Air Force Academy Allegedly Quashes Jewish Event While Airing Christian Sermons
Military academy has long history of subjecting cadets to forced proselytization
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) tells me that a U.S. Air Force Academy cadet claims the school’s leader is stifling a Jewish group activity while sharing evangelical Christian content internally at the academy.
The MRFF is not identifying the USAF cadet who shared the information with the group, but MRFF Founder and President Mikey Weinstein tells me his group is taking action. The USAF Academy did not immediately respond to my request for comment on the MRFF’s allegations.
According to an email the cadet sent to the MRFF, the academy’s superintendent — Lt. Gen. Tony D. Bauernfeind, a nominee of Pres. Joe Biden — has sat on a request for Jewish students to be allowed to use its gifted funds to attend an event at West Point this weekend.
The event, Jewish Warrior Weekend, is held twice a year at varying locations.
According to the cadet’s email yesterday to MRFF, “The new Superintendent has instituted a policy requiring his personal approval for organizations to use their gifted funds, placing their attendance at this important event in jeopardy.”
As a result, the cadet claims, “Jewish cadets are facing uncertainty regarding their participation.”
By contrast, the cadet claims, the academy under Bauernfeind has subjected cadets, faculty, and staff to explicitly Christian messaging.
On Sunday, according to the cadet, “during breakfast and lunch at Mitchell Hall, a live sermon from New Life Church was broadcast on the large projector screen in the center of the room.”
New Life Church is not only located less than a ten-minute drive from the academy, it was founded by Ted Haggard, best known for his scandal involving a male sex worker and methamphetamines, a scandal he recently repeated at another church he founded.
The day before the sermons aired, Christian rock and rap music were played on the loudspeakers at Falcon Stadium for a football game against San Jose State, the cadet says.
The Air Force Academy has a long, notorious history of top-down Christian proselytization that’s either illegal, violates military guidelines, or both. The Pentagon has a long history of not rectifying it, and there’s no indication Biden put Bauernfeind in place to end it or help the academy personnel victimized by it.
The nomination came as some Democrats, specifically the Congressional Freethought Caucus, have sought to raise the alarm about the dangers of Christian nationalism. Other Democrats, Biden included, have used rhetoric or participated in events, such as the National Prayer Breakfast, that intertwine church and state.
According to Weinstein, the MRFF is representing 154 academy cadets, faculty, and staff on the most recent Air Force Academy issue. The vast majority, 117 of them, are practicing Christians. Others are Jewish, members of other faiths, or not religious, according to Weinstein, who is Jewish and a frequent target, along with the MRFF and his family, of violent, antisemitic threats.
The first class cadet, the equivalent of a college senior, told the MRFF, “It is troubling to witness Christianity being promoted at mandatory events, such as meals and football games, while other faiths face administrative hurdles for participation in their own religious observances.”
In a letter to Bauernfeind that the MRFF shared with me, Weinstein wrote, “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING at USAFA vis-à-vis your disgusting and relentless efforts to promote fundamentalist Christianity?!”
Bauernfeind only assumed command this summer. Already, he has earned MRFF’s wrath more than once.
Last month, the MRFF flagged an Air Force Academy website article promoting a course about C.S. Lewis, the prominent 20th century Christian apologist best known for the allegorical Chronicles of Narnia books.
MRFF Researcher Chris Rodda wrote last month that the academy’s decision to promote that course specifically “has raised the ire of 62 Academy cadets, faculty, staff, and 10th ABW (Air Base Wing) personnel.”
The MRFF told me that neither Bauernfeind nor the Air Force Academy has responded to the complaints.
In his new letter today, Weinstein writes, “MRFF demands that an immediate, transparent and aggressive Air Force investigation be launched from the Air Staff at the Pentagon in D.C. as we surely would never trust YOU to conduct such an inquiry into your own USAFA-directed, malodorous malfeasance, and misfeasance.”
He also calls for the Air Force to punish any personnel, including Bauernfeind, found to have violated First Amendment religious freedoms or military guidelines. Weinstein, an Air Force veteran who graduated from the academy, specifically cites an Air Force directive that “Leaders at all levels … must ensure their words and actions do not discriminate against any individual or group because of their faith, belief, or absence of belief, or extend preferential treatment for the same.”
Jonathan Larsen is a veteran journalist and TV news producer who’s worked at MSNBC, CNN, ABCNews, and TYT. You can support his independent reporting with a paid subscription to his occasionally obnoxious newsletter, or by making a one-time donation.
This is one of the reasons I left miltary service. Couldn’t stand being forced to listen respectfully to some brass proselytizing.
I don't know which came first to Colorado Springs, the USAFA or crazy fundamentalist churches, but I do know that the USAFA has long been pushing Evangelical Christianity. It seems that no matter who is running the place, Defense Department regulations and traditions will be ignored.