COLORADO SPRINGS, Co. — A number of Air Force cadets stationed at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado have staged a ‘revolt’ against the recent erasure of Scripture from a white board outside of a cadet’s bedroom.
“I have been crucified with Christ therefore I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” the Scripture from Galatians 2:20 read, which was written in marker on the outside of the unnamed cadet’s dorm room door. “And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
According to reports, cadets at the academy and others who saw the handwritten Bible verse soon contacted the Washington-based Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) to lodge a complaint.
“Had it been in his room—not a problem. It’s not about the belief. It’s about the time, the place and the manner,” MRFF President Mikey Weinstein told commentator Todd Starnes this week. “It clearly elevated one religious faith over all others at an already virulently hyper-fundamentalist Christian institution. It massively poured fundamentalist Christian gasoline on an already raging out-of-control conflagration of fundamentalist Christian tyranny, exceptionalism and supremacy at [the academy].”
After Weinstein’s organization contacted the academy to demand that the Scripture be removed, within hours, officials scrubbed the verse from the cadet’s board.
But after fellow cadets became aware that the Scripture had been erased, they decided to fight back by posting Bible verses outside of their own dorm rooms.
“[A] population of the cadet wing has in turn responded with additional religious quotes placed outside their doors in the public hallways; one of which being the original quote that was removed,” read a letter from a complainant supplied to reporters by Weinstein.
“Blessed are you when they insult you, and persecute you, and utter every kind of evil against you because of Me,” one sign read, quoting the words of Christ from Matthew 5:11.
“[W]hatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things,” read another board from Philippians 4:8.
Muslim cadets have also posted text from the Quaran to show support for the cadet’s right to post Scripture, according to reports.
“The Air Force Academy has a revolt on their hands,” Weinstein told reporters on Wednesday.
He stated that those who have posted Scripture deserve “non-judicial punishment at the very least.”
But the Liberty Institute, a Christian legal organization headquartered in Plano, Texas contends that it is unlawful for the academy to remove Scripture from the dorm doors of cadets, noting that it violates Department of Defense Instruction 1300.17, which protects religious freedom.
“This is a blatant violation of 1300.17 and the Constitution,” said Senior Counsel and Director of Military Affairs Michael Berry. “But the Air Force seems to think that AFI 1-1’s neutrality towards religion requirement means forbidding religious freedom. If that’s true, then I suggest the Air Force officials read DODI 1300.17, which supersedes AFI 1-1 and guarantees religious freedom for all service members.”
Photo: Military Religious Freedom Foundation
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