”

Additionally, the website states that women’s social status under Judaism is that they are “separate but equal,” a statement that typically stipulates the polar opposite of any modern, democratic conception of “equality.”

This incident isn’t the first time that Weinstein has blasted the religious and social climate at USAFA. Weinstein asserts that today’s military has been transformed into a stomping ground for evangelical, fundamentalist Christians who have created an intolerable, unconstitutional climate of religious oppression for fellow members. These conditions, which have included (but are not limited to) mandatory “Spiritual Fitness Tests” and coerced attendance of Christian prayer ceremonies and Christian rock concerts, have resulted in spiritual torment for religious minorities as well as those who are not considered the “right kind of Christian.” In many cases, servicemembers have been subject to physical harm and brutal incidents of hazing as a result of their sexual orientation, gender identity, professed faith, or lack thereof.

MRFF claims that supernatural theological concepts and a “Clash of Civilizations,” “us vs. them” apocalyptic ideology have fatally tainted military doctrine and warped good order, discipline, and servicemember morale. Weinstein notes that fundamentalist “Crusader” Christian fanaticism mirrors the militant jihadist extremism of those whom the U.S. military is fighting in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. MRFF advocacy has given broad international media exposure to many egregious, unconstitutional violations including “Jesus Rifles,” the nickname given to the widely deployed government-contracted riflescopes engraved with Bible verses which were used in Afghanistan and Iraq. MRFF also exposed the ‘Jesus Loves Nukes’ formal indoctrination; a grotesque mandatory USAF training program for Air Force Nuclear Missile Launch Officers that used a perverse brand of “Christian Just War” theory and New Testament biblical citations, including the Book of Revelations, to establish a theological justification for the use of weapons of mass destruction against civilian populations.