Thursday Afternoon, November 3, 2022 |
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USAFA CONCOCTS IDIOTIC LIE TO EXPLAIN
MRFF-EXPOSED “JOHN 3:16” PROSELYTIZING ON SOCCER FIELD SCOREBOARD BANNER —
HOW STUPID DO THEY THINK PEOPLE ARE?
Were the Air Force Academy staff who put the soccer team's
seniors' jersey numbers on a banner at the October 30 game
really so spatially challenged that they just happened to leave a
big gap between the numbers 15 and 16 that was conveniently just the right size to add a “forgotten” 3 in front of the 16, uncannily forming the favorite Bible verse in sports — John 3:16?
This is what the Air Force Academy's public affairs
department is actually expecting people to believe!
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MRFF OP-ED
ON DAILY KOS
#1 trending story on Daily Kos
How f—ing stupid does the
Air Force Academy think people are?
By: MRFF Senior Research Director Chris Rodda
Thursday, November 3, 2022
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This is one for the ‘you just can’t make this crap up’ file — not the incident itself, but the Air Force Academy's gem of an unbelievable excuse for it.
On October 30, the Air Force Academy men’s soccer team had a home game against Seattle University. This being the last home game for the Air Force Academy players who are seniors, a banner was put up below the scoreboard with each of the seniors’ jersey numbers on it. The players’ numbers were 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, and 16, and you think they would have appeared on the banner in that order, right? Wrong! All of the numbers were in numerical order except for the 3. The 3 was place in between the 15 and the 16, making the banner end with 3 16, which as many people will remember from Tim Tebow’s short-lived football career means John 3:16, the sports world’s favorite Bible verse — “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’’
According to an article in The Boston Globe, “The verse first leapt into popular culture in the 1970s, when born-again Christians started holding ‘John 3:16’ signs at stadiums as a way to spread the Gospel,” and was popularized via TV by “an eccentric named Rollen Stewart, who wore a rainbow-colored wig and danced with a ‘John 3:16’ sign behind the goal posts at football games, home plate at baseball games, and the backboard at basketball games.”
Immediately after the game, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) received a number of emails pointing out this slick bit of Christian proselytizing by the Academy’s soccer team, and MRFF founder and president fired off an email to the Academy’s superintendent Lieutenant General Richard M. Clark, who was present at the game and certainly saw the banner, demanding an investigation.
The proselytizing incident was also publicized in the Colorado Springs Indy, which obtained a statement from the Academy, which is where we get to the ‘you just can’t make this crap up’ part of the story.
This was the unbelievable — and I mean literally unbelievable — statement from the Academy’s public affairs department:
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"There was no significance to the order of the senior jersey numbers posted in the soccer stadium during last weekend’s men’s soccer game. The intent was to recognize the 10 seniors playing in their last home game. Recognition was conducted in a pregame ceremony with the players and their families and with two banners inside the soccer stadium highlighting their jersey numbers (1,2,3,6,8,9,11,12,15,16). The numbers were to be printed sequentially and attached to each banner. After completing the first banner, our staff recognized that the number three was missing. To correct the oversight, the number three was added to the second banner out of sequential order – it was done simply to insure the player was represented as one of the ten seniors.
"Again, the only intent behind the banners was to celebrate the senior cadets at their final home soccer game."
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Really??? An “oversight”? But there just happened to be a space in between numbers 15 and 16 that was just the right size for that “forgotten” number 3 to be placed before the 16??? Were the Air Force Academy staff who put the numbers on the banner really that spatially challenged that they just happened to leave that big gap between 15 and 16, so conveniently just the right size to add the “forgotten” 3 in front of the 16, uncannily forming the favorite Bible verse in sports? One look at the banner renders the Academy’s beyond-far-fetched excuse not just implausible but patently absurd.
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From: Martin France
Subject: USAFA Men's Soccer Number Incident -- 3:16
Date: November 2, 2022 at 8:58:02 PM MDT
Dear Mikey and MRFF Staff,
Thanks for forwarding the latest on this bizarre, disappointing, but oh so common and now consistent lie by the Academy's Director of Public Affairs. What kind of public affairs officer throws out such a silly, outrageous pile of crap? It's the kind of smirking lie I'd expect of a third grader, but even my grade school age grandsons could see through this one. As a USAFA graduate, staff member for more than 17 years, and Professor Emeritus, the response saddens and embarrasses me. It's such an obvious fabrication. Let’s see… You forgot ONE number (probably lie #1) and then when you reprinted it (probably lie #2). Then, you chose to put the “3" right before the “16" and not in its correct order? Can you provide a copy or photo of the "correct" second banner that had the numbers in sequence? Why not? Did it not exist? If you say that the numbers can be attached to the banner after printing, then they can be moved AFTER printing and assembly and put in order.
Was there somehow a magical gap before the “16" on this banner and not the other one? In that case, they must've originally intended to put it there. If not, then they INTENTIONALLY put it there after the fact versus putting it in numerical order, or in one of NINE other possible locations (after each of the other nine numbers). Their explanation doesn't hold up to even the simplest scrutiny.
Oh well, so much for an honor code. But then again, the honor code, if it still exists functionally, only applies to cadets--not to public affairs officers and the Superintendents that direct and approve their responses to the media.
What else has happened so far this academic year? Is this just a “one off” mistake? It would seem not.
First, it was Spiritual Fitness Month with its Orwellian chaplains' videos exhorting cadets to church, synagogue, and mosque (in that preferred order) on TVs in the academic building, while ignoring any input from the hundreds of "nones" among cadets and faculty.
Then it was the Commandant’s Challenge scheduled on a Wednesday with months of warning that happened to also be Yom Kippur--and a Christian senior cadet telling a female subordinate Jewish cadet to try Christianity and just get along since it's just "enlightened Judaism." The problem is HER faith, not his or the administrations. That’s the conflict.
Now, they're sneaking biblical code into NCAA athletic events and thinking they're tricky by lying about it in a public release.
I can't wait for the Holiday Season now when Christmas wreaths will be placed on the graves of Jewish and Atheist deceased grads and veterans as was done last year.
It's just one thing after another... One can logically conclude, after so many "mistakes," that these aren't accidents at all, but part of a systemic, endorsed plan of fundamentalist, evangelical Christian indoctrination by USAFA leadership.
Sincerely,
Marty France, PhD
Brigadier General, USAF (Retired)
USAFA Professor Emeritus
MRFF Advisory Board Member
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What are the odds of that number 3 just happening to be placed out of order to fall right before the 16? Well, according to a statistics expert that MRFF asked to do the probability calculations, these are the nearly impossible odds: |
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*If* they forgot the 3 and then needed to put it somewhere, there are at most nine places where they could put it, fewer if they really put it on a second banner. But not knowing or not accepting that information, there are strong prima facie mathematical reasons to be suspicious. In particular:
1. The odds of any random permutation of those 10 numbers ending in “3 16” is 1/90, about 1.1%. Those same seniors would have to be honored in 63 games to make those odds 50-50.
2. On a soccer team with 25 jersey numbers (good approximation to USAFA), the odds of any random sequence of them ending = in “3 16” are 1/600 (599 to 1). If we started this season, we’d have to wait until the year 2438 to have a 50% chance of seeing one at a USAFA senior tribute soccer game.
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The blatant lie from the Academy in its weak attempt to cover its ass yet again flies in the face of the Academy’s Honor Code, which states: “We will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does.” But I guess the Bible trumps that pesky little Honor Code, right? |
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MRFF Founder and President Mikey Weinstein's statement after telephone meeting with
U.S. Senators' offices regarding Christian supremacist incidents at the Air Force Academy
Thursday, November 3, 2022
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“The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) expresses its special gratitude to United States Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Ben Cardin (D-MD), and their DoD subject matter staffers, who have been requesting MRFF’s help in their review of the USAF Academy’s most recent breaches of the wall separating church and state there in Colorado Springs.
The Senators and their respective staff had been focussing initially on the Air Force Academy’s nefarious scheduling of a major mandatory military training event ("Commandant’s Challenge”) at the Academy on the Jewish Holy Day of Yom Kippur but are now also reviewing the other recent transgressions of the Academy brought to light by MRFF.
MRFF appreciates the substantive phone calls and e-mail exchanges with these Capitol Hill folks and pledges to assist the Senators and their colleagues as much as may be required to effectuate desperately needed, expeditious, meaningful change at the Air Force Academy to eliminate the toxic current command climate of oppressive fundamentalist Christian nationalism."
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MRFF Matters – 11/1/22 – MRFF Demands Investigation of USAFA's Soccer Field
Preaching of "John 3:16"
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Demand Letter from MRFF Founder and President
Mikey Weinstein to USAFA Superintendent
Lt. Gen. Richard M. Clark, Air Force Secretary
Frank Kendall, and Air Force Chief of Staff
General Charles Q. Brown
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
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Subject: MRFF Demand Letter for Investigation of U.S. Air Force Academy's Illicit Christian Religious Supremacy
Date: November 1, 2022 at 11:39:49 AM MDT
To: Lt. General Richard Clark (email address withheld)
CC: Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall (email address withheld),
Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown (email address withheld)
Re: Deliberate Proselytizing of "John 3:16" by USAF Academy Soccer Team with Stadium Scoreboard Banner 48 Hours Ago
To: Lieutenant General Richard M. Clark
Seriously, General Clark, it looks like you’ve just done it again.
Do you REALLY have no shame, sir?
It certainly appears that you and your senior leadership subordinates at the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) have engaged in yet ANOTHER act of willful and wanton unconstitutional fundamentalist Christian proselytizing, this time with a widely seen banner on the scoreboard at the USAFA soccer stadium just two days ago during the NCAA contest between the Academy’s men’s soccer team and Seattle University.
I am sending this e-mail to you on behalf of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and on behalf of our nearly 400 MRFF clients at USAFA—but also as a concerned citizen, USAFA graduate, father of three USAFA graduates, and as a former member of the U.S. armed forces and of the White House Staff of President Ronald Reagan.
Twice already this Fall semester, the MRFF has publicly released (on behalf of our MRFF/USAFA faculty, cadet, and staff clients) shamefully egregious examples of pro-fundamentalist Christian and related pro-religious bias at the Air Force Academy for which you are completely responsible.
First, it was “Spiritual Fitness Month" in August of this year that deliberately ignored the non-Abrahamic faiths (i.e., faiths other than Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) and as well as non-faith traditions; Atheists, Agnostics, Secularists, Humanists, and others at the Academy who are neither represented nor aided by USAFA chaplains. This particular disgrace was further exacerbated when considering the fact that substantive input had been sought from these very same marginalized minority groups in past years.
Now, thirdly, trying to deftly slip "under the radar,” we have the blatantly deliberate Christian public messaging of the USAFA men’s soccer team who, on their “Senior Day” vs. Seattle University (this last Sunday, October 30, 2022), decided that the senior player’s uniform number “3” doesn’t come between 2 and 4, but rather, should be placed out of order on the USAFA team banner prominently displayed on the stadium’s scoreboard (and the ONLY number out of order) and placed just before “16,” an obvious reference to the Bible’s seminal, proselytizing, New Testament passage "John 3:16.”
It’s not only those in attendance at this game who saw this intentional “John 3:16” reference as the game was videotaped and is available for all to see online to include, of course, that blatantly proselytizing scoreboard banner.
You were actually THERE, Lt. General Clark, and saw the Christian supremacist banner, just as you and/or your subordinate USAFA senior leadership were in meetings that discussed (and approved) the Commandant’s Challenge scheduling on Yom Kippur and Spiritual Fitness Month’s saturation-bombing of continuously proselytizing videos in Fairchild Hall (USAFA’s main academic building).
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USAFA Superintendent Lt. Gen. Clark (circled)
greeting players on the USAFA soccer field.
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The USAFA men’s soccer team seniors weren’t lined up and introduced in the uniform number order depicted on the banner. All of the numbers but one were sequential.
Merely a “coincidence” or “mistake"? MRFF knows for a FACT that it was not, and that’s why this latest, shameful, unconstitutional, Christian proselytizing stunt was timely communicated to us by those in attendance and from others within your own staff.
All of these latest repulsive matters clearly show a pervasive and pernicious pattern and practice of fundamentalist Christian nationalism and proselytization at USAFA under your command and stewardship, an illegal and oppressive hellscape for which you are completely responsible.
Of course, you and your staff will now effusively squeal in protest that these incidents were all merely unfortunate oversights or mistakes—innocent misfeasance as opposed to malfeasance that you now (given the enormity of the negative publicity generated by MRFF) regret.
We at MRFF, however, along with our MRFF clients who have courageously reported all of these illicit violations, know quite well that the exact opposite is true.
The simplest explanation for these “mistakes” is that you endorsed all of them. You’re the boss. You were present for each one. So, you’re either shockingly prone to more mistakes than someone in your senior military leadership position should ever make, or you’re woefully ignorant of how your institution actually operates.
And these are just the unconstitutional Christian religious bias issues—we will not even address the USAFA football team’s unprecedented, ignominious NCAA probation.
It's just one “mistake" after another, General—each one utterly wretched but (apparently) deniable by you—hammering home the indisputable message to our USAFA faculty, cadets, and staff that one, and ONLY one, specific religious perspective at USAFA is far more equal than the others—fundamentalist Christianity.
The overwhelming evidence of fundamentalist Christian nationalist bias mounts with each “mistake” that you make. MRFF looks forward to reading your response to the three U.S. senators’ letter with respect to the Yom Kippur “scheduling mistake” and would also like to know these senators' reaction to this latest assault (at the varsity soccer game) on constitutionally guaranteed freedom from religious bias.
Finally, I’m addressing this directly to you because your so-called appointed contact for all MRFF issues, your Vice Superintendent Col. Benjamin Jonsson, has not responded to ANY of MRFF’s designated USAFA Representative's (Marty France, Brigadier General, USAF-Retired) e-mails requesting a face-to-face meeting (three of them, in point of fact) in the past three weeks.
MRFF presumes his deafening “silence" is directed by you, of course.
In closing, MRFF hereby demands that Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, copied above along with Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown, conduct an immediate, transparent, visible, and aggressive public investigation into the USAFA men’s soccer team's Christian proselytizing scoreboard banner incident, as well as the other repugnant incidents of Christian exceptionalism cited in this email, from this past Sunday in their NCAA game against Seattle University.
MRFF further demands that all who may be found to be either directly or indirectly culpable and responsible for this latest fundamentalist Christian supremacy disgrace by USAFA, to include YOU, Lt. General Clark, be substantively, meaningfully, and expeditiously punished under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
Sincerely,
Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein, Esq.
Founder and President
Military Religious Freedom Foundation
505-250-7727
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Only a Handful of USAFA's Shameful
Displays of Religious Bigotry
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"One Veteran to another"
From: (name withheld)
Subject: One Veteran to another
Date: November 1, 2022 at 10:31:31 PM MDT
Dear Michael L. Weinstein,
I hope you are well?
I am sending this email in hopes you can help me out. I have been making 1/12 scaled models of the Missing Man Table for fellow veterans or for their family. I started this to help me with my own Anxiety and Depression. I asked to make one for a veteran in a nursing home and I have learned of his Jewish faith. Now the others that I made have been made for Christians placing the scale model of the Bible wasn’t an issue. But with his faith I was planning on not putting any kind of religious symbol on the table. But a debate has came up over this and I would like to here your opinion. These scale model are meant to be personal honor for a family as a keepsake. It’s meant to honor those who served an everlasting symbol of their presents being missed. The Torah is used in the Temples and families have them in a place of honor in their homes.
So, here is the debate and we have three strong opinions:
1. Is no Holy text on the table. (Keeping with the separation of church and state)
2. Placing a scaled replica of the Torah.
3. Placing a scaled replica of a pray book.
My problem is I am confused on what is right. I want to honor their faith and not to offend. A pray book feels lacking in some way. With your work with MRFF and this issue I would be willing to accepting your opinion. My other thought was to ask him directly. Again, I don’t want to offend.
Sincerely,
(name withheld)
To see response from
MRFF Senior Research Director Chris Rodda:
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