Thursday Evening, October 6th, 2022 |
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MRFF REFUTES USAFA's CLAIM THAT
HOLDING THE COMMANDANT'S CHALLENGE
ON THE HIGH HOLY DAY, YOM KIPPUR, WAS A "SERIOUS SCHEDULING OVERSIGHT"
For the better part of 20 years, MRFF has battled the Air Force Academy’s clear culture of Christian supremacy and complete disregard for those of other religions. MRFF is absolutely not buying that the Academy’s scheduling of its “Commandant’s Training Day” on the Jewish high holy day of Yom Kippur, and thereby excluding Jewish cadets from participating in this important training day, was a mere “scheduling oversight” as they are now trying to claim.
To disprove the Academy’s dishonest and duplicitous “scheduling oversight” claim, MRFF has today submitted a FOIA request to the Academy. MRFF's FOIA demands “All internal documents or communications, electronic or otherwise, between any USAFA faculty or staff regarding concerns, warnings, and/or objections to the scheduling of the ‘Commandants Training Day’ on October 5, 2022, a date which coincided with the Jewish high holy day of Yom Kippur.”
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10/6/22 — U.S. Air Force Academy's public statement addressing USAFA's scheduling of the Commandant's Challenge on the Jewish observance of Yom Kippur
The U.S. Air Force Academy recognizes the importance of the holy days of all faiths. A training event was unintentionally scheduled this week during the Jewish observance of Yom Kippur.
The Academy’s Academic Year Calendar is developed and maintained through an institutional process that includes input on faith considerations of the cadets. We will correct our processes to ensure this, and mistakes like this, do not happen again.
The Academy office of Diversity and Inclusion, in partnership with Academy Chaplains, maintains a religious calendar of events in support of this effort. In advance of the training events, religious accommodations were planned and made available to all Jewish cadets wishing to observe Yom Kippur.
Throughout the year, Academy leadership ensures training requirements are met for cadets of all faiths while also accommodating cadets in exercising their First Amendment rights.
Respectfully,
Lt. Col. Brian Maguire, Director of Public Affairs, U.S. Air Force Academy
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10/4/22 — U.S. Air Force Academy's Dean of the Faculty,
Brigadier General, USAF, Linell A. Letendre
sent this email out ONLY to USAFA faculty
members under her command Tuesday, Oct. 4th. at
5:40 pm about an hour before
Yom Kippur was to start at sundown MDT
From: Letendre, Linell A Brig Gen USAF USAFA DF/CC
(E-mail Address Withheld)
Date: October 4, 2022 at 05:40 PM
Subject: DF Resiliency
To: DF_ALL (E-mail Address Withheld)
[Bold and red highlights added by MRFF]
Colleagues—
As mentioned during last Dean’s Call, tomorrow (5 Oct) is a DF Resiliency Day. I hope you’re able to spend the day with family, friends, or doing whatever helps you recharge. Please keep in mind, however, that tomorrow is the Commandant’s Challenge – and that it will be a normal workday for most of our non-DF colleagues. If you are unable to recognize tomorrow as a Resiliency Day, please coordinate with your supervisor to ensure that you’re able to make up your Resiliency Day later.
I also want to take a moment to recognize a serious scheduling oversight for this evening and tomorrow. As many of you know, this evening begins the holiest day in the Jewish Faith: Yom Kippur. Obviously, tomorrow’s Commandant’s Challenge should not have been scheduled to overlap with this significant religious holiday. Our institution has processes to prevent scheduling mishaps like this, but in this case the processes broke down. Although accommodations have been made for all cadets who are observing Yom Kippur, the schedule should have accounted for major religious holidays from the outset. We are committed to shoring up our academic calendar processes to ensure this issue is not repeated. I greatly appreciate those faculty members who helped raise our awareness about this; together we will move this institution forward.
Again, I do hope you’re able to recharge tomorrow and come back to work refreshed Thursday morning. I appreciate everything you continue to do for our cadets and our Academy.
/r,
LAL
LINELL A. LETENDRE
Brigadier General, USAF
Dean of the Faculty, U.S. Air Force Academy
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COLORADO SPRINGS INDEPENDENT (CS INDY)
COVERS MRFF
Air Force Academy scolded
for ignoring Jewish observance
By: Pam Zubeck
Thursday, October 6, 2022
Noting that it has “written about this issue repeatedly over the years,” the CS Indy covers the Air Force Academy’s latest egregious Christian supremacist slap-in-the-face of Jewish cadets by scheduling the important Commandant’s Training Day on the Jewish high holy day of Yom Kippur. MRFF Founder and President Mikey Weinstein has stated:
"By scheduling the most important Academy military training event of the semester on Yom Kippur, they’ve made it very clear that they fully endorse and embrace the Orwellian position that, while all faiths are equal, some are just more equal than others. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the most solemn day of the Jewish calendar (the weekly Sabbath is the holiest). Its date of annual observance is (1) fixed by the lunisolar calendar and, (2) can be easily determined years in advance. The 'Commandant’s Training Day', by contrast, is neither."
Please click the "X" in the top-left corner or refresh the page in order to dismiss the paywall.
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MRFF's USAFA FOIA Request Background:
1/30/17 – MRFF Secures Legal Victory Over
USAFA, Covered by Associated Press & CS INDY – “AFA agrees to pay $25,000 to settle FOIA lawsuit”
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See Only a Sampling of USAFA's
Flagrant Demonstrations of Christian Nationalism and 1st Amendment Violations
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RIGHT WING WATCH:
‘Stop the Steal’ Founder Ali Alexander Has Epic Meltdown in Which He Promises Christian Fascism
By: Kyle Mantyla
Wednesday, October 5, 2022
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[MRFF's Summary of the Right Wing Watch Article]
PFAW’s Right Wing Watch reports on “Stop the Steal” founder Ali Alexander’s unhinged rant on his Monday podcast openly calling for “a violent Christian crusade,” quoting Alexander as saying, among other things, “We will not live in a future where violence doesn’t meet widespread perversion. Period. I am aligned with God that we will not march quietly into a future where you got all kinds of things hanging out at public eateries, restaurants, libraries, with or without children. It’s just not acceptable. That’s over. And I will train tens of millions of Americans to not denounce, to not flinch, when they see evil coming upon evil, destruction coming upon evil.”
Although weakly claiming not to be calling for violence – while at the same time calling for “a violent Christian crusade” – Alexander added “but if it happens, c’est la [vie]. OK? C’est la [vie].”
MRFF Note: MRFF's warnings for over a decade and a half that a Christian crusade was coming here in America were called hyperbolic by many, but not anymore!
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A Patriotic Christian Chaplain to Mikey & MRFF: “You Were Prophetic!” for longstanding warnings of the “rampant Christian Nationalism that is now so unbelievably pervasive”
From: (Christian Chaplain’s E-mail Address Withheld)
Date: October 6, 2022 at 9:33:53 AM MDT
Subject: You Were Prophetic!
Dear Mikey and MRFF,
I am a Bible-believing Christ-following Christian, and former long-time Army Chaplain. For years – at last 20 – I have been following you and your repeated and intense warnings about Christian Nationalism. I felt that your claims were a bit overblown. Yes, over the years, I have known a handful of folks whom I would put in that category. But it has become bad … REALLY bad! So now, “overnight,” you and a few others have hit a nerve by properly identifying the rampant Christian Nationalism that is now so unbelievably pervasive, and even mainstream, in our nation and nation’s churches today. These two articles are in my inbox just this morning. It bothers me that these folks do not have the integrity to identify what is actually happening. This overwhelming lust for power and control is, in reality, a form of idolatry in my book.
Keep sounding the alarm and doing what you are doing!
A Patriotic Christian Chaplain (name, title, Christian denomination and location all withheld)
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